The alarm must have gone off this morning, or shall I say that all three alarms in the house must have gone off this morning as usual, but it was unbeknown st to me. The kids must have tried to wake me up this morning because their bus money was missing from my nightstand, but it to no avail. I didn't hear a single thing this morning as they prepared for their day at school, which can be as loud as a freight train coming through the living room on most days. I didn't hear the many phone calls or text that I had received. I was dead to the world. I groggily awoke around 10:30 and climbed out of bed to go use the ladies' room and I instantly knew that the bug was full blown now. My head hurt, my body was ever so sore and achy. My eyes were swollen and puffy and I was so weak I barely had enough strength to get to the restroom and back to my bed. I somehow mustered up the strength to climb the stairs to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee, in hopes of finding some kind of energy to make it through the day. Armed with a warm cup of joe and my laptop, I went back to my bed, thinking that once my coffee kicks in, I can start my day. Ha, as if. This little bug of mine had a different plan. The longer I was awake...the worse I felt. Okay, no biggie. I didn't have anything major to take care of today. So, I stayed in bed the whole day, catching up on some computer related work(a.k.a. facebook) Then...the kids got home. First to walk through the door is my seven year old, carrying in his hand, a large lollipop of straight sugar and a bottle of strawberry milk. (Gee, thanks Dad. You get to go home.) We do the daily rundown of the days events and behavior at school and my son informs me that he lost one crayon. His school has a disciplinary system measured in crayons. One crayon is bad, two crayons is worse, so on and four crayons is a referral. This year my son hasn't had the best behavior, so one crayon down isn't too bad. However, he had managed to keep all his crayons up since Monday. Today was Thursday. On top of killing his behavior winning streak for the week, he did not bring home all of his homework. At my house, both of these failures result in loss of privileges, such as outside time and t.v. time. I think I was more upset by this than him because I had kinda been looking forward all day to cuddling up to him and watching movies all night. Once his homework was done and his daily chores(cleaning his room) were done the sugar from the lollipop kicked in. That boy was bouncing off the walls, jumping and running through the house like a wild heard of elephants. Then his sister(17) walked through the door and with her were about five of her friends. Yep, you heard me right. I now have six loud teenagers and a rambunctious seven year old at my house and a massive headache to boot. It becomes too much for me so, I escape downstairs to my hideout(my bedroom) and try to get lost in Youtube videos. Have you seen the ASAP Science videos yet? I saw one and was hooked for about 2 hours, one after another. During my video viewing my other daughter(13) arrives home on schedule, which is kind of a big deal lately because she has been choosing to not come home for hours after school, leaving me to hunt her down or sit and wait with complete worry. I've instructed the kids of what I want done today and I return to my bed. The oldest is in charge of dinner, the middle in charge of laundry, and the youngest is to try and calm himself.
By this time it is around 5:30ish. I am completely drained and need to doze for awhile. I lay in bed, in and out of consciousness, listening to the pounding of feet of children and teens running through the house, chasing each other and yelling back and forth, laughing and poking fun of one another. I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE! I climb my zombie like self out of my nice warm bed and slowly conquer the mountain like stairs. I then turn into "monster Mom" and start yelling at each and every one of them about being rude and disrespectful and to sit down and shut up!! This is not the "normal" Mom that my kids' friends are used to seeing. Then I drag my sick butt back down to my bed and am just about to nodd off and I hear it start all over again. Not having the strength to take on the stairs again, I call my oldest down and tell her to inform everyone that it is time to leave. She does and all is quiet. Finally, sleep. I must've slept for awhile because by the time I awoke the kids had already eaten and my son was in the shower. After a bit of sleep I feel as though I can tackle the stairs once more. I am getting some dinner ready for myself when I realize my daughter(13) is nowhere to be found. My son then informs me that she left. My daughter is and has been grounded for quite sometime due to some actions and bad choices that she has and continues to make. She is not supposed to be leaving the house! This information infuriates me and I slip on my shoes and head out the door in my baggy, bright orange hoody and my extremely brightly colored furry pajama pants. I am on a mission to find her and embarrass the crap out of her in front of her friends. I go door to door in search of her, cussing to myself the whole way about how I should be at home in bed trying to get better, not running our city streets, in search of my thirteen year old daughter in the cold dark. I did not find her, but she was home by the time I got back. I sent her straight to bed, telling her through a stream of tears, that I am sick of her selfishness and that it wasn't fair to me that I can't even take a little nap when I'm sick without having to hunt her down or worry that she won't follow the rules. I returned downstairs, where I then proceeded to have a nervous breakdown, taking it out on my boyfriend over the phone, which caused a fight between us. As I was fighting with him and crying out of frustration, P.M.S, and being ill, my oldest was taking care of the nightly routine of putting dinner away, putting my son to bed, and what not. She can be so very helpful when needed.
I know the events that I have told you of today don't seem like much in the big scheme of things, but when you are an ill, weak train wreck of icky aches and emotions, it can seem like a ton. I made one more long journey back upstairs before sitting down to write this and this is what I saw....keep in mind that aside from the air conditioner in the living room, my house was pretty clean yesterday.
