The Black Plague

I love being a stay-at-home mom. There's not too much I miss about having a full-time job. One thing I can say I miss, however, are sick days. At my last job in Chicago, I had 12 sick days - that's SO many sick days! After a particularly difficult week in HR, my boss even offered to give me a "mental health day" to recuperate from the trying week we had. That is faaannn-tastic! When I used to get sick while working, I'd call in sick, lay in bed all day, watch TV or pop in a movie, sleep, take long baths, and just rest. Although I never relished being sick, it was always a time to rest and recoup back to full health.

Things are different with kids. We have recently had a plague go through the Black home. It started with the boys. All three of them got bacterial eye infections, and Obed also had an ear infection. Then Vince got said plague and (in his words) "just felt like doo-doo." I got said plague last week. I think one of the difficult things about being a parent is being sick. Even when you feel like doo-doo, you still have to work. I think every morning last week, we woke up and Vince said, "could we rent out the kids for just a day or two so we can rest?" I tried to explain to the boys that mommy and daddy needed a sick day, so if they could just sit quietly for 48 hours, it would be a tremendous help... they didn't seem to really get it.

The above picture is one of the days Vince had the plague. He was feeling lousy and trying to rest on the couch. The boys, being healed from their maladies, decided rather than letting daddy rest, it was much better to play hop-on-pop. And me, being the ever thoughtful, caring, compassionate wife that I am said "boys, you need to let daddy rest - he's not feeling well! But first, let me get the camera!"