Yesterday was my first day back to work/school after our two week Christmas break. We got the week before Christmas and then the week after Christmas off. But that also means we are back soooo early in January! I am worried that going back so early is going to make January feel like it lasts an eternity!
Christmas break was actually pretty tough for me this year. As a teacher, it’s really exciting to look forward to breaks! Until I realize that I still have my other full time job: being a Mom. And Theo doesn’t get time off from his job during the holidays. He just has his “weekends” off, and those weekends happen to fall in the middle of the week. So Theo ended up working all Christmas weekend and all New Year’s weekend, which was just bummer hard for me.
On top of all that, I was sick 100% of the break. I crashed so hard the first weekend of break and just never really recovered until they day before we went back to school. It was so discouraging and I just kept apologizing to my kids that we I was so sorry we were unable to do anything fun.
But here’s a little glance at what we did do..
We kicked off break with going out to eat at a new local pizza place! They have those fun heated outdoor dome things, but unfortunately said we needed a reservation, which we didn’t have. But we enjoyed our pizza inside greatly and then headed home to crash on the couch to watch a movie!
The next day I pretty much just parked on the couch and snuggled kittens all.day.long. I was SO tired. This also should have been a giant warning sign of the fact that I was getting sick. It didn’t help that I went that morning and took my pregnancy glucose test. As someone who has struggled with morning sickness the entire time, taking that glucose drink just DID NOT help my nausea at all.
The next few days were spent doing all sorts of Christmas break bucket list things. Just kidding. The next few days were spent with me trying to catch up on household chores that I had neglected for the insane weeks leading up to Christmas break… I was feeling awful the whole time, but just trying to push through and function for the sake of my family and household. I was feeling really bummed that things just didn’t feel fun in our house at all. But the kids did a great job of having good attitudes, building forts, playing at home, reading library books, and racing wildly up and down the hall.
My in-laws stopped in for a brief overnight stay on their way to another destination. They stayed for breakfast and chores and spent a delightful few hours with the kids.
We went for a winter solstice hike since the weather was decent enough to be outside! Even though I had been feeling so gross, getting out for a hike was exactly what I needed on this day!
I kept trucking right along through my pregnancy, and got a phone call that I passed my glucose test but had low iron…which honestly explains a lot of how I have been feeling lately!
On the night after our winter solstice hike, I started to feel really gross. I had congestion, runny nose and extreme exhaustion for weeks- it would get better and then get worse and then get better, but this time I just felt it all settle. By the next morning I had a fever (which I NEVER get fevers) and I spent all Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Christmas Eve) laying on the couch feeling TERRIBLE- while also solo parenting.
That was also the weekend that we got frigid cold temperatures and about an inch of snow. The animals fared wonderfully, but I did have to make sure that they had lots of food and that their water wasn’t frozen!
We had some Christmas Eve plans, which I knew I wasn’t up for. But I still wanted the kids to be able to enjoy it, so I ventured out to take the kids to my parents house- but the roads were AWFUL and after I passed the second car in a ditch I turned around and went back home. The kids were all crying they were so disappointed, and I was well over the point of being disappointed. I was SO sick, it was SO cold, I felt SO alone and trying to bring Christmas cheer to my kids felt absolutely impossible. Right at that moment, a friend dropped off a plate of cookies, icing, sprinkles, a rock painting kit and dinner. Now I was really crying, too. I dragged the mattress out and let the kids snuggle up to a movie while eating dinner. It was a very disappointing day with a lot of tears, but I don’t think we will forget the feeling of making it special at the end.
Christmas morning dawned very cold- but very sunny and it was a beautiful sunrise!
Theo had to leave for work around 10am, so we made sure to have a special breakfast, open presents and enjoy each other for a few hours before he had to leave. My parents even braved the dicey roads and came over for Christmas morning, so that was very special! After Theo left, my parents stayed and hung out with us for a few hours so that day felt so much more full and special than the days before had felt.
I wasn’t feeling very good on Christmas Day, but I pushed through. Unfortunately, when I woke up the next day I felt TERRIBLE. I mean…my head hurt so bad I could hardly move and my teeth felt like they were going to fall out. I wanted to give it one more day but when I felt the same on Tuesday, I finally got myself seen by a doctor and got some antibiotics for a secondary bacterial infection. I asked my Mom to come help me with the kids because I could hardly move. My fever had come back and I had the body aches and all the pain from the sinus infection.
Within 12 hours of starting the antibiotic, my sinus headache and tooth pain was gone. It still took a few days for me to clear my sinuses and get any type of energy back, but by Wednesday I was able to shower, get dressed and get off the couch! Woo-hooo!
On Thursday I spent most of the day just trying to get my life back together while still being very exhausted. I did some organizing and cleaning and tried not to think about the fact that I only had 4 days left of my break before going back to teaching. No, Peace is not typically allowed in the house…but we had a spill in the fridge and so we brought her in to lick it up for us haha.
Then, on Friday………..the most exciting part of break happened. Really, one of the most exciting parts of our year (which is saying a lot since it was Dec 30)…..
Our pig went into labor and gave birth!!
I will write an entire blog post on that whole situation, but lets just say that all afternoon Friday, all day Saturday, and a good many hours of the next 4 days have been consumed with pigs and piglets…. It was QUITE the adventure.
Theo worked New Years Eve/New Years Day, but the kids and I had a small celebration at home. I let them stay up until about 8:30 and then did a countdown and sent them off to bed. I was also asleep well before 11.
And with that…we had just one day of break left! It was a beautiful day, so I took the kids to the park and tried to hit the most important household chores and things left on my to-do list so I could feel at peace with going back to work.
It’s hard to believe that it is January and Baby O will be here in just 10 weeks! We have no school breaks between now and my due date, so this really is the marathon of the end. The next week that I am not teaching is also when I will be snuggling up with a newborn! This thought both terrifies, overwhelms, and excites me! These 10 weeks are going to fly by!
I know this post is so, so long- and it isn’t full of any kind of inspirational bucket list items. But I know that I will look back on this blog post and remember these days with at least some sort of fondness. Maybe? I mean, it’s certainly not how I feel about it now, but maybe one day that will be the case! Or maybe someone else reading this blog post will have some kind of comfort if their Christmas break also wasn’t full of Instagram worthy perfection.