The Adventures of A Nurse Mom

I have decided that my life with three small kiddos, a husband, one dog, one cat, a full time job, and a constant quest to stay active and healthy was not enough to keep me occupied. So here I go on a new journey of educational discovery. I have gone down many different paths when it comes to education. I started college directly after high school and was incredibly unfocused. I was very good at beer pong however... I'm sure that affected my grades... I bounced around colleges and majors. Finally settling on biology/math and secondary education. Well, this was in 2007, so basically the worst time to become a teacher because education was in the toilet. So I returned to school and became a Registered Nurse! I have worked as an Emergency Nurse for quite a few years now. I love it and hate it. I love really helping people in dire circumstances. I love that I am part of a team that can very literally save someone's life, and have done so many many times. I do not run away from di...

Here in Northern Michigan, the weather is far from lovely as we dive into spring. This year has been especially brutal. Mostly because our actual bone chilling, snow drifting, ice raining winter didn't really start until mid to late January! No snow for Christmas, but plenty for Spring! Driving in the elements is the least of my worries. I grew up a Michigan gal and therefore have been seasoned for driving in the worst weather mother nature has to offer. I am also an Emergency Nurse, so I get to work. No. Matter. What. I also get home. I can ALWAYS get home. I'm not staying in the filthy hospital overnight, even for a natural disaster! But I digress. The WORST part of a seemingly never-ending Northern Michigan winter is the dreaded "daycare disease." Or, "school kid fever." Or whatever name you wish to give the plethora of viruses and bacteria that cycle through the ventilation systems of the closed up schools and daycares and homes. No amount of bleach or...

I have been conditioned. Conditioned to believe that only through education will I succeed. I understand fully that this is not true for everyone, and maybe not for even me. My parents were huge advocates of education. For this I am very grateful because they cultivated my love of learning and they have also bankrolled that process a time or two. I always have had big dreams when it comes to education. My dad worked his way up from working in the woods to becoming an anesthetist. Throughout much of my childhood he was in school or rotation or working away. He was always there for the important things however. And he sure did his best to be around as much as he could. We all knew that he was going to school for us. He finished when I was in the 6th grade. Starting in the 70's when my sister was little he went from lumberjack, to LPN, to RN, to BSN, to MSN, to CRNA. And through the entire process he always claimed he "wasn't very bright." That statement seems laughable ...

Every Monday morning, I am a brand new person. Well actually, scratch that. What I really mean is, every Sunday night as I'm laying in bed, frantically recounting every lost teenage argument and agonizingly thinking of all the horrible things that could theoretically happen to my family, the idea that "I will be a new person tomorrow morning" always finds its way in. This is actually a calming thought for me amidst the crazy, obsessive thoughts of worry over things I can't control. The idea that I CAN control how I will be from now on calms me and makes be believe, as I attempt to drift off for a couple of restless hours of sleep, that things WILL BE different starting Monday! These inner sweeping declarations usually include cutting out carbs and sugar, drinking more water, eating all veggies and lean proteins for the rest of my life, exercising more (because within the cocoon of my bed, my mind creates time that I don't, in reality, actually have), being more ...

The one thing no one told me about being a parent was the huge amount of bodily fluids I would have to endure. Don't get me wrong... I knew there would be a lot. I did understand that I was responsible for that little person's fluids. You become very in tune to what is coming out of the orifices of your brand new baby. You painstakingly monitor every ounce they take in and the color, volume and consistency of all that comes out. What they don't tell you, is when they get a bit older, they are incredibly interested in those fluids. No one told me that my 2 yo middle child would put her hands in her diaper then try to play with my hair. Or touch her poop as I am trying to change her. No one told me that my oldest child would squeeze her legs together when she pees so it pools on top of her legs and ultimately ends up on the the floor. I am three kids deep, and I clean up more bodily fluids at home than I do during a 24 total hour shift weekend at the ER! The nurse in me fee...