still in the weeds

Reading Grand Rounds the other day, I found a new blog, PixelRN. She blogged using an old waitressing term that perfectly describes how I've been feeling lately: in the weeds.

You get in the weeds (waitress speak for “I am totally freaking out of control right now and every single one of my tables wants something!”), and then you get out of the weeds. When you are in the weeds, you can’t see the other side of the weeds. When you are out of the weeds, you can even laugh about being in the weeds.

Having one sick kid puts you in the weeds, because it's tough to tell how long they'll stay sick. Having more than one sick kid keeps you in the weeds until you think your head is going to explode.

I've been in the weeds so long now, I'm weaving baskets out of them. But I should be well out of the weeds by now! The Christmas cards and gifts are all sent, the baking is done, the teacher presents delivered. The shopping is finished. I have some wrapping to do, but not much. The house is clean; I enlisted some kid help yesterday and we did everything (some jobs, not so well, but that's what it's like when you have trainees on the job.) I did five loads of laundry yesterday, too -- clean linens for all the beds.

But I'm still in the weeds. It's the not-knowing that's killing me: Is everyone going to be well enough to go to CA? There are still a few days to go -- which is a good thing, because DS1 started puking just before dinner last night. No fever, no lymph nodes, no red or sore throat, seemed completely fine all day. Doesn't sound much like strep, does it? OK, maybe the suddenness of it does (something else I picked up from House, bacterial infections can come up fast -- not that I'm trusting a TV show to be accurate about anything).

We just have to wait and see, and hope this sea of reeds will part for us.