A Week in the Life of Grandma Dawn

When I retired, last June, I had lists of things I was planning to get done. Some of them have happened, many have not. But a week ago, I decided to delve into DC's list - a horrible task he has referred to time and again - I keep telling him I do not want to do this job - but more than anything, I don't want him to do it by himself. I have a great fear of what he will consider worthy of the garbage pile or recycle bin. I speak of the dungeon - the BASEMENT.

At least we have a basement - the graveyard of all things unused, but not necessarily forgotten or useless. And of course, the holding place of many things that are used occasionally enough that they reside out of sight. Unless you have to go down and look for something - there, as they say, is the rub!

So - a week ago I shocked my sweet hubby and began tackling the mess. I made a good start, but haven't been able to get back down there. But a good beginning is better than nothing, right?? Nobody will ever mistake me for Barbtha when it comes to cleaning. I will never have a spotless house all at one time. But I have done a lot of decluttering since I retired. I took before pictures, but was too ashamed to share them! Tackling the basement is huge for me. I'll keep you posted!

As far as I can remember, the week-end was okay - if my memory doesn't fail me, which it often does these days. If I thought hard and long, I could come up with the memories - but it's not worth the effort! Starting Monday, things began to get a bit dicey.

Monday morning when Kristen checked her on-line courses, she discovered that she had 4 assignments due in the next two days. I agreed to keep the kids most of the day in order to save my Tuesday off. Things were going well until about noon when little Katie-Bug ejected her most recent bottle - all over me. This began a series of such ejections the rest of the day - I decided to save her mom from this news until absolutely necessary.

Coincidentally, at almost the same moment in time, the same thing was happening across town with their Mommy. The rest of the day slid downhill from there. She was so sick that I went to the store for some emergency meds - when I delivered them to her house, she could not lift her head from the pillow. I had to leave her there in that condition because I had her 4 little girls at my house for the night - I had to pick up jammies and clean clothes and get back home to Grandpa and the chaos - AFTER I went to the grocery store for my weekly shopping which I had put off all Saturday. Bad move on my part, being so lazy on Saturday (now I remember what I did on Saturday - NOTHING!) I had noticed a slight headache all afternoon, but by the time I was finishing my shopping and it was around 8:00 p.m., I discovered that I was leaning on the cart to support my aching and tired body.

When I got home, I realized I didn't feel well at all. I took a shower, wishing to rid myself of the nasty flu germs that had been surrounding me all afternoon. My head finally hit my pillow around 11:00 - only to be joined in my bed by the two big girls - Grandpa knows this is going to happen, so he's in the guest room sleeping blissfully!

They no sooner were snoring beside me (well, actually almost pushing me off the bed), when I hear the babes - I had put them down at 6:00 with just water, not wanting a repeat performance of the afternoon. They were starving, so I gave in and fixed them bottles, stumbling back up the stairs to bed, totally exhausted and feeling worse by the minute.

It wasn't long after going back to bed for the third time that it hit me - full force. I'll not go into gory details, but suffice it to say that I ended up sleeping on the big girls' make-shift couch cushion bed on the floor of the family room in close proximity to the other very important room. My dear DC realized that he would not be going to work Tuesday, but would be doing my job.

I have to say I've not been this sick in years. I didn't realize how many words it would take to fill DC in on the particulars of getting the big girls to school - where their clothes were, what Care Bear needed to take with her, the code to Feisty's school front door, the code to check Feisty in at her pre-school's attendance computer, the extra piece of paper he had to sign (which seems like overkill to me, but seems to be a state law and a school rule combined), the procedure when he got her there, and on and on and on. I had no energy to talk and was relieved when things settled down.

Bless his heart, taking care of the twins was a bit overwhelming. But he did it all so patiently. I appreciated it so much, in the midst of my abject misery. When it came time for Care Bear to go home from school, he reversed the processes and took them all home - and he was tired! Not only that, but the bug had caught him by early evening. He then missed another day of work.

We're all better now - at least the adults. Kristen was sorely behind on her work, but even her most seemingly heartless prof proved he is actually human and gave her extra time to get the assignment in.

The big girls seem to have escaped, but the little ones ended up at the ER today to be rehydrated from their continued bouts with diarrhea and vomiting. It has been quite a week! Needless to say, both of my "days off" this week were forgotten as I spent Tuesday unable to move and today at the hospital. My "word of the year" is getting another good work-out - flexibility!

Before all of this hit us on Monday, though, Feisty and I had been having such a great day. Being the middle child with a very outgoing, Type A older sister, and the younger sister being two of them, she sometimes gets squeezed, if you know what I mean. But when it's just the two of us and the babies are napping, she can be delightful company.



I wish I could remember the exact conversation, but the best part was the end when she created a great new word - "hurtyish." It's a great descriptive word, don't you agree?

I was loading the dishwasher and she decided she needed to wash a few of the plates before they went in - she did a great job and when they were finished, she said, "There, clean as a lizard!"

I get amused and somewhat amazed when I realize all of the things these kids will always take for granted, because they've always lived with them. For instance, if we're reading a story and she needs to do something in the middle of the book, she'll say, "Pause it a minute!" Just cracks me up.

Well, this may go down in history as one of my longest, and maybe most laborious, posts ever. But I had to put it all down to believe it. I close with something to cheer us all up -- another entry from the photo shoot.



Have a great week-end!