A Wonderful Weekend

Having clawed my way to Friday last week, I felt certain that I was almost at deaths door. The illness that I reported last Tuesday had worsened throughout the week, despite my best efforts to fight it, including various types of Echinacea and the highly raved about ‘hot toddy’, which by the way I would not recommend as the combination of whiskey, hot water, sugar and lemon can only be described as foul!

So I gave up. I cancelled all of my Friday and Saturday clients and prepared to batten down the hatches with Louis.

By 4pm on Friday we were both in our pyjamas with a fire roaring and suitable rubbish on the television.

Saturday was made up mostly of watching trashy tv from my bed, with me sneaking in the occasional snooze whilst Louis played Lego. For the evening we set up in the lounge, with pizzas and duvets, ready for a fix of Strictly. All the glitter and glitz did wonders for my recuperation, but I think I should particularly thank Russell Grant... well they do say laughter is the best form of medicine, and boy did he make me laugh! Second to Jason Donovan, who still holds  a special place in my heart from the days when he married Charlene and sang Especially For You, Russell is who I most look forward to seeing dance. His pure delight at being a part of Strictly should be bottled and sold, and his face as he twirled around, Flavia in arms, to Dancing Queen was the best sort of tonic for feeling very sorry for myself in my poorly state!

Feeling much better with remnants of the joys of Strictly and a dose of Glee hanging around me from the previous night , Sunday was another lazy day for the two of us. Still in our pyjamas, we spent a lovely day doing a spot of colouring with Louis commenting,

                ‘Mummy, you are so clever for doing it so neatly. You never go over the lines or anything.’

Praise indeed, me thinks, this may elevate me to super star status as colouring is Louis’ new favourite thing to do!

Although there is really nothing exciting to report about our weekend, it has to be said it was just wonderful. Despite being ill, it was great to just hang out with my boy, lazing around between cuddles and colouring... I’d gladly suffer some more sniffles and sneezes for some more happy days like those!

A Poorly Girl

Having made a full recovery from yesterday’s illness, Louis went merrily back to school today.

I, however, have clearly had a visit from the Pixies of Poor Health during the night who seem to have shoved sand paper down my throat and played the drums in my head! To summarise; I feel ill!

I am certain that my feeling ill is largely responsible for the fact that I also feel very down in the dumps today.

I often measure my days and life in general by a feeling of winning or losing. Today is a losing day.

Not only do I feel unwell and therefore very sorry for myself but my mail this morning seems to have consisted only of (large) bills. Having checked my bank account, I seem to be haemorrhaging money so fast that if it were blood I would certainly need an emergency transfusion. Unfortunately there is no such solution when it comes to financial bleeding. I remind myself constantly that there are people far worse off than Louis and I, but today, it does little in making me feel better.

Today I am lonely.

Today I feel sad.

Today I want a cuddle.

What do you do when you want to get off the ever turning roundabout that is life? Nothing, I suppose!

Having felt like this many times before in my career as a single Mother, I do at least have the comfort that this feeling is just temporary and that with a good night’s sleep  probably aided by a large G and T, I will likely feel more positive about things tomorrow. It’s just that today, even the idea of feeling better tomorrow seems like it will require way more effort than I am willing to give.

Maybe I could take a sick day from life? Ha, if only!

Ps. If I sound like an alcoholic depressive, this is certainly not the case (at least, not every day!)

A Poorly Boy

Let me just tell you a little about my morning so far…

I was awoken just after 6am by a very whiny boy telling me that he didn’t want to go to school as he had a poorly tummy. Me being the unsympathetic Mother that I am, replied with, ‘You are going to school Louis because I have to go to work.’ Then promptly snoozed my alarm and fell back to sleep.

Waking for the second time with a jump panicking because I shouldn’t have actually been sleeping again, I suddenly realize that Louis is downstairs screaming for me from the toilet. Jump out of bed and run downstairs,

‘Coming Louis!’

‘Mummy, I’ve been calling you for ages!’

‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you.’ Missed out the ‘because, I am an irresponsible parent who fell back to sleep!’

Needless to say, he does indeed have a poorly tummy and in-between 3 changes of pyjama bottoms and at least 5 trips to the toilet, I have managed to cancel all my clients… again! (He was off school two weeks ago with a very nasty cough and temperature).

It goes without saying that my child’s health is number one priority but when you are the only person bringing in a wage and with the ‘you don’t work you don’t get paid’ problem of self employment, I do feel that it does mean I am slightly devoid of the sympathy factor.

Oh and then just one more, tiny thing…. On our last trip to the toilet just a short while ago, Louis was bent over waiting for me to check he’d done a good job wiping, and innocently asks;

‘Mummy, how do you make a baby?’

I think today may be, in technical parenting terms, ‘challenging’ or in other words, ‘in need of wine at the end of it!’

And it’s only Monday…