Weekend Weigh-Down

Thanks to a snowy, icy storm yesterday we ended up with a last-minute three-day weekend.  You'd think that would have taken the edge off and helped me have a more productive, lower-stress weekend, but the jury's still out.  I'm going through another drive on the struggle bus right now.  These phases seem to crop up every month or two, where I'm just completely overwhelmed by typical everyday stuff.  Dumb things like picking dinners, cleaning the house, keeping the kids apart and occupied, or even just getting off the couch some nights to get Carter in bed, can be overwhelming.  Usually the feeling just lasts a day or three, at least at its worst.  Sometimes I wonder if there's more to it than just being a little extra tired or anxious, but I honestly don't know.  Not sure I'm ready to face that down just yet.

Yesterday should have been a nice bonus day, but after a brisk morning shoveling stint, I did a little work and then got sleepy.  I tried to rest on the couch but of course the boys had to be crazy, so that really didn't work and only left me agitated.  I tried to perk myself up after lunch with limited success, but all I managed was a little more work and finishing off the day with a marathon bag-folding session for a work mailing (I worked a half day, essentially).  Then I couldn't figure out what to do for dinner.  I felt like the day was a failure because I was exhausted and didn't really make the most of the time with the boys.  We didn't even go outside to explore the slightly-iced-over (then buried by snow) landscape.  Long story short, it wasn't a great day.

Today was a bit better, mostly because I had enough energy to push through and tackle a task that I was struggling with having it standing between me and next weekend's birthday party--cleaning the kitchen floor.  I vacuum it reasonably often (though not enough) and Wet Swiffer it when there are visible stains, but really scrubbing it is a pain and I don't do it often.  I knew it had to be done before the party (the Wet Swiffer didn't cut it), but the thought of it was overwhelming--almost to the point that even without specifically pinpointing that as a to-do task yesterday, it was paralyzing me anyway.  I had to do it and didn't want it hanging there as an evening task, so it had to happen this weekend.  But of course, then I decided that the build-up of dust and crap on the floor behind and next to the fridge were making me crazy.  Isn't that always how it happens, though?  One task leads to another that leads to another, and so on.  It's like the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" books.  I saw a similar meme yesterday that essentially explains how it usually works for a mom with having one task morph into another over and over, including the end result being that you never actually did the task you originally set out to do.  Luckily this one didn't sidetrack me since it was part of the bigger task, but 10 years' worth (or more?) of dust and spilled candy, nuts, and pasta made for quite the cleanup and it probably did tire me out more than I would have liked.

Getting that done was a relief, but I still have a lot to accomplish over the next week--more cleaning, decluttering, last minute vacuuming, food planning, and gift buying.  Not to mention that we haven't figured out the cake yet and I also have some Valentine's matters to take care of.  I'm going to have to be productive, so hopefully I don't have another mental or physical obstacle to contend with.  My latest cold seems to be subsiding.  I'm down to a few noseblowings a day, and my cough is much better.  Carter seems to have had the same sort of cold and his cough is hanging in there, but he seems mostly better, as well.  Everything is going around, though--including this stupid Coronavirus--so nothing ever feels comfortable this time of year.  When I see all of the "sick" references in my daily Facebook memories, I know it's common enough this time of year to make things difficult without warning.

Speaking of health, it's hard to believe we're coming up on the anniversary of Carter's tonsil surgery.  In case you're wondering, the apnea seems better but I don't think he's sleeping much more soundly--I think he still thrashes a lot and we are still having a night wetting issue, which will be an important thing to bring up with his doctor.  It still seems weird to me that it wasn't an issue for at least a year until last fall.  Since the surgery didn't fix it, I'm concerned with what's causing it.  It didn't seem to be a diabetic issue based on testing done last year, so I guess that's comforting, but it still seems odd to me.  At one point it seemed like the strep antibiotics fixed it, but it restarted after the surgery, somewhere around the time the antibiotics finished up, but possibly just before if I recall correctly.  It's causing some teasing/confidence issues now so if there's a way to fix it, that would be helpful.

I still have all of the house fixing issues to figure out, and we're having an impossible time picking a time of year to try to go to Disney, so I have all of that stuff still hanging in there, too.  You'd think that just getting it all done would ease that part of the stress, but I guess when you're already overwhelmed, it's harder than it seems.  This week has enough for itself, as do most.  So much to think about...so wish me luck for Sunday.