CABIN FEVER

‘I’m going to take a picture’, I said as I opened the door to the balcony.

‘Is that for your blog’ asked my son. ‘It better be’, he continued before I had a chance to reply.

The younger two children were a bit upset that I hadn’t posted anything since Sunday. They said they liked to read what I was thinking about every day and I’ve noticed how they have read many of my blog posts in the past few days. It brings back memories for them. And since this is the closest that they will get to reading anything, I figured I might as well try to come up with something as getting them to pick up a book would require some sort of miracle.

What I’m thinking about varies from day to day. No two days are alike. Seeing how the month’s end is approaching, I will be thinking about how to pay the bills. How I will stretch one paycheck and the last of my savings to cover two rents, a car payment, and credit card debt and what else I will have to give up in order to make the remaining funds last until the next paycheck. Working overtime three or four days a week this past month has proven not to be as beneficial as I had hoped since I am sacrificing both sleep and breakfast in order to make it to work by 07,15 or 07,45.

But tonight I am thinking about how unruly the three children were after dinner. The screaming and crazy laughing. Mischievous conspiring in the closet by the boy and his older sister whilst the middle one, Cinnamon, yells that her sister is scaring the bunny.

‘Mama, do something!’ Cinnamon cried at my door.

‘What do you want me to do?!’, I shouted back.

On one hand, I feel a bit sorry for Hopper. He sits there in his cage amidst chaos and a scattering of bunny poop in his cage. On the other hand, I was livid on Monday when I noticed a hole about 3 centimeters wide on the new duvet cover I bought for my daughter along with scratches all over that cover. The deal was that bunny would not go on any bed or anywhere outside their room. I am certain he will be happy to leave tomorrow when the children’s father comes to pick him up albeit several days later than intended.

All of this is understandable as the children are somewhat like the bunny. Caged in a tiny apartment with nowhere to go. There is no yard for them to play in though when we did have a yard, they rarely played outside anyway. But we did have more than double the space which made for a much nicer experience for both the children and me.

Cabin fever has gotten to all of us but there is no end in sight. We simply have to make the best of what we have and take things day by day. By this time next month, the rest of our furniture will be here at the apartment and in the garage. I will finally have my bed to sleep on and we will have the entire living space filled with a sectional sofa which is far too large for this apartment.

Somehow, I will make this work. For the moment, I will turn on the thunderstorm option on my ‘Calm’ app on my phone and tune out the negative thoughts.