Tuesday, January 31, 2012

24 hours

Has your husband ever asked, "What exactly did you DO today?" Have you ever wondered that yourself? Well, here's a brief look at my past 24 hours.

In the last day, I...
  • folded 15 loads of laundry
  • went to Lowe's with my hubby to pick out new tile for our bathroom
  • handled (or tried to handle) some small fires that popped up with a new ministry that I am leading at church
  • made a nice dinner (meatloaf, twice-baked potatoes, salad, and oranges)
  • cleaned the kitchen twice
  • cleaned/dusted my first floor
  • washed all of the linens on my bed (because the dog had peed on them...) and made the bed
  • bathed three children
  • put three children to bed
  • spent a total of 1 1/2 hours in the bathroom with the shower running, trying to steam away Roo's croup (divided into 5 segments)
  • drove most of the way to our local children's hospital in the middle of the night, only to find that Roo's breathing had returned to normal and he was fast asleep, then driven back home. (This was after the 3rd steam session. We had two more later that night.)
  • got up after 2-3 hours of sporadic sleep
  • got 2 kids ready for school
  • showered
  • dropped 2 big kids off at two different schools
  • drove 20 minutes to a story time that I was supposed to lead, then dumped it all on two of my follow leadership team members because I had a croupy baby in the van (Thank you, ladies, for doing such a fabulous job!)
  • bought last-minute supplies for Monkey's upcoming 5th birthday and our upcoming vacation
  • loaded up on caffeine at Starbucks (Chai tea latte = Something that I never should have tried = Something that I'm going to be trying a LOT more often)
  • took Roo to the doctor, where she brilliantly concluded that he has croup (gee, I'm so glad I'm paying you big money to tell me that) and gave him a dose of oral steroids (for which I AM very thankful)
  • picked Monkey up from a friend's house, after she was gracious enough to pick him up from preschool for me
  • treated my very special and patient Monkey to McDonald's for lunch (which we got from the drive-through and took home, since Roo was not up for a restaurant)
  • put two tired boys in bed for naps
  • got fantastic news that we scored last-minute reservations at Cinderella's castle for our upcoming trip to Disneyworld--in two weeks! (TOTALLY made my day)
And yeah... really, that's about it. And although the specifics change from day to day, it seems like this is the way that every day has been going lately. Non.Stop.

In fact, right now my whole body is shaking, and I'm not sure if it's from a lack of sleep or a surplus of caffeine... or both.

Roo's breathing is much better, by the way, but his fever (which was 102 last night, but of course completely gone when we were at the doctor's office) seems to be coming back. I'm praying that it goes away quickly and everybody is healthy for this weekend, when we celebrate Monkey's 5th birthday--twice! :-)

So what's new with you?

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Why I'm not where you are

If you don't "get" the title to this post, it's a reference to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which just so happens to be a book that I recently read but absolutely do NOT recommend AT ALL. Really. I barely made it through the dang thing, and I refuse to take the blame for anyone else reading it. But every time I thought about writing this post, this is what came to mind and I just couldn't shake it.

(As an aside, I will probably still go see the movie when it comes out. At its heart, the story has a semi-cute plot line, and I'd like to see where Hollywood takes it. Plus it has Tom Hanks in it.)

So anyway, back to the real topic at hand, which is my neglected blog. I can't even begin to describe to you the chaos that has been my life for the past 6 weeks or so. And I have to tell you, there has been nothing hugely life-changing--no lottery wins, no tragic accidents, etc--but just a complete onslaught of one-thing-after-another, and I am having trouble keeping it all straight. Opportunities and challenges have been popping up all over the place. It is incredible, and intimidating.

I want so much to tell you about the rest of our trip to New York, about our Christmas, about my new ministry at church, about another opportunity that has come up for me, about Roo and how fabulous he is doing. But right now I am busting my hump from 5:00 AM until 10:00 PM almost every day, and I am not even managing to KEEP UP with the current level of chaos, let alone get ahead.

This whole experience has helped me to realize two things. 1-I think I get overwhelmed easily. 2-I just might need to clone myself... or at least rent "Multiplicity" again.

If you haven't already heard from my Facebook page, I did recently get the chance to blog about life with sweet Roo for the MOPS International "Momology" blog. You can find the blog here, and search for my posts (two of them). And thanks to so many of you who are reading this now, they have asked for more!!! I love the opportunity to share Roo and the things we are learning together with the rest of the world.

I do want to sit down and chat with you all more. I'm hopeful that I will get that opportunity soon, and can catch you up on all things Zoo. :-) I might even get to blog more today, as I snuggle with two sick kiddos and watch movies. In the meantime, let me just share a couple of quick pictures to tide you over...