Good news, my youngest son is improving. He is at a new school, and doing well. The cast is still on, but will hopefully be off soon.

Now I get to get back to the things I was working on before he was injured. Unfortunately, there is more to be done, and less to do it with. Between doctors’ appointments and illnesses, I ran out of sick time. So the two days I took with my son for his surgery and the day after are unpaid.

To add insult to injury, my contract says I have to pay for my employer’s share of my health insurance for those days. So my next paycheck will be reduced by 66 percent. Ugh!

On the bright side, my son’s older brother was able to stay with him for the other two school days he missed. It was just a happy coincidence that his schedule allowed it.

So now it’s back to finding balance. I tend to get analysis paralysis during this process. This leads to frustration. I get frustrated by the paralysis, and my youngest gets frustrated because I won’t focus very far forward.

Which leads to conversations like this:

“Mom, how many people can I invite to my birthday party?”

“What? Your birthday is like eight months away!”

“Mo-ahm.”

“Okay, four months.”

“So how many people can I invite?”

“I don’t know, it’s four months away!”

“But....”

“Nope, if it’s more than a week away, we are not talking about it.”

No one was happy by the end of that conversation.

But analysis paralysis makes me time nearsighted. I think it has something to do with the present stressors, the looming stressors, all too large.

So I take a lot of deep breaths, and I try to deal with today. Tomorrow, next week, next month, will have to wait their turn.