Treating the Parenting Hangover

We went to a Fourth of July party yesterday afternoon at which the children had the time of their lives AND we all stayed for the fireworks. Which meant after dark. Which meant my kids didn't get to bed until 10 p.m. For the older ones, this is about two hours after their usual bedtime. For Jack, this meant he was so discombobulated he didn't know what the hell was going on and actually didn't go to sleep for the night until 11 p.m.

And then he was up at 12:45 a.m. And Charlie was up at 3 a.m. And then Jack was up again at 4 a.m. And THEN, he got up for the day at 6:30 a.m.

At this point, I felt worse than I would have if I had spent the whole night raging drunk and awakened with a hangover. Plus, I didn't have the fun of getting drunk, since I had not one single alcoholic drink all day yesterday*.

So, not to put too fine a point on it, but I feel like shit.

However!

I had a capital "p" Plan for lunch that was guaranteed to cheer me up. We have one ripe tomato on the single tomato plant in a pot by the kitchen door. We have bacon from the MiL's pig. We have lettuce from our CSA box. We have the MiL's amazing sourdough bread. And, of course, mayonnaise, because we always have mayonnaise.

Basically, we have the makings of the best BLT in the universe. And I was having one for lunch. So there.

But wait! It gets better!

Just as I was putting Jack down for his second nap of the day at 11:30 this morning, A. decided to go to the farm store for some pipe or something and took Cubby and Charlie with him. This meant that I prepared and ate my amazing sandwich ALL BY MY MYSELF. You may recall how important this is to me.

But wait again! It gets even better! After my sandwich, I had some White Lightning ice cream.

It's not quite as restorative as a full night's sleep, but it's all I can manage at the moment. Happy 5th of July to me.

* Although I might have made up for this with, um, three of the homemade whoopie pies someone brought to the party. If you can't have alcohol, sugar makes a pretty good second choice.