A balancing act

Yesterday morning at 9am, my phone rang at work--Bebe was complaining of a headache and a stomachache and needed to be picked up from school. I called my husband and we played the, "Who needs to work more?" game. While D has more time off available, my workload is more flexible. But this sudden phone call added more strain because LAST week the same thing happened--but with Dois instead of Bebe. In the end we wound up splitting the day--D picked up Bebe and I came home at lunch and we "switched off." I tried to get Bebe into the doctor for an appointment, but the earliest available with her pediatrician was at 10am TODAY. So, again, one of us had to take time off.

Every time one of the kids is sick, anxiety sets in, big time. I can use vacation time if I have no sick time to spare, but we've booked a cabin for a week in July (our first family vacation in 3 years NOT involving visiting family) and as it stands, I can not take another minute off of work or come that week, I won't have enough hours to cover it. D has a heaping pile of sick days available to him, thanks to his previous position where furlough days were "banked" because they were a high-volume office. When he WAS sick, they used a banked day, not a sick day, so when he transferred to his new position, he brought almost a month's worth of sick days with him. That would make you think he's the default person for caring for the kids, but his workload differs from mine, in that critical deadlines can be missed if he misses a day during certain times. So when the phone rings, and it's school or daycare on the other end, the decision-making is so hard.

Having yesterday afternoon off, though, was awesome--I did a load of clothes laundry, a load of diaper laundry, put all the kids' clothes away, and worked out at the gym. If only I could figure out how to work 4 9-hour days and a 1/2 day once a week. I would totally do it! I couldn't believe how refreshed and energized I felt after doing all that in one afternoon.