Busy-ness and Chaos

Here are two photos of a typical scene at the Boyette household. Complete chaos. On the left side, you see Wesley the dog with his moose, trying to entice Paul to play with him. In the center, you see Claire with Christmas stockings on her feet, first talking on the phone, next trying to steal the phone from Sarah. Sarah is on her back, bare feet in the air. All around the frame you see clutter of toys and Christmas.

The holidays were so busy for us. I was happy the day after Christmas because I thought things would calm down. They didn't.

I know everyone is busy, but I hate it. I have this image in my mind of my children, and me leaning over them, arms around them, shielding them from the world and its busy-ness. As a former teacher, I know kids thrive on consistency and routine, and I haven't been able to give either to my kids for about a month. I've been trying to keep our schedule free so we can be at home and enjoy our family and Adam's time off, but we just haven't been able to.

Adam lost one of his great aunts this past weekend. She was very old and had been in the nursing home for a long time. She lived in Louisiana. We got the call on Sunday night, and while I am sorry that she died, neither Adam or I had ever met her, so we didn't grieve. Apparently his dad knew her a long time ago.

Every day for a month we had had something to do, so I had looked forward to this week for rest and relaxation, and actually cleaning the house. If you've ever seen my house, you know that is not my top priority, but it should get done sometime. I wanted to spend time playing with the kids' new toys and taking them to the park. I wanted Adam to go to the library with us and experience story time.

Adam's dad doesn't drive, and Adam felt that we needed to take him to the funeral. Adam also felt we needed to go with him. So we took our kids, exhausted from the holidays, to Louisiana. Five hours to get there on Monday, five hours back on Tuesday. Adam did all the driving, but I hated that we had to take up two entire days to go to a funeral for a woman that we've never met. I almost feel like it's disrespectful to go to a funeral for someone you haven't met and haven't even heard of.

Adam's dad wanted to go, though, so we took him. He was very appreciative, but I just wanted to stay home.

Wednesday the kids were starting to get sick. Coughing a little bit, runny noses. Again, I wanted to keep them home, but we also wanted to go to the two New Year's parties we had RSVPed to. So we took both kids out again.

Thursday I wanted to stay home again, but Adam had already promised my grandfather he would come and help him fix his lawnmower. He insisted we come with him. So we took both kids out again.

Friday I took a breath this morning and looked forward to a day at home. Finally. Then I realized both kids had fevers, Paul had 101.3, and I had to take them to the doctor. Our doctor's office was closed today, so we had to go to the Urgent Care Clinic on the other side of town. It took all day.

I don't know what to do. I am trying my best to keep them home and keep them well, but it's not working. Both kids are very sick with respiratory infections. I guess that will keep us at home.