Hello, My name is April...

...and I'm addicted to my Laptop. I seriously felt withdrawals when it was on the fritz, and am so thankful to get it back. It's not that we don't have another computer in the house, but I have become accustomed to being able to work from anywhere in my house and get on the internet even when I'm forced to be in another room, like when I'm trying to convince the baby to go to sleep. My kids have also gotten used to watching movies on it in bed... one of the only ways to get them to hold still long enough to go to sleep... bad, huh? Anyway, let's just say that I will probably be buying a couple of extra power cords to have on hand (turns out that the 2nd time it died, it wasn't the computer, it was the power cord... thank goodness for my uncle and his little meter that could diagnose the problem!).

Today is the 3rd day that the kids have been out of school because of illness. They really want to go back, and I REALLY WANT them to go back, but there is some bad flu going around the whole school, and I think that is the reason why... people send their kids to school even when they are sick. L. has a horrid cough, and Ma. sounds like she's talking through a harmonica, her voice is so reedy... The day started out so good yesterday... getting my new camera (which is awesome, by the way!) and the everyone wishing me a happy birthday, but after Everardo went to work, things kinda fell apart. I wasn't feeling well, as it seems my dear children have shared whatever flu they have with me... my bones ache and when I cough it feels like I'm tearing my lungs out. I also had a headache, and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but I couldn't very well let the 4 kids have run of the house unsupervised. I got the baby to sleep for about an hour, and so I was making dinner for the rest of the bunch. G. fell asleep on the couch, and after dinner, the older 2 were sent to bed, so I hoped that I would be able to have a productive evening working on the many projects that I have started. No such luck.
The baby woke up crying, G. woke up crying, and both wanted mommy... NOW! and no sharing! then Ma. kept getting up saying she couldn't sleep, she wanted a drink, etc... L. was in bed, but coughing up a storm. I got them kind of settled, and got out the sewing machine to work on some pillowcases that we are making to donate to the children's hospital. Not that hard to do, just zip, zip, on the machine and done, right? Wrong! My sewing machine comes from the devil himself! It started out fine, but then the thread broke, and though I re-threaded it, and tried again, it will not work. The thread magically unthreads from the needle, even when I have a-hold of the end, and all I accomplished was to put some pretty needle hole in the fabric. So, plan B. I got out my little hand-held sewing machine... you know, the kind for fixing hems, and what-not. No go. The needle stayed threaded, but for some reason, the thread was not catching underneath the fabric and so again, a pretty row of needle holes was all I had to show for my efforts. Not to mention that during all of this, the baby is trying to "help" me by trying to take the spool of thread off the sewing machine, etc...

I finally gave that up and thought I'd calm my nerves by working on a little knitting. My dad sent me a book, a bunch of needles, yarn and other stuff, so I decided to teach myself how to do it. The book was very clear, and it was going well, until Mo. decided that I needed to be paying attention to HIM, climbing in my lap and grabbing one of the needles out of my hand.

I spend the next hour and a half trying to get G. and Mo. to go to sleep, but they are fully charged because of the naps that they had, and raring to go. Even turning off the lights doesn't phase them. The other two are still getting up wanting drinks, bathroom, etc... and it's now almost 1:30 in the morning, and Everardo gets home from work. I was in tears, I was so tired and fed up with everything, so he sent me to bed and he slept with the baby, who woke up at least 3 times during the night, crying, but he took care of him and let me sleep. Almost 5 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep.... Have I mentioned that my husband is the most wonderful man in the world! Now I get to work all day, and some hours tonight, trying to make up for time I lost on Monday, and he gets to take all 4 kids to the doctor, on very little sleep himself, and then go to work this evening as well... I am going to have to plan something very special for his birthday. Thank goodness it is on a Saturday, so neither of us have to work.

Well, this is an extremely disjointed post, but then, that is how I'm feeling today, so I guess it fits. Here is hoping that tonight is better...