Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hard Night, Hard Morning

Remind me now....which medicine is it that you're supposed to take for "sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so-you-can-rest"? I need some.

I've been feeling this illness creeping up on me for a couple days. My first thought was that maybe it was allergies, so I took a sample Zyrtec and felt better. The next day I took another one and sort of felt better. And the third day it didn't help a bit. The fourth day I took a Claritin, which also didn't help a bit. and last night I took a sudafed, which also didn't help.

It was one of those nights where, if you want to sleep on your side, you need a small towel to catch the drip-drip-dripping of your nose. I might have been able to deal with that, if I hadn't started sneezing and sneezing and sneezing some more!

Eventually I realized that if I slept on my back on a fluffier pillow than usual, the snot stayed in my head (where it belongs?!) and I was able to sleep, even though this is not my preferred sleeping position.

This morning I woke up dark-and-early to get my two elementary school kiddos up. Izzy man has really been giving me a run for my money in the mornings lately. He doesn't want to get up, and is really, really causing my mornings to be very frustrating. I'm almost always doing the morning shift alone, so it's not like I can get my husband to put a spring in his step. Since I have at least one other child waking up at the same time, I don't really have the luxury of focusing on one reluctant riser.

So, we had a pretty ugly scene in his room this morning, and eventually I told him to just stay in his room. (Which of course then he didn't want to do. Too bad.) I do not want to spend my mornings fighting with my children.

For the last couple of years they really loved to go to school and would bounce out of bed every day. This year neither of them seems happy. There are probably at least a couple homeschoolers reading this right now, thinking that I should be homeschooling these kiddos. I've considered that, but really feel that everyone's best interests will be served by the arrangement we have in place for this school year.

So, what do you suppose is a good way for me to help this child turn his behavior around so that he can wake up like a civilized person? He has no trouble being an early riser on Saturdays or Sundays, and he goes to bed early enough to get plenty of rest, so I don't think he's too tired to get up.

So, what's on my agenda for today? Figuring out what to do about my wayward first grader :), keeping an eye on our lame chicken, trying to figure out what I can take or do to help myself feel better, try to get through a full day's schedule of homeschooling, hopefully get a nap. Try not to be jealous, gals.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I?'m sorry you don't feel well. Chicken soup for you and a Netflix movie! I think that you are making a good decision with the kids. I was home schooled after 5th grade and it was good for me because I was very quiet and bookish. I'm not sure if all personalities agree with that situation though. Also, a friend of mine was having some trouble with her daughter over this. She wanted to be home schooled and then every time her mom "irritated" her she wanted to go back to public school! You can keep some of the kids happy some of the time, but you can't keep all of the kids happy all of the time. :)

Anne said...

Isn't being a mother fun sometimes? :) My DD is in first-grade now too and the first couple mornings went well... but now? What you wrote describes my situation also! This morning was the worst! So, I'll sit back and see if you get any good comments with ideas that I can use also!

Dollymama said...

Hey Kat,

I didn't have any Netflix on hand for myself, but thankfully some arrived for the kids. One was a movie about Native American Indians, which I had ordered as a supplement to what they are doing in school. So, we got to have that instead of some of our school, which was helpful.

You are very right that you can't keep all of the kids happy all of the time. Well, actually..sometimes we succeed in short bursts.

Anne, the only thing I have thought of so far is to either wake him up way early so that he has plenty of time to wake up and get his act together, or to use some sort of incentive.

One morning sanity saver I already use is that I dress the kids in their school clothes before they go to bed. They wear soft cotton clothing all the time, so they are plenty comfy to rest all night. When they wake up all we have to do is put on shoes, take care of personal hygiene, and eat. It helps!