I'm back again!
Sad how slow I am but seriously. I'm not doing that bad with what little time I have.
I am so excited!! My new series for kids, the Arthur and Zita alphabet series, is starting! The first one, A is for Applesauce, is getting its final tweaking!
Did I tell you how excited I was!
I'm sitting here having my second breakfast - hey breakfast was over two hours ago and I only had one Eggo and one cup of coffee! Now I'm sitting here having toast and tea. Usually it would be just after I got all the kids on the bus - yay me! for those of you who don't know me and my kids this is a MAJOR accomplishment!
Today is a snow day.  No school.  So its still quiet.  One - nope, two (one is just making her appearance) girls are up. So while I won't get anything done today that requires concentration - Mom, I'm thirsty! Mom ---is bugging me!)take your pick, you won't be wrong they will ALL bug each other at some point today.  Or all points.
And yay for all the teachers who can stay home and relax too.  You guys work hard with all our kids, sometimes - no, most times doing more than your share from my experience.  And I have tons of experience with my kids! Enjoy your day!
About concentration.  I've decided my newest New Year's Resolution - whatever I don't get done, I refuse to feel guilty, or bad, or negative at all about.  I do what I have time for, and that's it.  I've got four kids, and if I'm not doing it for them, who am I doing it for? So I can't spend my life seeing how many books I can get out there while ignoring my family. Which sometimes I feel like I am. Easy to get obsessive. I love to write, but I love my family more.
Families are funny.  Things happen.  Things that give you story ideas - oops, sorry.  That's me being obsessive.
Last Sunday my two girls went out to play, Cassie and Hailey. Wasn't a lot of snow, but it was cold and icy. They were sliding across a little piece of ice and my husband was out too so he let the puppy out of her pen. Not so much a puppy anymore.  She's a German Shepherd, beautiful and almost full grown.  Well, Penny, the Shepherd, LOVES the kids.  Too much excitement.  She runs for them, slides across the ice, does everything in her power to stop, but can't.  Impossible.
So who does she run over? Poor Hailey, my six year old. Who still doesn't weigh 40 pounds.  How do I know? Because she was weighed at the hospital.  39 pounds.  My skinny little runt.
She comes rushing inside the house, carried by her father, followed by her sister.  Sobbing.  I can imagine the noise outside.
Before I forget, I'll let you know that poor Penny felt so bad she ran away and crouched, holding her paws over her nose and peeking her eyes over.  Poor thing.  I love German Shepherds, they have such big hearts.
Back to Hailey, the other poor thing.  She has a goose egg on her forehead.  I am not a nurse, so head injuries - yuck.  Terrify me.  Cassidy has had a couple of concussions, so I know some of the signs.  The pupils and throwing up.  That's when I decide if we make a trip to the hospital to get checked.
I calmed Hailey down (yay Moms!), her father, poor thing (this story should be called POOR THINGS!), tends to work the kids up instead of calming them down - We need to go to the hospital! Do you think they need stitches? DON'T LET HER GO TO SLEEP!
Seriously! Tell them nothing's wrong! That's it!
Hailey starts getting drowsy, making me nervous.  So I decide to give her a bath to perk her up.
It doesn't.  But it wakes her up.  Fighting with Mom always works.
She starts crying again - poor thing, her big goose egg hurts. By this time she's really crying, my sister-in-law, who lives right next door is over who happens to be a nurse LUCKY ME (trust me you have no idea how many times I have called her!) is with me, and what does Hailey do as soon as I have her all cleaned up?
She throws up.  A little, on her towel - yes I was fast enough and smart enough to avoid the mess.
Am I worried about concussion? Not so much.  Not yet.  She crying, upset, so she tends to throw up when she cries too hard.
My nurse checks her out.  Hangs around.  A few minutes later Hailey really throws up.  And not a little - everything she ate for the last week.  Unfortunately, I don't think eight of me would have been quick enough to avoid that mess.
So I cleaned.  Hailey too, poor thing. Not cleaned, I cleaned her up - I'm not that mean!
And my personal nurse checks Hailey's pupils again.  We look at each other.  She offers to go with me to the hospital. She loses either way.  Stuck with me in town, or home with two of my kids.  One is old enough to be home alone. He's fifteen.
I'm fine going myself.  I'm one of those sad people that like waiting at appointments in the waiting room.  Hey when do I get a chance to read in peace and quiet WITHOUT FEELING GUILTY? Because there's always something else I should be doing.
So I decline, but my husband decides to come.  Its not that I don't enjoy his company.  But I don't usually let him come to hospitals.  He gets more worked up than the kids, poor thing.
But I let him. I had Hailey's bag packed with colouring supplies and extra clothes.  Pj's.  A drink of apple juice. And we're gone.
We're in the hospital, just registering.  My husband is parking.  Hailey is on my knees.
What does she do? She vomits.  Poor thing. Last time she emptied a week of food, this time? The entire week before that.  Seriously. Most of it landed on the floor beside us. A little on her coat and pants.  That's okay right? We Moms are so smart.  I had clothes packed for her!
But what about me? When she leaned, she missed most of me. But what hit the floor rebounded, of course, coming back up to cover the bottom half of my pants.
Sigh.  What was I thinking.  Did I forget who was going to be holding the poor thing? Seriously!
That's okay.  The nice people at the hospital gave me a facecloth and a bathroom, so all was good again.
A few hours later, we're on our way home.  The doctor was wonderful. Very observant and let us know she did have a slight concussion, come back if anything changed or if I got nervous, but she would be fine.
He did worn us that she might throw up again, probably before we even got home, but not to worry.
Of course I worry.  I'm her Mom!
We made it all the way home without incident.  Pull into the driveway.
And proved the doctor right.  Yup.  All inside the van.  Poor thing.
So I took her in and cleaned her up.  That was the last of the symptoms of a concussion.  I kept her home from school for a few days and she's running like a madman all over the house.  The bruise is almost gone.
So this feeling that there's something wrong if I don't have this many books out by this time, I haven't written enough....Yeah, the kids will be grown soon enough.
Oh and the van? Right, that job was for hubby - poor thing!
Have a wonderful day all you poor things out there!