Early Summer in the Garden

I spent my morning among the flowers and veggies. Mostly because I'm avoiding this.

Not a one is clean. Some have been soaking in soapy water. We are now out of forks, so I either need to fix finger food for dinner, or devote a good 1-2 hours on this. Ugh.

In my defense, the veggies were in desperate need of some TLC, and we had a rare morning at home.

Mmmmmm.... I don't see basil, I see PESTO.

Check out my cute little yellow squash! Look...way down in the middle of that ginormous plant.

Daisies are die-hard optimists.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy -- tomatoes!

Closet Blonde

I have been so ditzy and dim-witted the last few days I've taken to combing through my roots looking for blonde when I'm supposed to be brushing my teeth. No blonde yet, just white. Whole hairs are white. What's with that?

I can't remember from one second to the next what I'm doing at any given moment, leading to many long pauses as I stand in the middle of the room and wonder, "Now why did I come in here? I was so purposeful too. I know I came in here for something." Most of the time I just walk back out and hope I remember before it's too late.

Matters got even worse when last night, for no reason we ever determined, Anna spent three hours alternately crying and whining. I lay in bed, steaming because not only was I not sleeping, but I knew that Sam's sleep was being horribly disrupted too. That would make at least three cranky residents of the house this day. I tried Motrin. I tried juice. I tried singing. I tried bringing her into our bed. I tried Benadryl. I finally set up the Pack'n'Play in our family room, on the opposite side of the house, and plopped her in.

Now she was the one steamed. But she finally settled down and the rest of us got some sleep.

Nights like this make me desperate for a larger home. You can't escape anyone's misery, so everyone is miserable. I know we can't afford it this year, especially if we want to stay in this school district. But some days (or nights) I just don't know how we're going to survive another winter here.

Oh, and did I mention that the two youngest took power naps in the van today, so they won't take their usual 2-hour afternoon naps? So this cranky mom won't get a moment to grab a power nap herself.

This is even more significant because we're having company for dinner tonight. So of course, I forgot my lunch in the oven. I only remembered when I was enveloped from behind by a burnt-cheese smoke-cloud which went on to permeate the entire house.

Lovely. It will take two days to get that smell out. I only have 3 hours. Good thing I planned to use a lot of garlic in the meal. Hopefully that will mask the burnt cheese.

So instead of a quiet house in which to nap, clean, and cook without interruption, I am trying not to grump around the cranky, tired-but-not-enough-to-nap kids, and still get the work done I need to.

Pray for me. Pray for the kids. And pray for our guests.

2006 Urgent Care World Tour

I have visited three separate urgent care centers in five days and have been to a medical care facility every day this week. Perhaps I should hit them all and write an authoritative book on local medical care.

It all started Sunday with a trip to my favorite Urgent Care with Anna. She had an ear infection and we got through there in about 1 1/2 hours. I like this one because I can make an appointment, thus minimizing our wait time there. We waited a bit longer than usual on Sunday because apparently someone got stuck in an elevator there on the way to x-ray.

Monday I took Elli for a pulmonary appointment. The doctor told me to call if she was still symptomatic in a week. He was concerned an infection might be brewing and wanted to start antibiotics at that time. The rest of that day was awful -- both girls were in horrible moods. I could understand Anna, but finally decided Elli must have thrown a 3-hour fit over not getting to choose the video that day.

Tuesday I took her to the hospital for her summer program and then worked there in the afternoon.

Wednesday I realized that Elli was sick after dinner. She had been really listless that day, hadn't eaten anything after breakfast, and had acted really weird when we went swimming. When I got her out of her wheelchair to change her for church, I realized she was blazing hot. She had a fever of 102, and I immediately thought about what the pulmonologist had said on Monday. I called the hospital and talked to the doc on call for pulmonary. He told me the best idea, since we were heading out of town for my niece's birthday party that evening, was to get her looked at either at Emergency or at a Children's urgent care center. So off we went.

Going to Urgent Care improved the health of my cardigan project.

I spent 2 1/2 hours there because a little girl came in with a broken foot. While they don't make appointments, I like that Children's prioritizes their patients, taking the most critical patients first. This girl got priority, so we waited longer. We would have gotten out sooner, but the doctor left a couple decisions up to me and I opted to get the chest x-ray. Turns out Elli's fever came from a throat infection. It's probably strep, but I opted not to get the culture. The x-ray added an hour to our stay there. We finally got home at 10:30pm, but I still had to go get her antibiotics filled, so I didn't get to bed til midnight. My husband and I were too tired to drive 2 hours that late.

So Thursday we got up early and drove to my in-laws' home. The kids were so excited to play with their cousin and hang out with Mamaw and Papaw. I headed to the basement to send a couple quick emails for work, taking Anna with me. She puttered around for awhile, and then suddenly I heard a crash. She had picked up a vase and managed to drop it on the only one-foot wide section of concrete exposed in the whole basement. It exploded into shards in front of her, knicking her arms and legs. She froze, then burst into tears. I grabbed her out of the middle of the mess, looked at her hand fill up with blood, and raced up the stairs.

It took three paper towels and finally a firm wrapping with gauze to contain the bleeding. We called the guys, who were running errands, and when Scott got home, the three of us headed out to the nearest urgent care. This was about 20 minutes away.

Anna was in a state because it was naptime, she was tired, and I'd had to wrap her entire hand up to keep the bandage on. She unravelled some of it, and by the time we arrived at the center, she was flaying bloody bandage around, wailing, and throwing herself around, content neither in our arm nor on her legs. This actually did us some good, however, as the other patients in the waiting room took pity on us and got the staff's attention about this poor child with a bloody hand.

We spent 3 1/2 hours at this urgent care center. The staff was great. The nurses had so many tricks to distract children. My favorite was a Winnie the Pooh sticker that read "I pitched a fit." Even the x-ray technician had tricks! They said "x-ray" and I thought, "not in a million years." But this lady managed to get three different x-rays of Anna's hand without much hassle at all. We tried to use that Derma-bond instead of stitches, but Anna's fingers are fat and the cut was deep. They couldn't get the fat pushed back into her finger to glue the skin. So she had to get three stitches. The poor girl was covered in sweat, red, and puffy from crying so hard for so long.

We did manage to get out in time for all five of us to attend the birthday party. The kids had a ball, especially Anna. She ran around with her head thrown back with glee at her newly-appreciated freedom to move.

We drove home late last night, and I again got to bed at midnight. I had to get up early for my own doctor's appointment this morning. I had to skip breakfast for a physical, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The black coffee I was allowed wasn't as bad as I expected either. Fortunately, I had a helper here with Elli, so I only had to take two kids. They were quite fascinated by the blood-taking process, and Sam was intrigued by the whole gown thing.

So I've had my fill of emergency runs to the doctor for quite awhile. In my fantasy world, I would take a day off of from motherhood. I would sleep in, enjoy morning coffee and a good book, work on my favorite projects, take a nap, send the laundry out for someone else to wash, and actually eat all the food on my plate myself while it is still warm. But I'll settle for a quiet, uneventful day with the kids at home.

I say this as I watched my youngest climb onto and then fall off Elli's desk.