Surviving??

Okay, so the last month or so has been - er - shall we say difficult? First I had the cold from H*** which lasted over a week and then morphed into something different but equally evil and returned for an encore about a week after my so-called recovery. So a few uneventful weeks go by and my son gets a cold which lasted for over a week. We are just now coming out of it even though he still sounds as if he is going to bring up a lung at any moment. At the same time, my daughter is obviously trying to fight something off because she has entered the "WHINY ZONE".

What is the "WHINY ZONE" you may ask? (You are probably not a parent if you are asking this - but that's okay.) This is the stage that Shelby gets into when she is either (a) getting sick, (b) fighting off the onslaught (except for the emotional effects) of a virus or (c) very, very tired.

I hate the "WHINY ZONE"! I detest it! I'd almost rather she just get sick and be done with it. I, as a general rule, don't like clingy children. (Doesn't mean I'm not loving but I just don't like clinginess.) I'm more the "be independent" type - and my kids are basically very independent. But I can totally handle the I-want-to-sit-inside-of-your-skin-instead-of-just-beside-you tendencies of a sick child. I understand. They feel lousy. They need comfort. No problem. But the "WHINY ZONE" is something else altogether. The melt-down potential is astronomical - not to mention totally unpredictable. For example:

Shelby: "Mommy, can I have more juice?"
Me: "Why don't you drink some water first?"
Shelby: collapses on the floor in a weepy mass (not the typical reaction)

Me: "Shelby, you need to pick up your toys before you go up to bed."
Shelby: "I can't!" collapses on the floor in a weepy mass

Shelby: "I want to help cook dinner, Mommy."
Me: "Maybe you can help next time. This is very hot and might splatter on you."
Shelby: collapses on the floor in a weepy mass

I think you get the general idea. ANYTHING could cause this over-the-top weepiness. ANYTHING! And you never know when it will hit you. One minute everything is fine and the next you're tripping over the sobbing, huddled mass of your child on the kitchen floor

Now, I should tell you that my kids are not normally like this. They are, in general, incredibly good, well-behaved kids. Sure, they are noisy and boisterous, they don't listen or follow instructions very well ('cause it's not on their agenda), they fight with each other and they haven't figured out when enough is enough. But they are not tantrum prone. They never have been. A "tantrum" in our house is a foot stomp or throwing a LEGO block down when we don't get our way. (I know, I am truly blessed.) So this extreme weepy and whiny behavior is really out of character - and it really grates on the nerves. I truly hope I survive it.

Now for more artful content, I thought I would show you two of my older quilts.

Calypso Twist

Entropy

Sorry for the poor quality of the images. They are scans of photos that I had.

Someone emailed and asked if my quilts had won any prizes. They have won quite a few. I entered a number of quilt shows and multi-media art shows before I was pregnant and won awards in both. Hopefully the kids are getting old enough that I can start spending more time in the studio again . . .