School Holiday Break Finish Line (Crawling Across)

Well, peeps.

Here’s our victory shot after leaving Chica’s class party. Proof that we made it across the school finish line to enter a much-needed holiday break:

When I say that we need this holiday break, I mean we need this holiday break.

But I also think I needed this day of busyness and service.

Honestly, I went to bed last night dreading the day a bit. It’s been hard to get my jolly on when we’ve had so many rounds of household illness, missed/canceled plans, wonky schedules and just a general sense of cabin fever and frustration.

But the day dawned, I managed to wake up, power up, get the kiddos and their thousands of odds and ends to school (Chicklet was finally able to return!) attend my Barre class…and then not stop or sit for hours and hours.

I volunteered some time to help set up the decorations for our neighborhood outdoor holiday party (knowing we wouldn’t be able to attend due to the cold weather and Chicklet’s recovering health; a wide decision as wind and chill ended up canceling the shindig early), ran around gathering the last of the supplies and teacher’s goodies for Chica’s class party, and then hauled a whole heaping car full up to school to throw a lively, festive event with the help of my lovely co-Room Rep. :)

And you know what?

My dread was unwarranted, because it just so happened to feel AMAZING to get outside myself, escape the cabin fever of watching over sick kiddos, and do something for a greater good today.

It did so much more for me than I expected or deserved, and I’m so very grateful for that.

These past couple of months have been pretty tough for me.

I’d love to say I’ve rolled with all these illness punches without batting an eye, but honestly, it’s worn me down a bit.

And not just physically, but emotionally.

This season, I ended up with 22 days of kiddos home sick, and that’s no small thing.

22 days is more than four full work weeks.

So much time spent at home, holed up with one or several of them that I honestly don’t know what we would have done had I not been able to always throw my day out the window and be the caregiver.

It’s hard to continually drop everything and hunker down. It’s hard to sanitize and spend restless nights sleeping beside feverish babies. It’s hard to watch events and schedules and responsibilities fly out the window. And it’s especially hard to feel like you have little to show for your day beyond temperature checks, nursing duties and maintaining your sanity.

But.

I’ve been doing this parenting thing long enough now to know this season has been an anomaly. In fact, this is only the second time in a decade that I’ve felt quite this type of beaten down in terms of the illness merry-go-round, and I know that this, too, shall pass.

We won’t have to repeat this situation (I hope, I hope) indefinitely.

And, you know what?? It might make us even more grateful when the holidays come back around next year and we’re able to manage some of this things we couldn’t this year.

There’s always so much to be grateful for, and attitude adjustments can be made as often as we need them. ;)

So we’re just going to thank our lucky stars that we made it to the school finish line and now have a glorious couple of weeks to regroup, refresh and renew for the New Year.

So. In closing, please enjoy (is that the right word for this, ha) a handful of sick/sleeping baby pics, ‘cause heaven knows, I’ve earned these!

HAPPY HOLIDAY BREAK, peeps!

Over and out.