Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Unworking From Home.

I spent the better part of the day today not at work. Malone woke up with a goopy eye and a nose full of snot. I signed on for a few hours this morning to respond to some emails, check in with my bosses, and to coordinate coverage while Malone and Daddy had breakfast. One of the best parts of working from home full time, is well working from home after all.

Usually, Mike is on the hook for all of the sick kid days since he has 3.5 times more vacation, sick, and personal days than I do. But today, he is also out of commission with a wicked cold.

The sick day rules were in full effect. Malone stayed in his pajamas all day, the apple juice was free flowing, and Cailou was shown on demand. He had the best time.

I, on the other hand, struggled to remain present. I know I'm probably not the first mother (working or SHAM) to ever feel this way, but honestly there are just not enough hours in my day. And today I felt the compulsive need to clean, organize, and do laundry since I had the extra time available. I had to constantly reign myself back in from feeling like I was "wasting" it and instead focus on caring for and hanging out with Malone.

A visit to the doctor this afternoon revealed exactly what I was hoping would not be the case- pink eye aka conjunctivitis, aka a pain in the rear. Malone has to have 24 hours of eye drops in his system before he can return, lest he spread it to all of his carrier monkey friends at daycare.

So, at least I'll get to try again tomorrow.

I'm linking up today with Shell at Things I Can't Say.


15 comments:

  1. Aww, hope he's feeling better soon. And that you give yourself a break too ;)

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  2. :( Feel better soon, little man! Being sick bites.

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  3. Sounds like he had a pretty good sick day even if you didn't feel fully present. Hope he's on the mend soon!

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  4. Aww. I know what you mean. The constant pressure to keep the plates spinning vs being in the moment. For me that's a constant dance that sometimes I do gracefully and sometimes not :)

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  5. it is always there. And it is terrible. Oh how I long for the day where I can just spend the day being in the moment. But instead I wake up and immediately start thinking about all of the things that need to get done.

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  6. He had the best day at home. Now I'm on pink eye prevention so the rest of us don't get it.

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  7. Thanks! I'm going to schedule a "break" for this weekend. Girls night out is long over due!

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  8. Good luck with your second chance. But I am sure that if he has apple juice and Caliou, he is a happy camper no matter what!

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  9. Sick days are NO fun! Hope the eye drops work quickly!

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  10. As it turns out, I didn't get my second chance. I lead a team at work with another individual and she had to be at a seminar. Daddy saved the day and they had a blast!

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  11. You are right! It is a dance. I mean, I would love to lounge all day and just play but who would feed us or keep the laundry moving? After too long we'd be starving and naked because we'd have no clean clothes to wear.

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  12. He's back to his old self, thankfully. I don't think he noticed my struggle, thankfully.

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  13. Thanks! Thankfully, we're dealing with this rather than the stomach bug that is going around.

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  14. ahhh... I so feel you. It is hard when you know that "mothering" should be your job.

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  15. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one out there!

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