Coke in a Wine Glass

Life’s been interesting the last couple of weeks. And by ‘interesting’ I of course mean “AAAAHH!! KARMA, WTF IS GOING ON??!!” No matter how hard we worked, how right we did things, they just kept going wrong. Putting out fires all the time and not getting anywhere.

But interesting yes. Due to one very bad step, I found myself off my feet and forced to take a step back from the madness. I had to view it all from the outside fringes of the sofa. In turn, it helped me to realise what was going down in our little family at the time.

As I sit now at four in the afternoon, while the rest of the family sleep, I feel relieved that things have at last taken a turn for the better and life’s stopped being so darned friggin ridiculous. I’m catching up on some blogging and sipping coke from a wine glass. Might seem a bit odd to most but as someone who rarely drinks alcohol (and that’s another post some day) but loves pretty wine glasses, it works for me.

Most of the problems were caused or hindered by family illness and it’s made Hubby and I rethink our health a little. We’re working hard; we have two young boys who are just as affected by our stress as we are. And we never get enough sleep. I nearly typed ‘rarely’ there but that would have been inaccurate. I’ve already made huge changes to my health, weight and diet in the last ten years (see here) and I find it easier now to spot problems connected to my eating patterns, although I’m no better at keeping things up. Always slipping back to my old ways in times of stress and when we’re tired also then we just crave those instant fixes that instant and unhealthy food gives us. A week or so of this and we start dropping like flies ..

Hubby was first, a toothache that soon became a swollen cheeked infection then developed into an entire night of being violently sick and getting little sleep. Hence he’s asleep now, little use for anything else he’s so drained. Poor fella. Our only guess is that the combination of Grandpas taken for the toothache and a possibly dodgy Russian he had for lunch yesterday wasn’t an ideal one. Per chance. First note to self, switch to Ibruprofen based pain relief. Better on the tummy methinks. Note to Hubby self, avoid the dodgy takeaways rather than the dentist.

4yr old was next. No infection and nobody within 15km of him was ill but still he developed a rip roaring cold. Every time he sneezes it’s like a scene from a particularly slimy horror movie. And we react accordingly. “Oh my GOD! STOP! Don’t move, I’ll get something. Where’s a tissue? No wait, maybe a sheet or something. DON’T WIPE IT ON YOUR ARM!! No you cannot suck it back up, just stand still I’m coming. DON’T EAT IT!!”.



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 And the germs soon spread in our tired and weakened states, currently we’re all recovering at various stages of boogerdom. Sniffing and coughing from all corners.  Joy. I could tell you how many times I’ve blown a nose since starting this post but I don’t want to totally gross you out. Note to self number two, watch the diet and sleep patterns. Too many late nights and missed naps coupled with eating the wrong things and we were all running on low battery. Tetchy too! Lots of family infighting and rows just escalates the stress. Can you see where we’re going here?

To make things worse, I then took my wrong step. Running outside to grab the laundry from the line in the dim light of dusk, barefoot and in a rush because it was starting to rain. Couple that with a discarded steel frame plant climber thingy outside the back door (or 4yr olds toy car tunnel, depending on how you choose to view things) and you have a very painful foot twice the size of its partner on the left. I can’t move or feel my toes and I can’t walk, which is a tad limiting to say the least. I can hop or hobble small distances slowly but it’s just not enough.

Only two days incapacitated and the power was already shifting. The kids were on the brink of mutiny, Hubby mumbling and grumbling about having to do everything and calling himself my bitch, the house in chaos and I heard the 4yr old excitedly realising out loud that he can run faster than me.  As he dashed off with something forbidden or highly dangerous in his hands no doubt. The 18mth old had to be fenced in for his own safety. If not within a 5m radius of me then I couldn’t reach him in time to prevent one of many possible accidents he could have at this age. Oh my, how he loves to climb ....

Forced to take a back seat I couldn’t help but see things in a different way and pretty soon I became this very annoying know-it-all type shouting largely unhelpful advice to Hubby from the sofa. But aside from feeling the need to make some changes, I also saw how well our family unit does work most of the time despite our at times chaotic household. Not to mention what a hero Hubby is when we need him. However modern or traditional our views are, we find ourselves and our kids too as they get older taking on very definite roles. I’m not one myself for the Man-Big-Chief-woman-standing-in-shadows-with-kids view on things. To me it’s all about team work and Hubby, kids and I have to be working side by side to be at our best.

So final note to self, look after yourself and avoid disabling injuries at all costs. For the sake of your family. In short, don’t be an idiot. I mean, how long would it have taken me to slip my shoes on for f@*ks sake?!