One step forward, two steps back

Last week I briefly mentioned that in my quest to be more frugal, I was following the advice of the book and tackling my grocery bills.  Oh, I so wanted to write a post on the beautiful, organized spreadsheet I had developed in order to compare prices.  I wanted to talk about the shock I felt when I realized how much more money I was spending than I should have been.  I had big dreams!

But then…we were struck with the thing that can bring a home with children to its knees:  illness.  With some pretty crappy timing too. Not that any time is particularly convenient to get sick, but still…  The husband and I started school again and in an attempt to make our schedules work, coordinated a baby swap a few times a week with a neighbor also trying to finish school.  In the midst of the craziness the husband and baby were hit with a doozy of a cold.  That’s right, a DOOZY!  Poor little Claire especially, and any parent knows that there is little worse than having a sick child.

My schedule for the last week basically looked like this:

4:02 AM- Baby crying, offer comfort.

4:37 AM- More crying, more bleary-eyed comfort offered.

5:15 AM- Baby too congested to sleep.  Sit in rocking chair with baby to keep her upright and help her breathe.

6:20 AM- Crawl back into bed.

6:35 AM- Baby cries.  Discover diaper leak, urine everywhere.  Awesome.  Baby in tub.

7:55 AM- Leave for school.

10:00 AM- Baby swap so husband can go to school.  Tend to sick child.

10:12 AM- Wipe snot

10:23 AM- Wipe snot

10:37 AM- Restrain child in order to wipe snot

10:42 AM- Give up on keeping snot river under control and accept that everything will be covered in mucous for the next several days.

11:00 AM- Naptime!= homework time for mom

12:45 PM- Baby awake, wipe snot, lunch time, sick and tired husband comes home

1:15 PM- Work, work, work…

8:30 PM- get home, start getting baby ready for bed.  Baby’s coughing fit induces BARFING.  Baby in tub.

9:15 PM- baby finally asleep.  Eat late dinner.

9:35 PM- Lapse into a coma from exhaustion

So!  As you can see, there has been no time for organized spreadsheets or meal planning or even checking my email.  Besides, had I even printed off one of those lovely spreadsheets I’m pretty sure it would be covered in snot.

Let’s hope this week runs a little more smoothly.

Tags: feeling crazy, schedules, sick baby

One of those days

Here I was, looking forward to the weekend with the naive hope that it would offer some relief from the stress of the workweek.  Sadly, my hopes have been dashed.  Here is how the last 24 hours have gone:

- The kid wakes up over and over in the night for unspecified reasons.  When I demanded an answer at 3:00 AM as to why she insisted on waking me up again all I got was an “eh?” in response.  I think she’s faking that she doesn’t understand the question.

-  The kid decides after not sleeping all night that waking up for the day at 6:15 AM is a great idea.

-  Husband leaves for work at 7:45 AM, leaving a tired and very grumpy mama with a teething and also grumpy toddler.  Brewing a recipe for disaster commences.

-  As I am attemtping to make myself decent, I realize the house is eerily quiet.  No noise from the kid in the next room.  I go to inspect and discover her emptying my purse and being particularly taken with the bright red lipstick in there.  In order to investigate this exciting new product further, the kid decides to taste it, smear it on her jammies, and rub it on the carpet.  Awesome.

- The kid spends the rest of the morning ignoring my attempts to distract her with fun items (”Look, honey, a plastic spoon!”) and fakes that she doesn’t understand the word “no”.  I know she is faking because the entire time she is doing something naughty she says “no” repeatedly.  Multiple time-outs ensue.

-  The kid decides that the mild whining and grunting over the last couple of hours has not been sufficient and decides to screech incessantly at the top of her lungs, over NOTHING.

-  Oh, did I mention that through all of this mama has PMS= the overwhelming feeling that I am completely unable to cope with life in general?  I didn’t mention that?  Silly me, since that has made everything exponentially worse.

- 1:00 PM.  I’ve had it.  The countdown to when daddy gets home has begun.  Thankfully, the kid is taking a nap.

The bright beacon of hope shining through all of this today has been the knowledge that tonight I get to go to the SYTYCD live concert.  YEAH!  If I can just keep that in my sights, I think I’ll make it through the next five hours…

Tags: feeling crazy, PMS, whining

Back in the saddle

Whew!  How’s everyone doing?  Good?  Great.  So, it seems I dropped the ball for a bit on this whole blogging thing.  But no worries, I’m back!  Life just became, well…life.  For a while there things just seemed so overwhelming with job hunts, then a new job, training, tests, school, more tests, teething baby, lack of sleep, an ongoing weight loss competition, agonizing over the swine flu (get the vaccine?  don’t get the vaccine?  ACK!), and a messy house, that I just plain couldn’t fathom doing one more blasted thing at the end of the day, such as writing for this here bloggy.  But fortunately now the new job is secured, we’re on the home stretch for this semester, and mama’s finally getting her groove back.  Looking forward to some future posts!

Tags: back to work, feeling crazy