Hmmmm...how quickly it turns

Remember that post this morning? The one where I ended it saying it was a good day? Yeah- that one. I remember it fondly because not too long after that, things took a turn. And not a good one.

The painted bird house: finished and not quite dry, my daughter insisted I add a rope and hang it up. Her first choice was a tree branch in the back yard. I hung it up and walked into the house to put things away and not even two seconds later, a nearly hysterical crying child was at my side. "What?!" I demanded asked. Apparently Master Kelton informed her that a bird house in the backyard meant lunch for Zip the cat. She couldn't abide with the thought that she would be responsible for a bird's death. Giving Kelton the evil eye only got be a "What?!?! You know I'm right." response.

*sigh*

I grabbed the stool and removed the tree house. Kaylen agreed to a tree branch in the front yard and after it was accomplished, she thought not a thought more about it.

Then came patching. Kaylen needs to patch her strong left eye so her weak right eye will step up and learn to do its share. She is already fighting losing sight in it so patching is ultra vital. We agreed that the day she got her new glasses, we would start. Today was that day...only.....she wanted no part of it. Sticking to my mommy guns, I wasn't backing down. It sucked because I really wanted to snatch her up in my arms and never have to deal with any of this. It's so not fair so when she screams that at me, I have no response but "You're right! It sucks and it's NOT fair!" I hate that we have to patch and deal with this but I'm going to hate it more if she loses her sight because I didn't do everything I could to prevent it.

It was an ugly half an hour. Kicking, screaming, crying, yelling "I can't see anything!" and me saying she didn't have a choice, explaining for the millionth time why we had to do it and if she really couldn't see anything (which I knew not to be true) I would call the eye doctor and get her in today. Nope- she didn't want that. Finally she agreed to 5 minutes. It was a tiny victory but I was taking it. With Kelton's help, I was able to get her involved in a puzzle book (passive activities are out when patching. She has to be actively engaged with something - her eyes and her hands - so puzzles, crafts, reading and computer work.) and Kelton and I worked her through 30 minutes. Miracle of miracles, she then agreed to 20 more. Not the two hours that is required but not bad for a first day when she was bound and determined not to do it.

I was mentally exhausted after that....and yet, still more of the day to come.

I took care of things and of small people even though every muscle in my body was screaming at me to stop and rest. For some reason, since the car accident, I have been plagued more days than not with nagging pain and aching muscles. All syrinx related. That's just life. Today was a bad day.

Later found me dealing with PTO stuff and other emails while I made dinner for the wee ones. Stephanie, bless her heart, surprised me by bringing dinner over tonight. I ate though I really wasn't hungry and was pretty disengaged. Exhaustion and pain consumed me.

After dinner Kelton started in on me about wanting to go and do something. We had no where to go, nothing that needed to be done, I felt awful and no money anyway so while he argued his case for almost 30 minutes, I got to sit there and feel crappy that he was unhappy. Such is life....yet again.

About that time, it was noticed that the pool had lost most of its water. Oh crap. Clearly the inflatable ring around it had a hole and while it was not completely deflated, it had lost enough air that the water had emptied out. Fan-freaking-tastic. I didn't have a clue where to start though I did recall a strange sound that happened this morning when Zip the cat was playing in the yard. Clearly his razor sharp claw had made contact.

Stephanie helped me find the hole (soooo tiny!) and then while she took her leave (she has been working very long hours for the past week), I patched it, reinflated, cleaned the muck out (a good time since there was less water to deal with) and then refilled the pool. During this time, Kaylen came squealing out of the house nearing hysteria* about a broken lamp. (*note: hysteria is common these days with her. Everything, and I mean everything, is a crisis.)

I took a deep breath while I fought back the urge to cry and scream with frustration. Surprisingly calmly, I asked what happened. She has been in the garage getting down the box of costumes when the box slipped from the shelf and crashed into the lamps that I had sitting out there waiting for a garage sale. One of the lamps shattered.

I calmly (I think I was too exhausted to be anything but removed from it all) said "It's ok. Did you get hurt? No? Good, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. Ok...I'll clean it up when I'm done here." and I continued to sift the pool water through the net.

I got the pool taken care of and I went in to deal with the broken lamp. Oh dear. It was everywhere. I felt numb as I cleaned it up. I'm thankful it wasn't a broken lamp all over the carpet in the house. With the zillion shards of ceramic, I'm pretty sure I would have had to call in the carpet cleaning raleigh nc specialists.

Clearly, I had had enough tonight. Yet there was more: still laundry to deal with and a dishwasher to unload.

Kaylen wanted help on the computer. Kelton wanted attention. I took care of everyone and everything and sat down for a few minutes. A text came through from a friend of mine and she gave me a website for Patch Pals. I looked it up on my phone and then I called Kaylen in and told her about it. She wanted to see! I pulled it up on the computer and we were both delighted to find a games section which is for kids to use while the do their daily "patch time"! She was very excited and wanted to go check it out. I held her off saying we would do it tomorrow while she was wearing her patch because that's the rule for the website. Suddenly she was making plans for patching first thing in the morning since her eye wouldn't be as tired and it wouldn't hurt as much (smart girl!). She even enlisted the help of Kelton to log her in as soon as she is awake.

On the site is also t-shirts, other patches and a book. She is really wanting to get some stuff. In the blink of an eye, patching went from a punishment to something really special. I don't know if this will hold true for long but at least I put a happy girl to bed tonight.

How could she not love the princess t-shirt? She squealed with delight!


After tucking them in, I crawled into my own bed with my laptop. I'm so tired right now that I have no clue how I am even still awake.

It's been a long, long, long day.