sick.

:: photo found here ::

Why is it my kids always get sick on a day when I have a lot of stuff to do?  They never get sick on days when there's no school and nothing to do.  No, they save it up and wait for a crazy day when the last thing you need is a sick kid.

It's like clockwork really.  Almost as if there little immune system is controlled by the devil himself.

"Ah, ha!  She has a jam-packed day today.  What a perfect day for a sore throat and low-grade fever! Bawahaaaaaa! (i.e., evil laughter.)"

I jinxed myself yesterday.  I told the Golfer, "I have so much going on this week!  It's going to be sooooo busy!"

And that's all it took.  By 5 o'clock the Cheese started looking pitiful.  He sat on the couch for hours just...sitting.  8 year old boys don't sit for hours unless they don't feel good.  Then he went to bed at 7:30, only to wake 3 hours later crying because of a headache.  Then this morning, lymph nodes in his neck the size of golf balls.  Which only means one thing: I had to get on the phone and start canceling my day.

I feel badly for my sick boy, no mother ever wants their child to be sick, but more than anything I just feel irritated.  I'm a planner and as planners are known to do, I plan my days out weeks in advance.  And when something throws a wrench in my plans and causes me to have to rearrange, well, Mama tends to get a little stressed.  And then after the stress comes the guilt.  Guilt that I had to cancel my appointments.  Guilt that I had to cancel my plans.  Guilt that I was irritated that it's all my kid's fault.

A girlfriend of mine went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago.  Her kid got sick causing her to cancel a hair appointment that she had waited weeks for.  She was irritated, which made her feel guilty, which only irritated her further.  It's a vicious, vicious cycle.  Just further proof that motherhood isn't for wussies.

Mothers do some of their best work when children are sick.  We endure the vomit, the mucus, the snot.  We force them to drink all of their medicine even through their tears.  We can change bed sheets in the dark, we can diagnose a fever from a mile away, and we always have Gatorade and Jello on hand...just in case.

After all, that's what motherhood is all about.

So here I sit after rearranging my day, keeping my fingers crossed that this germ bug doesn't make it's way to everyone else in the family, especially all the way to me.

Because I just don't have time for that.