Never a dull moment around here.
Studies show that parents of more than 4 children are happier than parents with fewer kids. Researchers speculate it’s because parents of large broods get accustomed to a level of chaos that would cripple other people.
In other words, if I’m not in the ER, it’s a good day.
So yesterday I spent most of the day at Children’s Hospital.
Last weekend my oldest son, who has never broken a bone or had an ER visit, shattered his finger in 3 places catching a football.
The surgery went perfectly, and the surgeon put the pieces of his pinky back together without even making an incision.
This is important for a guitar player, because it will mean less scar tissue and stiffness.
The most stressful part about the experience was sitting and listening to a toddler in the neighboring recovery room scream for a half hour after waking from anesthesia.
My nerves were thoroughly shot after that and I was ready to nestle down in bed with a bottle of three buck chuck and a large bar of dark chocolate.
My son is fine, although it will suck that for the next 4 weeks or so, his guitar playing will be seriously handicapped.
While we were in the hospital, there was a tornado warning. (Not a watch, a warning. The thing ripped a roof off a gas station near my home.)
We had to be relocated from the room we were in to another one … that had no windows. Lights flickered, the cable went out (thankfully, it came back on soon enough for us to find out if Mariska Hargitay nailed the perp in Law & Order, or I would have been really ticked).
Thankfully, I have some practice doing hospitals and know how to survive the experience.
And before THAT, we spotted a coyote, limping around with a broken leg, in our backyard.
See him there, to the left of the swing set?
I called 911, who told me to call the Department of Natural Resources, claiming that Animal Control wouldn’t respond to a call about a coyote, who then had me call yet another government office after asking if it was a “large mammal or a small mammal”.
(Huh? It’s a coyote. Don’t you know how large a coyote is, responsible-government-person-in-charge? It’s larger than a bread basket, but smaller than an elephant.)
Did I mention the coyote had a broken leg? So it was in pain, and hobbling around my swing set in broad daylight, which is unnatural behavior for these animals.
They suggested that if I had a crossbow, I could go ahead and put the animal out of its misery.
Darn, I just loaned my crossbow to a neighbor.
(insert rolling eyes emoji)
So.
Broken bones, tornadoes, coyotes… another day in the life.
My kind of day – not the kind I look forward to having but the kind that seem to like having me. We have 9 kids – ages 17 months to 20 years and we have had so many days just like this!!
The last one: the big heavy dining room bench that holds 5-6 kids fell on my 3 year olds foot. It swelled so much I was sure it was broken (we’ve had 8 prior broken bones). Of course, this was on a day that my husband had my van – we live 45 minutes away from town down winding mountain roads. AND there were multiple trees fallen on the roads from the wind.
My 15 year old managed to find a neighbor that could drive us in and even had an extra car seat since ours was in the van. That neighbor had a policeman husband that knew the trees were almost off the road. Neighbor drove us in while 14 and 15 year olds stayed with the rest of the kids. And, to top it off, we had a power outage from shortly after I left with 3 year old til almost littles bedtime at 7:30.
Just another “normal” day here!
So, while I’m sure your day wasn’t funny, I had to chuckle a bit. I totally understand!
@Rebecca – oh no, poor guy, that had to have hurt. So his foot wasn’t broken?
Oops forgot that part. It wasn’t broken – just really horribly bruised and swollen. She couldn’t walk on it for 3 days and then limped for another week. I have never seen such a badly bruised and swollen foot that wasn’t broken. SO SO glad it wasn’t though – only a week later, we got our first snow and I can’t even imagine what it would have been like trying to keep her entertained and happy when everyone was outside playing in it!
Will your son need to get anything else done to fix his finger? So glad it will heal completely!
Found your blog through an old MissMinimalist post you did awhile back. Really enjoying your blog! Nice to find another homeschooling mom with lots of kids that tries to keep things simple and minimal.
LOL RE coyote and the government people.
RE weather: I just saw a low of EIGHTEEN DEGREES predicted here in about 5 days. !!! After such a warm fall. So maybe, no more tornadoes this yr for the Atlanta area? 😉