Chaos

I keep dreaming about wind. Last night I dreamed that I was walking through a courtyard and it was very windy. Another woman was walking with a big purse that was hanging open and the wind suddenly filled up her purse and lifter her into the air like a hot air balloon.

The night before I dreamed that we were traveling and stopped at a little shack in the middle of nowhere. We were stuck there for 3 days because it was so windy that the dirt stirred up by the wind impeded visibility to the point that all nearby roads were closed.

I think the wind dreams are symbolic of the chaos that has taken over my life.

Work

It's busy. That's a good thing. I am much happier when I am busy. But it is hectic busy. And I'm still a little frustrated by the monotony of my job.

Home

My house is a mess. There are baskets of clean laundry all over my bedroom. The rest of the house is generally messy. Our nanny is supposed to supervise the kids' chores and perform light housekeeping tasks. She's been slacking. But she is going off to college soon and only has another 6 weeks with us.

I think that we have decided not to replacing her. The kids really don't need a lot of supervision these days. PS turns 13 soon and is very mature and responsible. The biggest challenge will be getting kids to their activities, but we will talk to the neighbor to see if she is interested in helping out with this.

The good news is that I am testing out a new housekeeper next week. Hopefully having someone come in every week will help with the house-mess chaos.

Kids (and dog)

Bob is doing great. He is already back to chasing bunnies in the yard and running up and down the stairs.

Speaking of stairs, TT broke her toe walking down the stairs. I've broken lots of toes and don't usually consider it a big deal. But she broke the big one and it was hugely swollen and bruised half-way down her foot. So I took her to the doc this morning who put some funky splint-thing on it, gave her crutches, told her not to put any weight on it, and referred us out to an ortho. (Yes, this is the kid who broke her arm and has only been out of the arm splint for 6 weeks.)

She thinks having crutches is super cool. But she doesn't get how much this is going to make the rest of her summer suck. The splint she has now can't get wet. So no pool. And we have a fully paid beach vacation scheduled in 3 weeks! And her birthday is next week. She's fully expecting a new bike and to go to the Big Amusement Park. So if she gets a bike, she won't be able to ride it for a month. That sounds like a sucky birthday. And she will be totally bummed if we can't go to the Big Amusement Park.

Finances

DH's employer started a crazy new insurance plan this year, and health care costs are insane. Oh how I miss my PPO. I don't think it would be so bad in a regular year, but with all of TT's issues this year, it's ugly. But at least next year we'll have a better idea of how much to contribute to our FSA. We way underfunded this year because we did not fully understand how this new plan would work (his employer automatically funded the FSA, but we blew through that by April). Not to mention the ginormous vet bill that we just got, compliments of Bob.

It's not debilitating, just not well planned for and adding more stress.

I just want my kids and my dog to be well and my house to be clean. Is that too much to ask?