Super Mom ( and Dad) is (are) Back

Well, when you seek;you will find, ask; you shall receive. God is so good. What a week.

Last Sunday, we sat as a family and came up with a week plan. Lately, almost always, the kids wait for mom to help, wait for mom to answer, wait for mom to solve, wait for mom to act, etc.

Phas been feeling down about all this. He is quite capable but the kids bypass him. We met as a family on Sunday and filled out the weeks events, etc. It was going to be a complicated week and very busy. P and I first had a good 1.5 hour talk to see how we could help each other and help the kids to seek him out as well.

We set "office" hours for help with homework. This was to encourage the kids to seek out dad as well as mom for those must need help times. We planned the meals and each of the older kids picked a night they'd be in charge. We outsourced "babysitting" for K and C for the the mornings and afternoons I had meetings so the older ones were free of distractions to get their homeowork done. We confirmed that Dad and Mom were going to go visit a family counselor on Thursday to begin an 8 session family counseling counselor. Dynamics have been off and we felt a neutral person to step in and let us explore how normal we are and how if we all just thought a little less self we'd be just fine.

Sunday, P and I prayed for strength for the week. ( seek and find part, ask and receive)

On Monday, I had to take a half a day to get Maria in for some dental work. (Plan already off course.) I get to school to find out a student doesn't know it's his last day and I need to figure out a way to support him and let him know and let the class say goodbye. Nick who was experiencing a cold over the weekend called at the end of the school day and said... "mom, I feel horrible... please come get me" "Pack up K and C, no work to be done today after school."

Dinner was ready and on time that night thanks to the prep work of Maria.

Tuesday, N is sick. He's miserable starting to cough and wheeze. Bills are due and new bills come in. Somehow our insurance thought that they didn't need to pay 4 different people over $4,000 of N's extra expenses this summer, ultra sounds, x rays, anesthesiologist. I grin and bare it and call all them and the insurance with assurance that it will be taken care of. I get to A's football game for 10 minutes. Enough for him to wave and see that I showed up. Take the rest to violin lessons, make sure N is being taken care of. The kids that went to violin are praised for the great work they did this past week. In the Suzuki method this is translated to "good work, Mom" P has dinner ready when we all get home and settles in for office hours.

Nk starts getting worse. Fever, cough, asthma , every two hours needing treatments. By midnight I'm convinced it is pneumonia not just asthma. 4 a.m. Pl takes him to the ER. The mom in me wants to take him but Paul loving looks at me and says, "please I need to do this. They need to know Dad can do this too." God love him. Of course, I had to wake him at 4 a.m. to tell him N was sick.

Long story short, N was admitted to the hospital by 7 a.m. We just got him home 4 hours ago. (4 day stay)

The rest of the week's plans were shot but wow how amazing. Everyone, including K and C knew how complicated the week was and everyone, pitched in to make sure Mom or Dad could do their share of helping Nick and being the single parent for the others. We only ordered pizza once and the rest was provided by our preparedness and cooperation.

I did have a hissy fit Wednesday night before I left for the hospital but we survived. The family counselor, somewhat skeptical about reason for cancelling, said please call next week and reschedule. I will, but this time, I think I will be excited to have great news to share about how we can pull off caring for each other and I think the kids will have some fresh memories of how "family" is so important.

I played Old Maid with K and C for an hour tonight. I then announced, " I played for an hour, this supermom is going to sit her bottom in the bathtub with a book" I locked the door and took a 20 minute bath with no interuptions. (Andy is at a friends, Maria is at my parents, P read to the girls and N is too busy watching t.v.)

What a crazy week and so will be the next but God saw us looking and once again all we needed was provided. He is so good.