A Day In The Life...
Of This Work At Home Mom
By Stephanie Russell
I know that we all go through days like the one I am about to describe but when life catches up, sometimes the magic and the mystery just aren't too magical or mysterious.
My day began like any other day. Up at 10am after being up until 3am the night before. My kids are out of school for the summer so I make time for them during the day and work a little, then when they are in bed at night, I get my real work done.
My 8 year old Monica builds a glorious tent out of heavy blankets in the middle of our tiny living room. She has this tent sealed down as tight as you can get a blanket. The baby Szadie is running around sky clad (naked:) and catching some breeze. Then Monica and Szadika decide to play in the tent. Things are going just fine, I am getting some email taken care of. All is well...
Then I get an phone call from Gramma Louise (she's the lady who packs all of your orders so nicely), she is hysterical and just about worn out from hours upon hours of paperwork and she needs help. At the same time, I receive an email from a customer who bought something from me personally through Ebay...not from BEG but just something of mine. He hasn't received his order. I ask Gramma about it because she is the one who shipped it and she swears she did but even so, I must go look and see if it is somewhere in her house. Right about then Monica starts screaming from under the tent blankets, then Szadika starts screaming! Monica is yelling 'Help Mom! Get it off, get it off!!!' as I frantically start pulling this magnificent tent apart to get to them. When I finally remove the last of what is holding the blankets down and I lift the edge, a horrifying stench arises and lo and behold...Szadie has had diarrhea and pooped all over Monica who must have been holding her at the time. The floor, and the pillow that they had in there with them got it too! I have to stop what I am doing and spend the morning cleaning that mess up.
Then my husband is trying to pick up a little and manages to drop the vacuum cleaner on his foot! Amidst the howling from him, I tell Monica to pick up her things that she had for the tent and put them away. She promptly forgets and goes up to Grammas. My husband picks up her big dolly she left and tries to throw it down the hall. Instead it hits my favorite lamp which crashes to the floor and shatters everywhere. My dad comes down and announces that he has people coming to look at my windows...I tell him to please make them come later as now really is NOT a good time! So now Tim is back to vacuuming and I am doing a load of poo-covered laundry consisting of blankets, a pillow, and Monica's clothing. I try to get back to my email but now it is time to fix something to eat so while I am doing that, I ask my 12 year old, Noelle to please take the clean laundry out of the washer and put it in the dryer. The next thing I know, this god-awful noise is coming from the laundry area...screeching, screeling, piercing sounds that I cannot imagine what the cause is! I run in there and find that the dryer is smelling like fire and burned chemicals so I quickly stop it and look inside...
Inside the dryer are the clean clothes that apparently had become unbalanced in the washer and did not get the water spun out of them so there is now about a foot of standing water in the dryer and the dryer can't handle all that extra weight. Tim hangs the pillow and blankets outside on the line after squeezing all he can out of them. Feed everyone, go back to work. Can't find my customer's package but do find the receipt proving that his order was mailed when I said it was. Good.
We make it to dinner time...cheese stuffed raviolis with vodka marinara sauce...yummy...peaceful...yeah, right.
Next up.
My darling 6 year old is standing in front of me scratching. I teasingly say 'do you have fleas?' To which she says 'no, but my head is itching so bad!' and my heart begins to sink as I say 'why don't you have Tim take a look and see what is going on?' and stare hopelessly into my plate of pasta. I know what the next thing is going to be...and sure enough...my children have just gotten back from a 3 week trip around the US with the other Grandparents and have brought back a nice little souvenir...head lice. It is now 10:45pm and off Gramma and I go to buy treatment for all of us.
Now I sit here and am able to laugh but this isn't just one of those days...it is every day in the life of this work at home mom, albeit usually without head lice.
Oddly enough (and I am ever so thankful!) the 6 year old appears to be the only one with it and I don't dare say something like 'it couldn't get worse' because I know that it can.
I am thankful for every day that can end with a smile and even for every day that doesn't. It means I have shared time with my children and husband as we work on this glorious family we have built.
Families don't just happen...they grow with love and they wither without it.
Maybe someone out there can take heart that days like this happen to everyone!
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