Last week was rough. It started off just fine, with plenty of ups and down like a normal week, but then the downs got the better of me. I became cranky, impatient, ungrateful. It started building up inside of me, like a cup overflowing with negativity. Wednesday morning I was taking a shower and Elliot decided that would be a good time to dump the marble and bead jar (I'm still not sure how he got it in the first place) out on the living room carpet. I heard the rolling balls reaching the farthest corners of the room... On any normal day, I might be frustrated by this, but I would probably overcome it shortly. However, this week I could feel the stress building. And building.
Friday morning it rained and of course, I had left the windows open in the car. I was trying to get Elliot ready for preschool (and me, too, since it was my turn to teach) and get Owen in the car, but first I had to mop up the seats and as I was doing that Elliot fell hard on his butt into a large wet puddle. AAAGH!!!!! He started crying, I had to hurry back inside to change him and everyone was cranky again.... I felt saturated with stress and unhappy that I couldn't shake it -- and that just contributed to my ill humor. I'm not proud of it.
Anyway, I literally worried myself sick. By Friday afternoon I was coughing and head-achy and by Saturday morning I had a fever. Then I spent the weekend in bed alternately shivering from a fever and sweating it out. And thinking. It's been awhile since I was that sick: too sick to read, too sick to knit, even too sick to sleep. I just laid in bed wishing I felt even 10% better.
Yesterday my fever finally broke and this morning Paul headed back to work, but I of course am weak from lying in bed fighting a fever all weekend. Owen is home from school today. There is clean laundry strewn across my bedroom floor, Candyland and its pieces strewn across the kid's bedroom floor and puzzle pieces and games all over the living room. But, and here's the interesting thing: I'm not cranky anymore! It's like the fever sweated out the crankiness.
Here's hoping that as I start to feel better, I remember this feeling here: kids are messy, deal with it and move on with your life. Seems pretty obvious after 48 hours of lying in bed.
5 comments:
Lisel, I am SO sorry. Had we known, we might have been able to help somehow over the week-end. I am glad that you are feeling better, and I hope you will soon feel completely recovered. I trust the rest of the family escapes the nasty little bug. May everyone stay well. GG
Lisel, did it dawn on you that you were cranky because you were coming down with this awful crud!!!! That junk has hit people all over the United States. You are lucky that you got over it that quickly. We had some that had it for a week or more. I'm glad you are feeling better! The open car window with Elliot sitting in the mud puddle sounded like a living night mare. I'm not so sure I would have been a saint through all of that either! I hope you get your strength back quickly!!!
Aunt Carol
Poor girl! I'm so glad to know you're feeling better and it was a treat to talk to you and the boys yesterday. Hang in there and feel better soon!
Love, Kirstie
I hope you feel better soon, Lisel. It sounds like you had something truly miserable. Ugh. Isn't it amazing how our moods are so closely tied to our bodies--being subject to stress and the often subsequent illness makes me feel so frustratingly weak sometimes. Anyway, I'll tell you this, you are usually such a graceful person and your sweet, sweet boys are the best evidence of that.
Oh sweet child, you even sound cranky in the writing of your being sick! I know that it's impossible to avoid illness when one has children, who know children, who know other children, any of whom might carry a few germs here and there. Sounds like you got the brunt of it! I'm so sorry!
Hope you are feeling better!
Much love, and hugs,
Mom
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