Cottage Notes

Phew. I feel like I've run a marathon the last few days.

It all started June 21st. We were coming off our last day of being "off duty". I wasn't feeling fantastic, Blueberry suddenly started running a fever, Baby Q had popped out one tooth a few days earlier and was working on a second. When I suddenly got much, much worse, we decided to call in sick. And it was a good thing too as all three of us were pretty miserable for the next three days.

We finally went back on duty on the 25th, me still feeling pretty cruddy and Blueberry no longer contagious but obviously not fully right, and Baby Q still struggling with that goofy tooth.

That Tuesday (the 25th) was a normal "coming back on duty" sort of day. Lots of things to catch up on, behaviors to deal with, errands to run, etc. Wednesday dawned and all chaos ensued. It was one of those days when I started out with plan A and by 9:30am was on Plan Y.

The essence of the chaos was as such:
1. Receive phone call from Social Services director. What would our thoughts be on moving Tortoise up to an older girl's cottage. Our reply--fantastic. Much needed for her. Can we wait until next week when we're back on duty? "Sure," was the reply.
2. An hour later. Um....we need to move her tomorrow. We have two new little girls coming in to your cottage next week.

And from there it became a case of announcing to the girls that Tortoise was switching cottages (tears and protests and complaints and other assorted emotions), packing Tortoise up, all shuffled in with church and other scheduled items.

As Tortoise leans on the OCD side, I finally stepped in around 10pm (first time I had all day to help!) and helped her finish packing up her room or she would have been up all night.

Next morning we were up bright and early as Thursdays are always crazy, crazy days schedule wise, and we had the added busyness of actually moving her and handing her over to the new cottage to deal with as well. Oh, and the additional busyness of going off duty that night which always adds an extra layer of "things that must be done before we go off." Said farewell to Tortoise, passed our cottage down to our Reliefs, stayed up for some together time (watched Master Chef - lol).

Friday--my off day. Sweet off day. Slept in (thank you husband of mine) and worked hard the rest of the day paying bills, doing the budget, cleaning, and shopping.

And it was a good thing I worked hard too.

Saturday was going to be my "pajama day." I always take one day on our three days off (I say "always" here rather tongue in cheek--really should be more like, "I always hope to and occasionally succeed in taking" a pajama day). Basically, a lazier sort of day, not where things don't get accomplished, but a day when I permit myself to bury myself in the house, in my pajamas, and spend some extra time cuddling with kids, pampering, etc.

Didn't work out so well. Started with a phone call, "Someone has to go to the hospital for an emergency, can you watch your kids so your Relief's can go over to their house and watch their kids?" Um, sure....

Followed by another phone call from my bestie on campus who is 25 weeks pregnant---"I'm having contractions, can you watch my two boys?!"

Um, yes!

Well, that was the beginning of the end. Watched the kids till mid-afternoon, when they returned (she was okay, thank you Lord, but needing to rest), we stayed on duty for the rest of the day and Sunday and then were still there for our regular shift.

Sigh. Sweet days off, how I miss thee. I haven't had a normal set of three days off in a good month now. I count on those days for my sanity!

Monday was crazy as well as we finished setting up the new girl's room and then waited for them to show up. And waited. And waited.

They didn't come until about 4pm, which is just as Chris was walking out the door with our oldest girls to be gone all evening (late night) to a baseball game!

Which left me with four little kids--two of whom were unknown entities. Fortunately, my same bestie came over to help watch (limited mobility, but hey, a mommy voice always helps).

Brief summary of my two new ones (no nicknames as of yet):

A 5 year old who is very inquisitive, needs a lot of help focusing, but I think will do okay.

A 3 (almost 4) year old who is very defiant, and I believe precocious would be an appropriate word for her. She's going to be a handful!

Busy shift. Busy life. Love my kids. Need three days off.