It’s only Thursday?!

It’s been a long week.  The type of week that drags on because either lots of little things pile up into one big thing, a few big things gather up into an avalanche, or it’s a combination of the two and the week feels like a mudslide.  It’s been a mudslide week for yours truly, a combination of little things and a couple of big things all making me feel like I’m dragging my feet through a series of days that will never end.

My son, almost four years old, breaks out in hives sometimes.  We have no idea why it happens.  They never seem to cause him discomfort when they appear, and go away within a few days to a week.  They’re just unpleasant to look at, and bother us more than they bother him.  This week, “us” came to also mean his preschool teachers and school nurse, who thought he was having a more serious outbreak.  It was my own fault.  I forgot to leave a note when I dropped him off saying we were aware of his hives outbreak, and the school felt they “discovered” something happening to him.  I’m glad they were so vigilant and on top of things, but it meant I had to make an impromptu visit to the pediatrician to secure a doctor’s note for his return to school.  And let me tell you, surprise doctor visits are never fun for anyone.

We were also experiencing car troubles, and not the inconvenient kind.  The kind where the brakes make funny noises, metal grinds on metal, and something starts rattling in the back wheel.  Car troubles are annoying, but when the brakes start making funny noises and your little boy is in the back seat, those troubles become damn near terrifying.  This week became an exercise in swapping cars back-and-forth with the local repair shop, figuring out who’s driving who to work or school, and hoping that nothing resulted in a major accident before we could get the cars fixed.  With some good timing and a little luck, we managed to get both cars repaired without incident.  That repair bill, though.  Oof.

The car troubles resulted in a lot of walking.  Walking done by me, to preschool and grocery shopping and the local repair shop, all with a little boy on my shoulders.  He loves riding on my shoulders and I’m going to let that happen for as long as I can.  My heart and soul are in this, but my back and shoulders are not.  My boy is not as light as he used to be, and walking 20-30 minute stretches with a forty-pound child leaning hard against my neck has taken its toll on me.  I am painfully sore from the neck down and the ankles up.

As you can see, it’s been a combination of little things and big things all mixing together to make this week feel like it’s going to last forever.  Thankfully, as of this writing, the hives are disappearing and the cars are safe to drive.  Less thankful am I for the strain on my back, my legs and my wallet this week.  Oof.

I will welcome the weekend, if it ever gets here.