So, Then This Happened

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2015 has been, um, challenging so far. Busy jobs, busy lives and really accident prone children…

Seriously, it has been the year of one damn thing after another. Not long ago, my boss made a crack about not being able to wait for the next story of drama and mayhem on Monday…and then another kid broke her nose.  And so I’m just here to say, STAHHHHHHHP. No, really, knock it off!

Actually, in the spirit of Zen Shorts (it’s a good book, go read it - no, I don't get paid for this, I just really like the book), I find myself continually grateful that the various little calamities that have eaten the first half of 2015 have been relatively minor. Many of them could have been so very much worse – what may seem like a run of bad luck has actually been the best sort because no one is permanently damaged (I am now knocking on every piece of wood I can find).

I am truly grateful for the small twist of fate, the diligent guardian angel or sliver of positive Karma that has limited these mishaps to “oh-shit-not-again” instead of full-on tragedy.

So, here it is, the 2015 rap sheet:

January

  • Recovering from the wreck of December, dealing with ongoing home repairs from termites and dryrot
  • Sick kids – 1, 2, 3
  • Sick mom down for the count with a sore throat and fever
  • The attack of the pollen starts early in CA with unseasonably warm weather – ears immediately clog solid so that I am living underwater

February 

  • House painting and the associated prep to fix issues
  • Catch the flu
  • Discover rat hole in eaves during painting prep
  • Painting prep messes up property drainage scheme
  • Freak thunderstorm rolls in
    • Yep, that looks broken
  • Me, repairing rat hole and digging trenches in freezing downpour with 102 degree fever (Mr. Puff laid low in bed with 103 degree fever)
  • Quokka gets frisky on the monkey bars and rips all of the calluses and a good amount of skin off of both hands
  • Badger falls up stairs and knocks bottom two teeth part way out – seriously, they were sticking straight out of her mouth and the blood was pouring – Puff-Dad pushed them back into place [shudder]

 March

  • Badger catches Norovirus (puking, and then pooing, EV-RY-WHERE) and it lasts four days
  • Athena catches Norovirus too (more puking, more pooping)
  • Badger breaks face falling up cement stairs (yes, falling up stairs again – catches the nose instead of the teeth this time)
    • The cast - decorated with a dragon, of course
  •  Quokka breaks arm flipping over the handlebars of her Razor scooter (she had a helmet on so her head, which also hit the ground hard when her arm snapped under the strain of 95 pounds landing on it, is perfectly fine)


 April

  • Mr. Puff hurts back – down for the count
  • Allergies die down, then come roaring back after more rain and another pollen apocalypse – with the gurgling in the ears and the pressure that makes it feel like my eyeballs will pop out of my head

  May

Blood on the ponies from head laceration
don't worry, mom laundry magic got it out
  • Try taking meds for allergies – end up permanently nauseous and with a thrush infection
  • Quokka gets cast off! Good news! Yay!

 June

  • Quokka is hit in the head by a kid throwing a rock  - laceration requires three stitches
  • Response from child care regarding rock-throwing incident not acceptable - mount campaign against school, program and district administrators (never go in against an English Major when reputation is on the line - Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
  • Ovarian cyst ruptures (not the normal kind, the that’s-not-supposed-to-be-there kind), ow

July

  • Accept promotion at work – start new job before they find a replacement for old job…doing two jobs…yeah…
  • Badger swallows Lego and says it feels like it’s stuck in her throat while coughing convulsively – swallowed it in flagrant defiance of her sisters who saw her put it in her mouth and told her to spit it out – trip to ER where everyone asks me, “she’s four?”
  • Mr. Puff hurts back again – moving new couch without assistance, but I digress – REALLY down for the count
  • Badger decides it’s not fair that her sisters got haircuts, but her dad won’t let hers be cut – so she tries out various scissors and gives herself a mullet – remains defiant to the end – insists back be cut short as well – ends up with cute short haircut (so there, dad)
  • Quokka breaks pinkie toe


The evidence - all over the upstairs
At this point, I just really need a break – the good kind – or maybe a spa day where they have to drag me kicking and screaming out of the relaxation room.

Weirdly, odd years have always been more challenging for us, and 2015 is living up to the superstition. I feel like I’m whacking wildly at that stupid pop-up mole, but I never manage to connect and knock the little bastard out.

I am still unbelievably grateful that things are not worse, and standing in the midst of the mess of mole hills I am giving thanks that none are mountains. I’m also trying to make sure that I make at least a little time to take care of myself too. I’d gotten my sleep average up to six hours, but I’ve eroded it away to 5:45 (that damn Sleep Cycle app is still the only thing that wakes me up, so I’m still obsessively charting my pathological lack of sleep).

You used to be my couch,
and now you're just a pile of rubble
And, in our usual “damn-the-torpedoes” style, we’ve also re-organized the girls’ bedrooms, re-done our entire living room and we’re working on refinancing our mortgage – in addition to graduations, the usual complement of birthday parties, holidays and events with family and friends.

Now, I need to go get some sleep…wish me good luck!



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