The story behind the painting (and my lack of communication!)

oh, yes, that is coffee by her bed

Various pre-ambles: How do mothers of many children ever actual sleep at night?  I've been up two nights this week and I have three children.  So, my basic math is telling me that my friends who have more than three children or children who are more sickly are up a lot at night.

I remember after an all-nighter in college trying to write a paper and describing the nature of that: "it's like the day there was no night."

And to all people who live with interrupted sleep (for mother reasons or other reasons), I'm thinking that there needs to be a "medical" excuse card that says, "i'm here in person but my mind is lonnnnnngggg gone."

But back to my specifics...
1. Mark took Daniel on a hike with students last weekend which was super dad of him.  But somewhere in that process, Daniel developed the worst bacterial infection that he's ever had.  Sunday night through the night and all of Monday was a pretty sad scene for Daniel with trips to the toilet every ten minutes and very painful accompanying stomach pains.  Daniel is prone to some drama, but not particularly due to illness/injury.  So, his "groans that words cannot express" and then  his words, "Why, why does it have to hurt so much? Why, why can't I just be better?, etc, etc" were pretty sad.  So, after a drive into Kampala with a stool sample and a "nice, nice" (the sort of sarcastic impressed "nice, nice") from a doctor who generally disregards most illnesses, I  had antibiotic in hand and was back to Daniel who was still stretched out on the couch coping with his misery with the distraction of Phineas and Ferb (comments on TV watching to come).  Anyway, three days off from school and Daniel is back to life as normal with perhaps a little more commitment to hand-washing (hope springs eternal).

2. The last few nights have also included some snuffilling of the girls but tonight was officially the sleepless night of Rachel with her cold.  This year she has had more "ear" problems related to her head colds and I will look into that this summer as Mark and I both have some "ear" history.  But I think ears may lead to the restlessness that just will not translate into sleep.  So, when in doubt, out of bed to the brown couch.  Try some cartoons, cereal, and bribery (tiny cup of chocolate chips) to take the "bad" medicine (chock full of sleep ingredient!).  So, here I am, trying to do one of my Friday tasks early.

Do I have any morals to make of this week of missed sleep...
1. Hats off to all who do manage life with regularly missed sleep!
2. I understand/respect people who don't do TV, but I couldn't be more grateful for it during times like this.
3. Seize the day!  I had procrastinated on some grading when Mark was at Sipi Falls with Daniel and I was so angry at myself when the sickness of the kids threw off much of my schedule and ability to get things done (on the night daniel was up, I did do grading!).
4. Mark is about to be travelling for 2 weeks... I can't tell if this is a mercy and the kids will be well or if this is just a warm up for "totally crazy/grumpy" Abby as I'm doing the teaching for the USP class, being super-mom (okay with the assistance of childcare), and praying like crazy that this touch of a cold and stomach problem that I've had low-grade will not progress. :)

P.S.: Mom, you asked if any Starbucks Vias would be helpful? Yes!!!! Somehow the instant nature of those is such a treat versus making a whole pot of coffee at 3 am.