Mr. Mom

My wife has been sick with flu like symptoms and perhaps something worse for the past week. It has gotten progressively worse as the days passed. Friday was just about ‘all she wrote.’ I wound up sending her to bed early and ordering Pizza. Saturday, when I got home from Men’s prayer I sent her to bed because she was looking even worse. it also meant that she could not attend a baby shower that she had been planning on going to. I knew we were in trouble when she did not resist too much. She changed into her nightgown right away (another “bad” sign). All of Saturday she was in the bed. She did not make it to church on Sunday. We did some major rearranging and other folks pitched in and our Sunday routine was not interrupted, just slightly modified….but things were looking grim for Monday.

She hinted toward the fact that I should probably stay at home on Monday–hmmmmm, she will usually do everything possible to make sure that I get to work. This was not good. I stayed home Monday and tried to keep the house in order….Cleaned the kitchen who knows how many times; got up early and got the kids breakfast (just cold cereal, but still an ordeal), read lots of books (to my youngest), played lots of games, Washed, dried and folded four loads of laundry (well, the washer and the dryer should get credit for doing their part, but I did have to get the detergent and softener in and empty the lint filter! Some things they just could not do). Then it was time for dinner. Dinner? Oh no! Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Didn’t take a thing out of the freezer to defrost but I still had options. I decided on Grilled Cheese and Chicken Noodle soup. My wife gave me a half hour break by watching a 1/2 hour video with the kids while I tended to the laundry and fixed dinner. The Grilled Cheese was a hit, but the Chicken Noodle soup went over like a 10 ton lead balloon. One of my favorites, but obviously not everyone else’s. I know they’re big on tomato soup and I usually don’t say anything when its served, but it never has been on my top 10 list of soups—and that list has never been full! Bed time for the kids was a welcome time of the evening.

My wife though is not your typical patient. Most people when they are sick really don’t care to be around people and just want to crawl into a hole and get better. I am one of those people, my wife is not and I have never been able to adjust to that. When she’s sick, she still wants to be around people. So…when she’s sick and I become (for lack of a better term) Mr. Mom, I think:

1) Keep the kids settled and quiet,

2)Keep the kids fed and happy,

3) Keep the kids from disturbing mom

4) Check on Mom periodically and make sure she’s OK,

5) When everyone is is in bed…breathe you’ll get some time back to yourself and get your sanity back.

Sometimes, if she is able, she tries to stay around the people while she’s sick or will want to try and do something after they had gone to bed. So, I have to readjust again because the time that I planned in my head winds up being hopelessly altered. But allowing for the fact that God is in control, I quickly change my plan to his—always a smart move, but it took me a long time to learn it.

Back to our chronology.

Monday night things were looking grim too. I made the decision to stay home on Tuesday so that she could go to the Dr. Even if she didn’t have to go to the Dr., It still would have been a wise move to stay home on Tuesday. Tuesday was going to be different! I think on Monday I was to hyper and trying to manage too much. But it was going to be a challenged because I was already weary!

Tuesday morning. Hey this is going to be a piece of cake, I thought. I popped right up out of bed and went into the bathroom for my shower—which I missed yesterday and by now I was feeling really grimy! Not again. Ahhhhh, that felt good. I started the day by making egg sandwiches for breakfast. Always a big hit in my house—–except for today of course. Strike one. I decided I’d get the schoolwork done early after jobs/chores were done. That part worked out well. My wife had her appointment made and all was going well. Lunch was interesting. I was getting tired and needed something hot to drink. So I decided on Hot Chocolate. Well EVERYBODY wanted hot chocolate. It became our lunch time appetizer. 🙂 Lunch was easy and we sailed right on through, but at some point the house got demolished! When did that happen. And wouldn’t you know, nobody did it!

They couldn’t blame it on the dog. She and I had our own “little thing” going on today. The dog honored me this morning with a huge we wet spot on the area rug in the (currently) spare bedroom. She was sentenced to a life outside for an hour or two, to see if she could figure out where she was supposed to go to the bathroom, and then spent a couple of hours inside, but locked up because I was still mad!. After a couple of hours, it was back to a life outside where she stayed once again so that she could figure out where she was supposed to go to the bathroom. Just before nap time I let her in so that she could once again socialize and be with the family. For some reason she steered clear of me!

Well they got the house straightened out and I didn’t lift a finger to help. My supervisory skill were excellent though! My wife arrived home from the Dr. Turns out that my wife is suffering from a sinus infection. That on top of her allergies and then some cold symptoms just makes everything a mess. The Dr. did prescribe an antibiotic. Hopefully the medication will help and I will be back to work (or is that vacation) on Wednesday. I had to come up with another creative meal so I looked in the drawer of the microwave cart (where we keep all of our menus and food coupons among the foils, bags and wraps) and located a menu for one of the local Chinese restaurants. I let my kids each pick a main dish (well not the 4 year old) and I picked one. The we had the big “problem” of trying to figure out what to have for our free dish! We opted for Shrimp Lo Mein. Only to find out that it had to be Chicken or pork Lo mein. so we went with the chicken. About 40 minutes later the delivery person came driving up over my driveway and onto my grass (I kid you not!) to deliver our food. God must have been working on me, becasue I was the determined that the only tip he was going to get was “don’t park on the customer’s lawn.” I gave him a few bucks, but not too many mind you. Turns out we had enough food for a small army. There’ll be leftovers for a few days.

Well, we made it to bed time again (Phew!) and this time my wife went to bed shortly after the kids. It looks like I’ll be home again tomorrow, just to make sure she doesn’t over do it (My wife? never!) while the medicine kicks in. It looks like I’ll be back to work on Thursday and life will be back to abnormal again. I must say though–in case it did not come through—I DO appreciate my wife and all that she does! I think I can handle this Mr. Mom stuff a couple times a year if I have to. 🙂