Pity Party - invite only

It finally happened. I finally succumbed to the self-inflicted "Single Mom Pity Party". Still a bit embarrassed to actually admit it and call myself a "single mom" (shudder) I haven't stomped my feet too much. Until this week.


Christmas break is normally a restful time for teachers and a chance to get caught up on life. However, Christmas break for the DeJong girls usually means that one or both girls are sick for at least a portion of the vacation. This year was no exception.


Ellis started the very first day of vacation - Thursday - with the sniffles and a little cough-due-to-cold. My concern was for the family who were traveling to my home for Christmas. I didn't want her to pass on the cold to them. Her symptoms were so mild though that everyone was comfortable risking exposure and we carried on with our Christmas plans. Everyone left on Monday, and then on Tuesday morning... the wheels fell off.


Ellis woke up with thick green and yellow snot which seemed committed to it's exodus out of her body at all costs. Lots of wiping and blowing and by the end of the day it seemed to just taper into a normal head cold. Wednesday morning she woke up exceptionally emotional so she was strategically placed back in bed by 10:30 to sleep that off. After an hour and a half-ish nap that seemed to do the trick, she played with friends who had come over and just exhibited those same cold symptoms until... THE FEVER! Somewhere around 5:30p THE FEVER reared it's ugly head and has refused to leave ever since. It quickly became clear that this was not the benign "head cold" I originally diagnosed but the full-fledged FLU and I had just exposed my pregnant sister-in-law, her one-year-old son, and my chemotherapy treated mom to INFLUENZA!!!!!



I am not one of those naturopathic/holistic moms who tries to find alternative remedies for illness. I am not afraid to medicate my kids. Repeatedly. I have an arsenal of organized medications and I understand how much, how often and how to use each one skillfully. Long story short: Ellis has been medicated around the clock since Wednesday evening. The one time I got cocky and didn't keep up on it, she barfed because it got above 103 and then the chills ensued for a couple of hours while I begged her to take some Tylenol.


Needless to say, we are tired. Poor Logan had to, essentially, read to and put herself to bed last night. What a champ that girl is. She's not used to sleeping by herself because they have shared a room for years but she cowgirl'd up and didn't fuss at the fact that Ellis was sleeping with me. Raging fevers and vomit are the two tickets that reserve your spot in mom's bed.


So where is the pity party you ask? Not in sick kids because I have done sick kids by myself so much it's no big deal now. Not in the lack of sleep because I have learned to function pretty well on little sleep. Not even in the fact that I have been holed up in my house for 5 days because I truly consider it a blessing to even have kids to care for.


The PITY PARTY started last night when I realized I would probably have to cancel my hair appointment this morning and our new year's plans tomorrow night. I waited until the last possible moment to cancel the hair appointment in hopes that she would turn a miraculous corner and would be O.K. to stay with a sitter. It was not to be (sniff... tear falling). I am still hopeful that today will be the last day of this madness and we will be able to attend the New Year's festivities. If not, the PITY PARTY will continue but we will add a ball dropping and some noise makers.


Being a single mom (wince, shudder) is hard. That's just a fact and you deal with it and it is what it is. Not being able to go to the store to get pudding, the only thing your sick kid wants, and having to cancel a 3 hour hair appointment an hour before you are supposed to be there and not being able to shop for your 6-year-old's birthday because there is no one else to watch your sick kid is frustrating, infuriating, and resentment building. Guess I better take this one back to the Cross... again. PITY PARTY officially cancelled.

The first snow?

With rumors of pending snow all week I wasn't horribly surprised to wake up and see some today, although a pretty feeble attempt. Growing up in Pullman we were used to major dumps that actually stuck and stayed around creating a real winter. Drifts were the only thing that even threatened a normal school day. As long as there was no drifting, you were expected to be at school - ON TIME. It wasn't until I moved to the Tri-Cities during the infamous Winter of '92 that I heard of a 2-hour delay. BRILLIANT!

So after rushing through their pancakes and wasting most of what I made, the girls donned their winter gear and headed out to play in the snow. No need for snow pants today so I didn't mention and they didn't ask.

Of course, there wasn't much more than a cute little dusting but the thrill of that and the big flakes was enough to occupy them for 20 minutes or so.

I am one of those rare Tri-Citians who look forward to several inches of sticking snow. It is beautiful, peaceful and seasonal - winter. I might even be a "snow snob". So, while I really just consider what we got today as "white rain", my kids loved it and I can delight in that for now :)

Dance Teams

After sitting in the frigid wind and watching Kennewick beat up on Southridge today, the girls and I stayed to watch the dance team before we headed home at the half. Logan paid watched intently, wondered why there were only 8 girls on the team, and took mental notes. She had remarked several times about the football teams' colors: the orange team and the white team. While I dismissed the remarks and questions at the time, it turned out to be one more thing for the enormous file cabinet in her head. After dinner tonight the girls put on dress up clothes. Ellis was in blue and Logan in black: the blue team and the black team. Logan put the Eeyore blanket on the floor as a divider for the teams and told Ellis to stay on her side to dance. Big shocker... Ellis wouldn't stay on her side. This enfuriated Logan because Ellis wasn't following the rules. She refused to dance and said they would never be able to do ballet again and this day was ruined. This video captures some of her emotional outpouring although you can't hear her very well. See high quality video here: Dance Teams

Yucky Spit

11:37p - "Moooommmyyyyyy?!" (mom enters room) "I feel like I'm gonna throw up."

Normally, this would be cause for panic and a mad dash to the bathroom. However, being the planner that I am, I keep a barf bucket underneath each girl's bed for situations such as this.

I calmly reached under her bed - nothing. I quickly reach across under Logan's bed. Nothing but a duffle bag. They had removed the buckets to use them for stuffed animal vehicles and they were both across the house in the play room. In my new-found panic, I grab the duffle bag just as Ellis begins the first cough. Returning to sanity, I drop the duffle bag and grab my 3-year-old, holding her out like a poopy baby, and SPRINT to the nearest bathroom.

Normally, this would create a trail of Stinkiness of the Worst Kind but somehow God was gracious and kept said stinkiness pent up until we reached the toilet.

The problem was (don't call CPS) she was excused from the dinner table after eating one crescent roll because she wouldnt eat her soup and kept playing with it. I was confident that she wouldn't enter starvation mode over night so I made a point about gratitude for our abundance by allowing her to be hungry.

Well, now fast forward 6 hours and she has nothing to eliminate from her stomach. What ensued for the next two hours was nothing short of an abdominal workout for my sweet Eips. At one point she asked if this would "stop before she died". I assured her that it would but that all of the sick had to get out first.

After 45 minutes in the bathroom with purges at 5-10 minute intervals, I realized this wasn't even close to being over. We migrated to the living room where I set up a "sick bed" on the floor and put in our favorite sick movie, "Elmo in Grouchland." After an hour of 5-10 minute episodes, they subsided to a whopping 15-20 minute spacings for the second Hour of Power. Eventually, after about 2 1/2 hours, she fell asleep... for 20 minutes and then it started again.

Somewhere around 2:30, she fell asleep again but this time it was for a true rest. I joined her on the floor manning the bucket - just in case. When her eyes opened at 3:30 I suggested we move to my bed (which I had already lined with quilts). She informed me that she "needed to get tired again so she could close her eyes". While we waited for that to happen, the Star of the Evening made one more appearance and then E dozed off to sleep around 4:00a.

"Finally," I thought, "I can get some rest." And I did. Then the clock struck 4:30a and Ellis started her infamous "moan". She is, quite possibly, the loudest child sleeper on the planet. She takes in a deep breath and then lets it out in an audible, loud, moooooooaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn. Over and over and over and over. I think she may have taken a moaning break for about 20 minutes between 4:30 and 6:45, when she woke up for good.

Needless to say, we are both tired. Logan, however, slept like a baby. She didn't have a clue any of this had gone on and was questioning me this morning about why I 'grabbed Ellis out of bed last night'. I should also mention that the ONLY yucky spit I had to clean up from the entire escapade was a tiny remnant on her fitted sheet from the initial cough. Other than that, she made it into the proper receptacle every single time!

I am praying that Logan and I can escape the wrath of this G.I. virus. It is dramatic, relentless and unkind. I am just sooooo thankful that it is happening on the 3-day weekend and not in the middle of the week or when I have new students starting the next day. Although we had big plans for this weekend and the girls are highly disappointed that it is all postponed, I am grateful that it's just a tummy virus and this, too, shall pass. .......... Oh, and the buckets are back under the bed :)

Toothbrush Trauma

Since Logan tested positive for strep I decided to heed the advice of a nurse-friend and throw away all of the toothbrushes in the house. This meant an exciting trip to the store to buy new ones, right? Not so, for Logan. The mere suggestion that we would be throwing away even one toothbrush, much less ALL of them sent her into a panic.

On the way to the store to buy new toothbrushes the tears started. A bit of a hoarder, Logan has a hard time parting with anything and these "strep-y" toothbrushes were special. Never mind the fact that she could be spreading strep to the rest of us, to send her beloved toothbrushes to the landfill was intolerable. After proclaiming the uniqueness and affection for each toothbrush, she then raised her voice and, through the tears shouted, "This is the WORST DAY EVER!" I assured her that we would honor the old toothbrushes with a special ceremony and would say a blessing over them.

Fast foward 4 hours to teeth brushing time. I had the girls each take their old toothbrushes (all 6 of them) and place them in the trash can. Then, as I helped them open the new packages of toothbrushes, Logan reminded me... "I thought we were going to say a blessing." Sooooo..... we had to stop the teeth brushing, gather around the trash can and thank God for sending those toothbrushes and for the work they accomplished during their time in our home. Amen.

THEN! After the teeth were adequately brushed and I had finished cleaning out the drawer dividers that housed the old ones, Ellis reached for a clorox wipe to clean off her frothy mouth. I grabbed it quickly and said, "No honey - those are for counters." She didn't miss a beat replying, "I'm a counter!" (get it? 1...2...3...4...) Yes you are, E, yes you are.