Hanging on by a thread

A Harper's index of our family life in the last few weeks would include

• 4 cold/snow days
• 4 days for Tom & Edith in Delaware, for a family funeral
• 48 hours in Atlanta for all of us, for a family wedding
• 4 sick days for Edith (probably soon to be 5) -- having weathered strep two weeks ago, she's now at 103 degrees with watery eyes and a hacking chest cough
• 3 sick days for Alice, including pink-eye and a perpetually runny nose
• 7 total days of missed school for Edith and counting (not including snow days)
• 29 papers to be graded, several days overdue to my students (not so cool on the block plan)
• 3 days on a required professional retreat, for Tom
• 3 times Tom had to come home from his retreat, over 3 days, for unavoidable professional and family conflicts
• 1 of Gretchen's classes canceled (not so cool on the block plan), because she couldn't figure out how to care for two sick children without a spouse at home, or any family or available friends nearby
• 4-5 hours of class prep per night, starting after the girls go to bed
• 4-5 wake-ups per night per sick child
• 2 wake-ups per night per normal, healthy Alice
• 4-5 hours of fractured adult sleep per night
• 4-5 shifts that Tom is behind in his internship, meaning 40-50 hours he needs to make up somewhere

I know we're blessed in so many ways. And it was good to be with family for important occasions. But right now it's hard to see how we can keep on keeping on at this pace.