Week in My Life: Day 5, Friday

This week,  I’m participating in the “Week in My Life” series. You can read Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get all caught up on the shenanigans.

0530 came and then it went. But, in a stroke of divine intervention I actually got my hiney going at 0540. Impressive, no? I’m happy to report I did a Jillian Michaels, Ripped in 30, Week 3 workout and lived to tell about it. She ain’t kiddin’ around, y’all.

I finished up the workout and a shower before the Mr. got home from the gym. It was a “this must go” breakfast:  leftover muffins, pancakes and cereal. The cook takes off on Friday mornings. I love this photo of Will since it captures him, as he is, most mornings. Nose buried in a book. That boy is my son. And what I am doing? Dishes, of course. As a sidenote, on Fridays we usually have a visitor, Fr. Dean. After he finishes saying Mass for the Sisters, he drops by for breakfast and coffee. Guess he didn’t want to make a guest appearance on the blog this week 🙂

The bigs headed out the door for school and Luke and I ate breakfast, picked up the house and watched a little TV before a friend’s birthday party. It was a really nice way to spend a morning.

Perhaps you’ve visited my “parties” page and know how much I love a good Amy Atlas dessert table. Well, meet my partner in crime. A sweet friend and neighbor, Jayme, is crazy awesome at planning parties and designing bits of beauty. She, too, is a graphic designer and a lover of all the details. We usually get together with the neighborhood girls for playgroup on Fridays and this week was a treat. We enjoyed a circus-themed birthday party for Jayme’s son. Luke loved it, especially the whistle. He ate a few goldfish, laughed at the clown’s antics (well, most of them) and even took a bit of a cookie. I was happy to help him finish it.

But, in a dose of reality, my phone rang halfway through the party and it was Luke’s ENT (ear-nose-throat) specialist. We are considering taking out his tonsils at the same time he has heart surgery and the nurse called to discuss our options. Amidst all the laughs and smiles, there I was in the corner dipping my toe back in our reality, the one that involves specialists, therapists, surgeries and hospital stays. Yes, Luke has made crazy, amazing progress. Yes, he’s doing so well. But when you’re in an environment where all the other children are “normal” (hate that word, by the way), it’s hard. I love my neighbors. They were incredibly supportive of us during Luke’s most difficult months. However, sometimes you just need to talk to someone who gets it, you know? Later in the day, God knew I needed to hear a sweet friend’s voice and words of affirmation. Dina, if you’re reading this, you saved my sanity today. I mean it, girl. Thank you.

We ducked out of the party a little early, came home for a supersonic fast nap for Luke and client work for me and then it was off to see the heart surgeon. The fantastically funny, great Catholic heart surgeon, I might add. Luke’s original cardiologist no longer does heart catheterizations, so we had to meet one of his partner’s that does. We first met Dr. S in the NICU and then later met his wife who was Luke’s hematologist. I know, lot of specialists to keep track of here. Long story short, we found out three important things:

1. We cannot do a joint tonsil/heart surgery. There are many reasons why, but it was a real bummer. I was trying to keep us out of the OR one extra time. Looks like Luke is coming up on surgeries 6, 7 AND 8. Le sigh.
2. Our hospital stay, if all goes as planned, should be all day but we won’t have to spend the night. AWE-SOME x 1 bajillion.
3. Modern medicine is amazing.

I arranged for friends to pick up the kids from school because I wasn’t sure of our ETA home. The Dr Pepper Gods were most definitely smiling upon me today. I had a few minutes to grab a vanilla DP from Sonic and get dinner started before the kids arrived home. It really is the little things. The kids don’t get screen time during the week, so Friday after school is always anticipated around Casa Whitaker. While the kids enjoyed screen time, I got dinner going, answered emails and began working on today’s blog post. It was about that time I realized I never ate lunch. On average, I do that once a week. Scott doesn’t understand how I can forget a meal. I don’t understand how HE doesn’t understand that.

We opted to let dinner finish cooking when we got home and instead, go to John Paul’s football game as a family. In theory, that sounded like a good parenting decision. In reality, as Clare said, “We are gonna freeze off our tails tonight, Mom.”

Leave it to the 5-year-old to speak the truth.

However, Coach Scott looks pretty happy on the sidelines.

We did freeze, but the hot chocolate and homemade pizza made it all better when we got home. After a round of best and worst, prayers and our infamous Christmas card family, we ate dinner, changed into pjs and went straight to bed. Scott bedded them all down while I cleaned up the kitchen.

I finished this post and then joined Scott on the couch for a little more HP. Hey, there are seven movies. We could be at this a while! Tomorrow, we have a soccer game, sacramental preparation at church, a big football game and a surprise for momma. It’s the weekend, baby!!