Laid Up

Recently I had the great misfortune of being struck by the flu--or something similar.  Since my health insurance is incredibly lacking (and incredibly expensive) I guess I'll never know for sure.  But regardless I have literally spent the last 48 hours in bed.  As I laid there alternating between the chills and hot flashes, I had some time to ponder on the meaning of life.  Ok--not really but I did discover a few things:

1.  My husband is seriously the best.  He brought me drugs (the legal kind) and endless apple juice and Diet Coke.  (Even in the throes of sickness Diet Coke must not be forgotten.)

2.  A good mattress is worth it's weight in gold.  A few years back we broke down and paid the somewhat big bucks to invest in a decent mattress.  Best investment yet.

3.  The internet serves as both a blessing and a curse when attacked with a hideous virus.  A blessing because one can surf the net on such glorious sites as people.com and pinterest but a curse in that one can also look up a list of symptoms and discover that instead of the flu it could be malaria--or something equally horrific.  Note:  it doesn't seem to be malaria...

4.  Being sick with older kids is about a thousand times better than being sick with younger kids.  My kids literally left me alone--like if they needed to communicate with me they either stood out in the hall and shouted at me or texted me out of fear of contracting the dreaded disease.  I didn't have to worry about making meals, or changing diapers, or putting in endless videos of Blues Clues.

5.  Apparently I do actually do some things around here because after about hour 36 I dragged myself downstairs and it looked like a bomb went off!  I mean, if I had had the energy to get my phone out of my purse I would have taken a picture because it was sort of horrific.  It made the sock piles seem tame in comparison so even though most days I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere, it is clear to me now, that I do.

6.  My kids are capable of doing more than I make them.  After crawling downstairs and witnessing the disaster I asked Dave to supervise the clean up and they did great!  The den and laundry room haven't been that clean in weeks (although after the boys came down and dug through their drawers in the laundry room this morning Kennedy lamented what a mess they made after her hard work.  Welcome to my world, Kennedy.  Welcome to my world.)

So you see, look at all the insight I gained in the last two days!  Another example of blessings that come from trials I suppose.  Also, while laid up I found the greatest little video clip that made me reflect on my "To Do" Lists.  Take a minute to watch:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3792885561001&cid=HPFR091914425

I guarantee that your perspective will be a little clearer after watching:-)

Back to School Musings

My Facebook feed (like everyone else's) was filled this past week with those "First Day of School" pictures.  They look pretty similar to this one of my two youngest:

Parker (8th Grade) and Kennedy (6th Grade)

I would have taken one of my other two except I totally forgot--poor middle children. (Which I guess is better than the poor 6th child--we actually taped over her birth with an episode of YuGiOh...)  But I digress...

 All of these back to school posts caused me to reflect on how things have changed over the years for my family.  I remember that I could not wait for my oldest to go to school.  Oh sure I cried a little on his first day (just like I did for all of the other's first days) but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't ready to have a bit of a break.  I used to actually get mad when it was a school holiday--"inservice AGAIN????"  Because that meant I had all 6 of the munchkins home at one time and I don't know if you are aware or not, but six kids is a lot of kids.  I had #5 during the summer and let me tell you, we didn't plan that well because all of them were home for two months while I attempted to adjust to another newborn and my crazy hormone levels while refereeing pokemon card battles and video game turns.  After a disastrous trip to Wal-Mart where I attempted to take an 8,6,4, and 2 year old plus a newborn (clearly I wasn't thinking straight) shopping, I swore to NEVER give birth in the summer again. (True to my word, Kennedy was born in April right after spring break.  I'm a quick learner...)

It's not that I didn't love my kids, because I did.  I just loved the idea of them being at school more.  I used to PRAY for all day kindergarten because who are we kidding-- half day Kindergarten should really be referred to as "Kindergarten Hell."  It's not long enough to actually get anything done--particularly after you've loaded up a van full of kids to pick up or drop off your 5 year old--but you still have to go through the gigantic hassle of getting the kid up and ready for school.  It's a total tease.  My prayers in this department were eventually answered-the year after my last child went to kindergarten.  That figures.  (The same thing is bound to happen the day after son #5 earns his Eagle Scout...)

So, I had a lot of years where I pretty much did a happy dance the day school started back up in the fall, but this year was a little different.  I was just a tad melancholy as the summer wound down because these kids of mine are growing up.  McKay is a senior and so this is a year of a lot of "lasts" for him.  It seems like yesterday that Davis was wearing yellow rubber boots with every outfit and this year we had to special order his Nikes so they were "just right."  Parker is in his final year of middle school and with Kennedy in 6th grade for the first time in 15 years we don't have anyone in elementary school.  And yet, even though all this change is a little sad it's also sort of great.  

We've seen a lot of growth in our kids over the last year and a half and I've grown as their mother.  I realized this week that even though there are growing pains and times that I want to pull my hair out, I'm learning to be more patient, I'm letting them find their own way a little more and they are coming out better for it.  I love that they all get themselves up and ready for school without any nagging on my part.  I love that the kid that a year ago used to grunt at me when I told him goodbye now makes a point of being in a good mood in the mornings.  I love watching a brother and sister walk out the door together deep in conversation.  It makes all of those difficult times worth it.  

Even Kindergarten Hell.