September 22, 2025 - Monday

Man, today was quite the day! I think I started off with some grumpiness, because I was a little short-tempered during school. I'm honestly feeling really frustrated about how long certain sections of our school day take and am feeling powerless to fix them. I'm also upset about how messy the house has been lately. BUT. Talking about things being outside of my control...Clem found pinworms in her poop today and it felt like my world kind of exploded. I mean, in reality it's not a huge deal. She's old enough to have generally good hygiene, so it's not spreading around the family, and we should be able to clear it up quickly. But those initial hours of panic right after figuring it out were pretty intense. I instilled a whole new set of hygiene protocols in the house. Some would be good for always, some are a little over the top. But, for now, it's what we're going to do...at least until this problem is over. Poor Clem was panicked, of course. I feel so sad for her. According to the doc, it pretty much only happens to people who bite their nails. She felt so sad because she's actually been making a concerted effort for the last week to quit! We even bought a special bitter nail polish, and she asks me to reapply it twice a day. Apparently, she must have contracted this a couple of months ago though. 

So, it was a busy day from the start. We did some school, had a field trip to the Original Mattress Factory, got home and did some more school, I picked up Jonas from his Monday co-op, then I had to go to the dentist, then this whole pinworm thing happened. And, in the midst of that, I'm throwing everyone's sheets in the wash on hot, trying to cook dinner, doing Google research, calling the doc, and trying to stay calm for Clem's sake all at the same time! But I wasn't calm. Then it occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to get the kids into bed when we got home from HC because the sheets were all in the washer and I wanted to wash Clem's comforter too! That took me right over the dang top and I decided HC was just not going to happen tonight. Knowing I was staying home took some of the time pressure off, but I still had so much to do before bed with showers, washing sheets, and getting all of the supplies we needed to get some of these new hygiene efforts underway. *sigh* I just want her to be better. And, honestly, I didn't see it myself and she is a bit of a hypochondriac. For all I know, there are no worms at all, and all of this was for nothing. I'm not sure I'll ever be 100% sure! She has pooped since them and there were no pinworms so...who knows??