Run, Don't Walk

If you haven't gotten a flu shot yet this year you need to stop reading right now, get in your car and go get a flu shot. Because I just lived through Flu Type A and it was horrid, terrible, awful, miserable and traumatic.

It started with mild cold symptoms that I didn't pay much attention to. My kids are always bringing home garbage from school and I usually pick up a couple bugs each season. Whatever. I'm over it.

So Thursday night I was really starting to feel excessively lousy and I told Chase I needed a baby free night to sleep off some of my sickness. So he camped out in the girls' room to be on Haley Duty.

Around 4:30 in the morning I realized I was getting sicker and by 6:30 when my alarm went off I realized I couldn't get out of bed. Like, literally could not move my body out of the bed under my own power. And I had a fever and really bad chills and every fiber of my body hurt.

So Chase, who has probably taken one sick day the entire time we've been married, was petitioned gently and then not-so-gently by his invalid wife to arrange to work from home.

Except guess who didn't bring home his laptop?

This was my response: "Just take the kids with you to the office and get it and come back."

(His office being 30 minutes away and our kids being, well, our kids.)

And this was his response: "Uh...okay."**

Bless his heart he made it work. He's in the middle of an audit; and filing taxes; and approaching month-end and he made it work. I love that man of mine. But really, there wasn't going to be another way because - again - I literally couldn't get out of bed. And there was the minor detail of not being allowed to be near Haley (my other kids/husband have all had their flu shots, but Hales it too little to have it and I just plain forgot mine).

So let's consider this one of my good deeds for the day. You've been warned! Go get that shot!!!

P.S. The upshot of the whole situation was that the kids really enjoyed their unexpected Day of Dad. And I really enjoyed that the house was clean when I came out of my fever-induced haze. If I wasn't so selfish I would share him. But I am. So you're going to have to go find/train your own Super Husband.

**Because I feel that my dad's head might explode with the prospect of me sending my kids to Chase's office, I want to clarify that he didn't end up taking all the kids to the office with him. It was decided that he would put snacks on the table and PBS on the TV and leave Miles and Sophie in my care. (And by "care" I mean my ability to dial 911 before slipping back into a restless sleep.) Haley did have to go to the office with him, but she is generally well received everywhere she goes.

I think I'm going to hit the couch

Man. My throat hurts a lot today and I've got a weird, barking cough. And because this is my life we're discussing here I also have no less than five major things on my schedule today not including pre-school/school/carpool and the regular feeding/care of my children.

So today's a really convenient day to feel craptastic.

But after the baby I was watching left this morning I realized I had a little bit of time before I needed to go anywhere. I have a choice to either hunker down on the couch and watch PBS with the kids or I can keep pushing myself and get the beds made and the laundry folded.

I don't know when this happened, but over the past couple of years I've slowly become a person who just can't sit still. If I know there's something out there waiting to be done (laundry, dishes, floors needing to be swept or vacuumed, children's rooms to be reassembled, etc., etc.) I just can't stop until it's done. And if I do sit down it's all I can think about!

As a result of this my house is generally pretty clean and tidy - something I've had to work at for awhile. But also as a result of this I'm pretty good at saying, "Just a second, honey. Let me finish [insert task here] first." And guess what? The tasks are never, ever ending. I have to wonder how many books, deep conversations or cuddle sessions I've missed out on in those moments. But really I don't want to think about it because it would make me sad.

So maybe my word or theme for this year is going to be BALANCE.

And these are the cats who are going to help me achieve it.

 

And look at this! I blinked and Cameron went from

THIS... (circa Jan. 2005)

TO THIS...

(and I'm not really sure how it happened)

So here's to 2011. The year of not missing out on the good stuff.

For reals this time

When I sat down to write my last post I started on a list of "Things To Do" for the next year and it all started to sound cliche and silly. That's why I ended up throwing in the towel and writing a ridiculous list. There are so many things I want to do in this life and I feel like time passes so quickly there's never enough time to get it all in! But there are things that are truly important that I really want to accomplish. The extra stuff is just that: extra. If it happens, great. But if it doesn't happen I know my life will have counted if I just get really good at accomplishing those things that truly matter.

1. Further develop my relationship with Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ through more diligent scripture study and prayer; meaningful and sincere service to others; and living a covenant, consecrated life.

2. Further develop my relationship with my husband. This one is pretty easy because I married someone who turned out to be my very best friend in the whole entire world. But hey, what marriage doesn't need a little work at times?

3. Become a great mother. Spend more time really listening to my children. Be better at getting on their level and seeing things from their perspective. PLAY more with them!

4. Serve my community. At the moment this mostly takes the form of PTA service. I would like to find other ways to branch out, though.

5. Get into a single digit size jeans. Okay, this probably sounds trite after all the deep stuff listed above. And to some it may be. But taking care of myself is something I need to get better at. It gets mighty hard to take care of everyone else if I haven't first made some time to fill my own vessel.

So there, you go. A real list of real things I hope to accomplish (or get better at, anyway) this year.

Also too I'd still like to perform with Blue Man Group.

Here's the the start of a new year

Tomorrow I turn 31. There's a lot I'd like to accomplish in the coming year. Stuff like...

Learn Chinese

Wear just one sequined glove

Eat steak every night for dinner

Become a vegetarian

Perform in the Blue Man Group

Learn to base jump

Train a rat to take over the cooking, open famous restaurant staffed entirely by rats, get rave reviews

Sit down at the piano at Nordstroms and just start playing

Attend a Radiohead concert, invite Thom Yorke to live with us (I think he'd say yes)

Learn the lyrics to all of those really hard to understand Pearl Jam songs

Craft new living room furniture using online tutorials, supplies from Hobby Lobby and vat of a Mod Podge

Wear the same outfit everyday for a month just to see if anyone is paying attention. Plus how nice would that be to not have to think about what you're going to wear for an entire month? SIGN. ME. UP.

Adopt a highway

Ride an elephant

Learn morse code

Write a successful series of young adult novels about sexy vampires who don't drink the blood of humans. Or write a successful series of young adult novels about a dead horse that was kicked over and over and over and over and over again

Knit myself a custom snuggie

Earn a spot in the Harlem Boys Choir

So yeah. It's a good thing I've got a whole year ahead of me.

Some funnies

Miles says awesome stuff. I think I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

On Thursday I told Miles we had to get in the car to go pick up Cameron from school. After thinking about it for a moment his eyes literally lit up and he said, "mommy, I know!" And then  went on to describe, in detail, how he wanted me to open the garage door and he would hang on so it pulled him up in the air. And then I would back out allowing him to drop onto the top of the car, and then while the vehicle was still moving he would climb through the door and THEN put on his seatbelt. Because, you know, safety first.

And speaking of, "you know" Miles likes to throw that into his explanations. I'll ask him what he wants for lunch and his response will be, "Um, a sandwich with meat and, you know, cheese." Why the "you know" is necessary I actually don't know. But it's awesome, so that's that.

Also too, Miles likes to watch a show called Kipper. It's about a dog and his friends. It happens to be a British show. So Miles has picked up the accent, which is rad. He doesn't ask to watch Kipper. He asks to watch Kippah.

Lastly, tonight after Miles' bath he asked me to use the "hot wind maker" on him. You know, the blow dyer.

Soothing bedtime routines

I am really going to buckle down and blog this week. I'm not going to attempt to catch up with stuff that I've been up to over the last two months of my blogging hiatus. That's too daunting. But I really have to get back into the groove of blogging! It's just a lot of work. But it's good, worthwhile work.

So to start us off, here's a little video of daddy's version of bedtime.

Soothing, yes?