I originally wrote this almost two years ago, but as I get closer to sending my now SECOND GRADER off to school, and cope with also having a boy in pre-K, there’s still so much of this that rings true.  ….and I still don’t know how to do-it-all.  😉

Last week proved to be quite a week, to say the least.  My family and I spent the first week in August on vacation in Florida, first hitting the beach, then spending some quality time with the grandparents, and a day at Disney.

We came back on Saturday, and my oldest was starting Kindergarten on Monday.  Seriously, the summer seemed to have just flown by.  I’m proud to say I held it together quite well, and masked my nervousness and sadness at sending my baby off to Kindergarten, in a school with kids all the way up to 8th grade.  It was the second day, when carpool began, where I nearly lost it – watching her walk away with her cute Ariel backpack.  Such a big shot.  What happened to my little baby??

With starting kindergarten, came many many many adjustments, including earlier wake-ups in the morning, adjusting 2-year-old boy’s nap schedules, packing lunch every. single. day AND a snack.  We’re still working on it all.  But so far, neither of my children have starved.  At least not from lack of meals, but perhaps on occasion because I’m mother of the world’s pickiest eaters.  I digress.  I’m figuring out how to get breakfast prepped the evening before, and get lunch prepped on Sunday (freezing PBJ wraps = GENIUS!), and streamline as much as possible…

And now I start (back) to teaching preschool.  We had CPR refresher last week, which was a nice chance to re-connect with friends, co-workers, and teachers alike.  And to watch my son literally skip down the hall as he returned to “school” was priceless.  So in addition to juggling this ah-mazing blog (which I love dearly), two mornings a week of teaching, and trying to maintain a regular gym workout, life has become …hectic.

In the midst of all this, I got a Facebook message from a friend, whom I haven’t actually seen in a very, very long time.  You can read it for yourself:

That got me thinking, how many moms appear to “pull it off” even if they feel like they’re merely in survival mode?  My friend Maria over at Mamalicous Maria offers a candid look at how moms appear -particularly on social media- verses how we actually ARE.  After all, we’ll post 20 pictures of our kids reaching those coveted milestones, those clever jokes/sayings/quips our kids say, and all the cute things in between.  But would we dare post that we just lost our temper and yelled at our kids, overreacted about something small -likely the proverbial straw breaking our mommy camel’s back- and took it out on the kids, or when we knowingly fed our kids junk for dinner because …well, it was just easier, and quite frankly because you “didn’t want to hear it.”

Sound familiar?  Yep.  Thought so.  We put our best (social media) face out there, thus creating this false ideal of what motherhood should look like.  The truth is, we don’t “do it all.”  We do the best we can with what we have – and sometimes our best is simply “survival mode”, or something not too distant from there.  And that’s ok!  I, for example, FINALLY tackled the piles and piles of papers and …junk that had accumulated on the kitchen table.  (You know how every house has that one “catch all” area for junk?  I have such an area in every.  single.  room of my house, y’all!)  While I finally got the table quite presentable, clean even, I discovered the kids had scattered toys ALL over the den; the boy dumping out every single kids’ book in his possession.  Oi.

I digress.  (surprise!)  It’s been quite a week.  (The fact that it’s taken me WELL over a week to get this typed up and posted should give you some indication of just how hectic life has been.)  But we are all here, and we have all survived.  More or less.

Oh, and Monday night, I indulged, letting my daughter brush my hair.  When she’s fully in the mood, it.  feels.  fantastic.  So she started going to town, as I laid on my belly on the bed, reading stories to her and her brother – part of our nightly ritual.  All of a sudden, I felt a familiar tug as she started rolling the comb up my hair – before I could say anything, I found myself with a brush firmly tangled in my hair.  We finished stories with a comb in my hair.  We said prayers with a comb in my hair.  I rocked my son with a comb tangled in my hair, and tucked my daughter in with a comb in my hair.

Then, I enlisted my husband’s help in de-tangling that confounded comb out of my hair.  The struggle was real, y’all.  Things weren’t looking hopeful, and I was trying to figure out how on earth I could possibly CUT the comb out and still do ….something…. with my hair.  (And still be able to donate my hair in the process.)  And then I told him he could snap the comb in half, if he thought it would free my hair.  *light bulb*  In the end, my hair came out, the pieces of the comb were recycled, and my hair was de-tangled.  Eventually. Soo, alls well that (split) ends well, right?  😉

I conclude simply with this. I put the question back to you all, mothers of the world – or mothers reading my blog: How do YOU do it?  How DO you do it?

It’s been a rough week in our frugal household.  Most notably, my daughter -who turned 4 last Friday- came down with a nasty tummy bug, and has been OUT all week.  She started feeling off on Sunday, but woke up Monday morning feeling well enough to go to school and ballet, but didn’t touch her lunch.  She came home, took off her ballet clothes and put on her jammies and plopped herself down for a three hour nap.  (An unnatural act for a child who’d not taken a nap for over two weeks prior to this!)  Even after she woke up, she was rather puny and lacked an appetite for the remainder of the day….

Tuesday, same thing: she woke up feeling fine, went to her 4-year check-up and got her shots.  By the time we came home, she was starting to feel a little off, wouldn’t eat, and took a two hour nap.  That evening I knew we were dealing with a stomach virus.  And I’ll just leave it at that.

She stayed home, sleeping it off most of the day on Wednesday.  (Skipping her Easter party at school, for which I was supposed to be a “party mom”…)  But she continued to get worse, so on Thursday, we went back to the doctor.  That visit was the pits: she was so weak, she couldn’t open her eyes.  She was like a limp noodle, as the pediatrician tried to check her out.  After the lab techs had to draw blood to check her blood (a sight or sound I never wish to hear, pitiful pleas of “I don’t want a shot.  I don’t want a shot.”), the conclusion was low blood sugar and dehydration.  No surprise to me, since she was unable to keep anything down (including water) for over 24 hours.

She was given some Zofran, followed by water and then Gatorade to sip on, and we were eventually discharged.  (Did I mention my 15 month old son was in his stroller throughout this ordeal?  Bless his sweet, patient heart.)

All the while, I’ve been doing loads and loads and loads of laundry, in addition to my regular laundry schedule.  So, even though I only use a little bit of detergent, I swear I saw a significant dip in my supply in just a week!

In the meantime, I came to the conclusion that ONE spare bed sheet simply won’t cut it.  So, thankfully, Anna’s Linens is having a sale through this weekend: 25% off a single item, with the promo code spring25. I will certainly be stocking up, especially since I have two full-size beds (one for each kid) — one extra sheet just won’t cut it on those occasions when tummy bugs invade our house in full force!

All in all, it’s been a draining week. But, I believe my daughter is on her way to recovery — but it’s going to be a slow process. We’ll be taking it easy this weekend, encouraging as many sips on her “special juice” as possible, allowing indulgences in whatever crackers or (reasonable) treats she wishes. After all, when you’re already a skinny mini, losing two pounds in two days is just …sad…

On a positive note, however, I am pleased to watch my son toddle around, making his way to being a full-time walker this week. I forgot just how damn cute it is at this stage. He walks with his arms up, over his head, as if cheering himself on, which he actually does once he reaches point “B” with a boastful “YAY!”

Thanks for letting me vent, y’all. As I said, it’s been quite a week. Hopefully, things will only look up from here. Hopefully, less laundry will be done at my house next week. Hopefully, new bed sheets will arrive well before they are ever needed. And hopefully, too, I can savor these moments as my son transitions to a full-time walker, leaving a piece of his infancy behind, and embracing toddlerhood more fully. *sigh*

P.S.  Did I mention I burned my finger the other day too?  Right on the pad of my finger.  Nice.