Day one of my three days alone.

Yes, that's right, my four days alone has shrunken to three days alone, but that's okay! My husband is taking Friday off too, and we're going to the movies and to lunch. As everyone with young kids knows, movies and lunch alone (more rare is dinner), without kid(s) is a treasure to be held gently and never released...that is until the kid gets sick and you have to cancel your plans, which has happened to us so many times, I hardly like to plan anything anymore.

So I only have three days to accomplish everything I wanted to do, and wouldn't you know it, this is the week my monthly "visitor" decided to arrive (really, it knew it was coming, and I, on the other hand, only realized of its visit last week because I just don't think of these things), and so I find myself throwing back motrin like it's candy (I actually have a prescription for 800 mg of motrin, 100 mg per hour for 8 hours, like that does anything except make me want to barf), half-reclined on the couch, trying to figure out what I can do today that won't kill my back or make me collapse in woozy pain. I sound dramatic, don't I? Well, it's all really true, these unfortunate monthly visitor woes of mine.

My big plans are pretty much scraped to a certain extent, more so because I physically can't do all I wanted to do, and partially because my mental state is telling me to just sleep and take it easy. I went to Lowes yesterday and bought a curtain rod and some caulk, so my intentions are good. Really. I bought clear caulk, and after conferring with my life coach (mom), she told me I should get white. So now I have to take the clear caulk back and go somewhere else to get white caulk since Lowes didn't have the single-serving white caulk in stock. There is no way I was going to mess with a caulk gun once I realized you can buy squeeze tubes, like you'd use for piping icing. Not that I know how to pipe on icing, let alone caulk.

I decided to let random figure out what I'll be doing, something I haven't done in a million years (you really can't be random with a child in your life, I realized). So I'm going to write down everything I need to do, broken up into small chunks, and randomly pick out my first task, second task, third task, etc..

I'll be doing that right after I finish my homework and wake-up from the nap I'm sure I'll be taking. Even though I'm not working, I still have to get up between 4:30 and 5 AM because my child is an early riser, and I need to make sure I get a shower in before he decides to greet the world.

One thing I must say is this: I really don't know how stay at home moms do it. I really don't. I spent most of Sunday and all of Monday (except for a visit with my life coach where she put the hoodoo voodoo on my child and he promptly passed out after a few minutes of a back rub) alone with him, suffering through body slams and hair pulling, random attacks on the simple cat that brought much glee to the boy, fussiness over NOTHING (to me, that is), too many poops to count, and a lot of turning on a dime. I never got a break, and if there is one thing I need, it is a break. I'm spoiled, I know. But whenever I have Mateo home with me for a full day and no husband around or any real plans to occupy the boy's attention, it makes me want to bow down to moms who do this day in and day out.

Being a mom has got to be the hardest job on the face of the earth. We rock! But you all who do it without help and still manage to get stuff done? You all rock on your own plane of awesomeness. Pats on the back all around!