If there is a Guiness Record for Sucky Mom Moments, I win

I had kind of a sucky mom week.  My kids proved they are not quite responsible, which for some reason came as a surprise to me.  I pretty much lost it at one point.  For the first time in my parenting career, I yelled at my oldest child in a public place while other people looked on.  Then I drove away without that child because I was hopping mad (but returned a few minutes later).  After we drove home in silence [since when do I give the silent treatment?  Yowzers.], I relayed the whole situation to Ryan.  He told me to stop screaming and just dish out a punishment.  My breathing slowed and I turned to apologize for my behavior.  Luckily, I have the coolest teenage son in history, because he forgave me immediately and apologized for his own actions.

I also forgot to pay . . . oh . . . like 10 bills this month.  Including my mortgage payment.  Who forgets to make a mortgage payment?  Then I got a notice in the mail saying my account was overdrawn at one point.  How humiliating because I'm usually meticulous in my record keeping.

Soooo . . . I might be under a wee bit of stress.  I'm not functioning on all cylinders, but we are sure learning a lot during this trial.  Lesson learned this week:  I suck as a mom and house manager when my husband has cancer.

We did have some good moments this week.  Here are the main events:

There was a random couch on the side of the road while we were driving home from church.  I obviously thought this was a mandatory photo op.  The girls happily jumped out of the car to cozy up on some dirty cushions.  The boys were less than thrilled because strangely they saw no logic in the weird situation.  Boring boys.

I stocked up on supplies to survive the summer.  Four famished Ellefsen children, a daily assortment of ravished neighborhood kids, and one spoiled dog = a larger-than-usual SAMs Club trip.  Ouch - sticker shock.

One morning, Bella jumped inside this doll bed and refused to get out.  Instead of following me around the house like she usually does, she stayed put for an hour.  I giggled every time I came in the room and saw her tiny head poking out.

The third graders at the elementary each picked a historical character to represent in a "wax museum" this week.  They stood perfectly still until a parent would push a "button" on their hand, making them come to life and give a memorized speech about the person they were representing.  It was one of the cutest school activities I've ever seen.  Lindsey had told me she needed a Pocahontas costume, but the information got lost in my jumbled brain full of chemo medications/never-ending medical bills/end of school stress/college deadlines.  The day before the event, my neighbor asked about my plan for a costume.  After struggling to look like a decent mom who would never forget an important school activity, I stammered out something about a brown paper bag.  She told me that was unacceptable and she would take care of it.  That awesome neighbor bought material at a store and sewed together this whole costume in a couple hours.  She saved me from a world of embarrassment since all the other kids were properly costumed.

I attended Field Day with Logan yesterday.  My little Kindergarten graduate loved having me with him at school.  I got constant kisses and hugs as we ran around to each activity.

Why are temporary tattoos such a huge deal?  I think they are annoying, but I've given up on lecturing my kids about them.

Logan and TJ - best friends.

The girls both got their hair cut yesterday.  Brynlie has the THICKEST hair of all time.  The hair on the floor was all thinned out from her long locks, leaving it looking the same but much more manageable.

Ryan had a hard week.  He tried to go back to work on Monday, but got very dizzy in a meeting and ran to the bathroom to throw up.  After staggering back to his office, he fell asleep on his desk.  The terrible nausea lasted much of the week, but it looks like we are in a good stretch right now.  Besides the mouth sores, blurry eye site, irritated intestines and random heartburn, he is feeling pretty good.  He still needs to take at least one nap a day, but that is quite the improvement on the beginning of the week.  We are in the process of setting up a home office so he can get some work done without being exposed to all the illnesses in the office, since his immune system is now gone.

Ryan and I spent Wednesday at the Cancer Center.  All the blood tests came back with normal results, showing that the chemo is doing it's job so far.  We met with the radiation oncologist for a few hours and learned that Ryan will have a month of Monday-Friday radiation, beginning the end of July.  There are quite a few unpleasant side effects from radiation, including having his salivary glands temporarily damaged and having every food taste like copper for up to 7 months.  But we are excited to celebrate Ryan being cancer-free this fall!

I hit the town with some of my favorite girl friends last night, which was therapeutic for my current state.  Calmness has returned to my demeanor, and I'm hoping I don't make any more astronomical bad-mom moves this week.