A Thank You And A No Thank You

First of all, let me say a deep and heartfelt thank you to all of you who spoke to me or commented about my last post. Your words of compassion and your hugs and most of all your prayers truly made a difference. But really, the best thing about that day was that I got to spend it on a field trip with my daughter Mary. It was good to be out, busy, and focused on one who brings me so much joy.

Secondly I must say a deep and heartfelt NO THANK YOU to the stomach bug that somehow has found its way into our house despite the numerous times I have knocked on wood, thrown salt over my shoulder, or just denied its existence whenever someone mentioned that it was going around. It managed to hit Mary and I fully expect it to have its way with the rest of my offspring. Probably when it is the least convenient--like when Patrick is out of town. You see, we have a deal regarding vomit that not only has served us well, but I daresay has made our marriage prosper. It goes something like this: I will manage and clean up all things poo related and he will take care of the vomit. I think, even though it is vomit, which just thinking of it makes me want to well, vomit, he got the better deal. Now I wouldn't say cleaning it up is the better deal, because obviously it is something with which I do not deal well. But given the number of times that a vomit clean up versus a poo clean up has occurred in our home, he has definitely received the longer stick. It's simple math really: x=occasions when vomit occurs and y=occasions when poo occurs.

x(4 children)= occasionally when the stomach bug goes around or someone consumes
too much junk

OR

y(4 children)= several times daily for the first several years of each child's life

And the y equation doesn't even make mention of the incidences of exploding diapers and potty training (or in the case of one of my children, the refusal to potty train until well past the breaking point of my sanity). Then my total increases exponentially.

I discovered several years ago two things: children NEVER get the stomach flu during the day, and Vick's Vaoporub is indispensable when cleaning up vomit.

Because my husband travels frequently for his work, many times I have been left to clean up the, erm, mess. I don't do well with anything that has to do with barf. The look of it, the smell, the warmth. Ack. I just gave myself an involuntary shiver. Quite a while back, I was forced to clean up the upper bunk of my boys' bunk bed in the middle of the night and then clean up the child that was sleeping in that bunk because my husband had the nerve to be working out of town. In a desperate moment, I discovered that a healthy swab of Vick's under my nose and dim lighting allowed me to manage the situation with nothing resembling aplomb, but at least with a minimum of heaving and shaking on my part. I'm not saying it's a perfect solution, because in a perfect world, there would be no vomiting. EVER. But it has worked for me.

I mention all of this so that if posting is light, you'll understand why.

It's because I'm out buying up all the Vick's I can get my hands on.