4

I'm writing 4 on day 5. In other words, things are starting to unravel slightly. It's the little things that start to mount up. Last night, for instance, I was too tired to start folding laundry and just pushed the ever growing pile onto the floor. Incidentally, the cat was pleased with the new bed and slept on the clean laundry last night, meaning cat hair will be a feature of most clothes for the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of little things that do my head in. Anna takes a special vitamin supplement every day. In Alberta, the health-care system provided it for free, explaining that is was cheap and as her reason for needing it was so rare, they were pleased to just supply . In England, it was provided for free by a health care system that doesn't charge for prescription for anyone under 18. In BC, it's $50/month. My work plan to cover prescriptions only covers 80% after a $25 deductible, so if we get the biotin monthly, they actually only cover about $18 on $50. Ange's coverage is better, but they won't cover first because I'm older. By 3 days. Ridiculous. As we sort out process, we were eventually able to get a prescription for more of this vitamin. Unfortunately the doctor wrote down 4mg instead of 5mg. A single mg is pretty inconsequential and, even if it were, Anna has been taking 5mg for the past 2 years. Why the detail, you wonder? Because by writing down 4mg, the pharmacy can't issue the 5mg capsules which are pre-made. They have to make a special liquid concoction off-site. We managed to get the doctor re-issue the right prescription, but this special, "For Anna Only" bottle, had been made. So, for an addition $10 to us, I get the inconvenience of this stupid liquid stuff that has to be used before its shelf-live expires.

This all leads me to this morning. Out of our regular powder vitamin, I pull out the bottle this morning amidst the chaos of getting the kids ready. It's late, I'm not dressed and everything feels like it might go off the rails. I pull out the syringe they provided with the bottle to measure 8ml and get as far as the opening of the bottle, only to discover.... that the syringe is too large for the opening of the bottle. It's not a big deal except for the fact that I am so tired I can't even think how I'm going to measure 8ml out of the 2cm bottle-top with my 2.5cm-wide syringe. I may have cursed audibly. I fumbled around for a few minutes trying get my brain around this simplest of problems, eventually finding an egg cup. I poured in the liquid, measured the 8ml and poured the rest back into the bottle. I spilled at least a ml or two, meaning I've now created a new problem I get to deal with later in the month: I'm going to be short of this stuff down to spillage. I suspect they didn't factor that in when they were making this stuff up.

Anyway, here goes the measurable:

Melt-downs: 0. Jacqui came by with dinner last night. She saved me from melting down. The kids, however, are gold.

TV time: Poor. I relied on some show on CBC in the morning called Mechanical Animals for a few minutes to pull myself together. I am very suspicious of this shows innate worth. In the evening, we watched half of Curious George, which is so good it almost doesn't count as tv time. Except for that it does.

Getting out of the house: By 7:55am, baby.

Eating well: Done. Jacqui brought good food. Veggie chili. You have to know it's packed with veggies. Caleb ate more than Anna, he was so pleased with it.

Minimize sugar: Same as yesterday. None on my watch.

Teaching and creative out-letting: They were in the care of professionals, so I have to believe some of that happened. It may, however, have been undone by Mechanical Animals. Tough to say.

Getting something non-kid done: I had a non-kid conversation with Jacqui. She also did the dishes from dinner. I did nothing before 10pm and nothing well after 10pm.

Sleepishly, out.