Down on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor, it was evident I hadn’t mopped in a while. Sweeping gets done daily, but gross….the floor was gross. Still in my scrubs from the workday, dinner was started on the stove as I found myself down on the ground searching for pills. The med box had been filled for the week, but then he accidentally dropped it, sending every one of the 120+ pills bouncing around the kitchen. The girls quickly jumped up from the couch to help me with the search and rescue mission so daddy didn’t have to get down on the floor. After moving appliances and all, all pills were recovered, and only two pricey casualties were counted. Not bad.
The night prior while driving home on dark, country roads after a basketball game, a game that had the worse officiating everever ever, a deer decided to run into the side of our van. No injuries (human, anyway), no true damage to the automobile. Arriving home, the girls ran in to ready for bed, Seth was riding back with his team…but what was that humming sound? Searching revealed the dishwasher full of dirty water, the humming from the pump that wasn’t working. Or maybe it was doing what it was supposed to do, who knows. This was after the disposal had been replaced earlier in the day, and apparently a step had been forgotten, ignored, disregarded, etc. (guess you can’t skip any steps in the instructions) All the stuff from under the kitchen sink was still in a box across the room. That was good, because water under the sink is much easier to clean up if all the bottles of cleaners and box of trash bags are not under there. I had done that a couple of times recently.
Finally getting to bed after picking Seth up from the high school, I looked at Chad’s knee. It was obvious he’d been doing a little too much the last few days. When a knee resembles a cantaloupe, along with the pre-existing extensive vascular issues in the same limb, it equals something that looks pretty yucky and painful. He didn’t dish any guilt out at all but the feeling found it’s way to me anyway, as I felt maybe I’d had him do too much lately.
After these two days, I considered a move to Australia. Maybe Alexander had something there. :) I had been down for a few days with fever, coughing up at least one lung, and producing more mucous than a basketball arena could hold. And you know what happens when mom is sick. Despite their best efforts…you know. You just know. (by the way, spend a dollar extra for the tissues with Vicks in them…they are life-changing!)
All things considered, these were all minor and temporary inconveniences. Other than the health-issues-dealt-with-by-the-elderly-and-us, the things that caused stress those few days are all resolved now. The kids are happy and smart and healthy and have met their reading goals for the 6-weeks(ALL three of them). The floor got mopped and the dishwasher still works. Got all the deer fur off the wheel well. Laundry never ends. No leak under the sink right now.
Moms, nurses, and generally anyone who lives with a chronically ill person are not supposed to be sick. Saying “my cough is keeping me up at night” doesn’t compare to his over-stimulated nervous system that leaves him with countless sleepless nights. (NICU pals, think of a preemie…they get too much external stimulus and it freaks their nervous system out….same with the 40-year old non-preemie at our house) No! You’re the keeper of the schedules, the chauffeur, the chef, the organizer, the alarm clock, the cheerleader, and you never feel like you have a justifiable reason to complain of anything hurting or aching. And that’s just normal every day around here.
A friend of mine is leading a somewhat similar life to mine,although they have very recently been dealing with her husband experiencing another serious health scare. Her kids are a little younger than mine, but there are many similarities. Discussing the fact that the issues we deal with are more often dealt with by people a few decades older than us, she simply stated, “we’re just early to the dance.” I’m rarely early for anything but work and school. But I love the way that’s stated.
We often talk about God’s timing and perseverance with the kids and each other. There are ups and downs and good days and bad days. When you have the normal every day bumps, and add the old-man-in-a-young-man’s-body issues, it just adds a different twist. I guess we are just early to the Golden Oldies dance! Wonder if they have those in Australia? :)
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12
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