About six weeks ago, trying to think of what I could do for my dad, and wondering if I should go ahead and plan another trip to New Mexico, it dawned on me that I should send Jonny instead of myself. Jonny is cheerful and funny and he makes people happy. He is also quite the handyman and my dad has been doing some work on his house that I thought Jonny could help with. I get to live with Jonny and have him around all the time, especially since he works from home. So I decided that the best gift I could give would be a visit from Jonny. This also gave Jonny a break from all his responsibilities here for a few days.
So we have been on our own here for five days, and wouldn’t you know that on day one, Keats and Gabriel came down with an illness that Larkspur and Beatrix had just gotten over. In fact we were on our way home from bowling when Keats started feeling really awful. My biggest fear was getting sick myself, which would make it that much harder to keep up with everything here and take care of my kids. Thankfully I am still well, but am exhausted for sure. Beatrix, dear dear Beatrix, just isn’t a good sleeper. But that is another post. Really, the time has gone really well, but it has been a lot of work staying on top of everything. I have felt that at almost any given moment we were just a step away from absolute chaos. I have thought a lot of all the single moms out there, wives with traveling husbands, and military wives (Cari S. I was thinking of you especially!) who do this on a regular basis. You ladies are amazing. I have no idea how you do it!
Friday night around 11:30 p.m. I was washing dishes and decided that I needed to make popsicles for Keats and Gabe because they had such sore throats. I brewed a big pot of herbal tea (slippery elm for the throat and raspberry zinger for yumminess with honey for sweetener) and pulled out our little popsicles molds. Around midnight I had them all ready to go in the freezer (and I was past ready to get into bed) when I opened it and realized there was absolutely no room. We have one of those bottom drawer style freezers and I can’t say I care for it. So, I spent the next forty five minutes or so cleaning out my freezer to make room for the popsicles. In the back of my head I was thinking that there was a very good chance that my kids would complain that the popsicles were yucky considering the fact that they have experienced the unhealthy but yum kind you buy at the store. I was thinking about how bad I would feel if Seth complained (he’s my child who feels it is always necessary to say every truthful thing that pops in his head nice or not) after I had stayed up so late and worked so hard to make room for them. But I hoped for the best.
Long story short, everyone loved the popsicles, they made Keats and Gabe feel better, Seth was so happy about them that he thanked me and hugged me spontaneously, and they bought me a few minutes of peace several times each day when I would send everyone outside with one in hand.
Those popsicles saved these last couple of days for me, they really did.
We are all headed to pick up Jonny from the airport here in a bit and are going to spend the afternoon at the Baltimore aquarium. I am a happy grateful mama today!
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