Life’s pains

Before I went to sleep last night I wrote a list of what I want to get accomplished this weekend. Not the work side of things, but the housekeeping and mothering side of things. Although I wanted to break the list down in a per-day manner, I resisted and settled for trying to get everything accomplished by the end of tomorrow night.
It’s 3:25 on Saturday afternoon and I’m already “behind.” Wait! Before you say, ‘There she goes being hard on herself again,’ I have to say that this is a semi-vent as opposed to a complaining, down-on-myself post.
 Okay, so I had high hopes for what I would get done this weekend. I was awaken at 6 a.m.-ish by the glaring of the light, which had been on for about five hours. Someone (yes, me) fell asleep with it on. Wow, I thought, I was knocked out. I turned the light off and went back to sleep.
An hour or so later I heard the noise of my children. My son was jumping, yelling, thumping, throwing and all the i-n-g-ing that I had told him and his sisters not to do right before they went to bed last night. I’ll address that later, I thought. A little after 9 (or was it before 9?) I yelled (it was more like a loud whisper) for the crew to come into my room. “Please quiet down. Mommy has a headache.” I squinted at the children, trying to get my point across. Five to 10 minutes later I called them in again to lay down with me and calm down. That only lasted a few minutes because they couldn’t resist playing tunnel/cave with my covers and finding monsters. The headache persisted.
After several dozing off moments and whining, “Mommy, please get up,” from my 2 1/2-year-old daughter I fell out of bed with my eyes half closed. Fighting a migraine. I went to the potty (how old will my children be before I stop saying “potty?”), splashed cold water on my face and tried to look in the mirror. I had to lean closer to see because the lights in the bathroom were blinding me.
Maybe if I eat, I wondered, then it will go away. It didn’t. Maybe once I take my medications. Still lingering. Maybe if I massage my temples, my face, my forehead, my neck… Still in pain. Less than an hour later I had to take Excedrin. If you don’t already know a part of my regular medicines include about 500 thing a ma gingas of Ibuprofen three times a day… Still in pain.
I get food for the children, feed myself, enjoy my coffee and talk to friends – all with my eyes half open. Temporarily giving up I shuffle back to my bed to rest. Maybe that will help. I refuse to sit in the dark so I open the blinds and squint or keep my eyes closed. Time for a nap.

The toddler… wait she’s actually a preschooler because she starts Head Start next fall… refuses to leave me alone and decides to bring her toys into my bed. Finally, about an hour later of my dozing and trying to ignore her I guess she is overcome by the nap monster and she climbs into the bed, squeezes into the space between me and the edge of the bed (it’s a king-sized bed so there’s miles of space on the other side of me) and settles in for a nap.
I sleep until I wake myself up coughing. SIGH. And the pain is still there. I’m realizing that it may be sinuses as well, but I can’t take my meds for that ‘cause they will surely knock me out. Who knows what my children will get into if I take another nap. Last time I didn’t feel well and napped on the couch they decided to cut their hair. Yup, their hair! I was too traumatized by it to tell you about it. And I blamed myself.
Any-who…Here I am being blinded by the light of the screen and the natural light coming in the window with pain in my cheeks, left brow and eye, neck and dry eyes while trying to pretend like I don’t need to do laundry, change bed linens, clean bathrooms and floors and the 1,000 or so other things that are on my weekend list.
My, this sure did turn into a long vent, huh? I figure if I’m going to lay down – this is the first time I’ve had my laptop in my bed in eons – then I might as well be online, right?
Thank goodness for my friend Kellie who brought the children and myself some lunch. I would jump for joy, but that would hurt. Now I wish someone would come by and massage my shoulders, get the kids dressed and take them out to dinner a little later. I guess I’ll just be thankful that it’s a little quiet … oh no, spoke to soon, here comes the 2-year-old asking for a snack (She just ate lunch 15 minutes ago!). I know she’s just doing that to bug me and it worked. See, life’s pains.
Maybe one day they’ll find a cure for chronic pain and when I have “regular” pain it won’t be such a big deal. Okay, I think I’ve gotten that all off of my chest. The day is 1/2 over and I think I can slowly move through it… I don’t know if I’ll get any housework finished because I still have a deadline tomorrow, but at least I got to rest (trying to be positive) despite the pain.
How’s your weekend going?
**I pulled a couple of old photos off of my lappy to help you endure this long post. Hope it worked. :)