Breaking Point

Everybody has one I guess. I've noticed that I reach mine very quickly at times, but lately it does seem to take longer. Normally illness, exhaustion and underlying stress are the cause of the short fuse, but I find since Daddy has been traveling less, I can handle more. But in case you're wondering, I still have a breaking point.
Yesterday started off so boring and normal. I really only had one thing to do. I just needed to go to the supermarket and get some things for Hannah's cooking class today. I dropped off the big kids and Sarah and I went straight to the supermarket. The car stalled on the drive over, but I attributed it to my driving skills, restarted and drove on. After a half hour in the supermarket, we came out to a car that started twice and died twice. I did have the thought that it might need gas because it had been a while since I filled up, but according to the trusty little computer we still had 100 km to go, the little light was not on yet and the gauge was pointing to 1/4 of a tank (or whatever the European equivalent of that might be) so I was sure something was wrong with the car. I remained calm. I bundled up little Sarah and myself, put her in the stroller and walked home with the bags of food. I got home and sent a text to Daddy (in Germany) and then called someone to see about getting a ride to pick up his car at the office (he drove a rental). By the time my friend picked us up, it was snowing hard and freezing. Though I had sent texts back and forth with my lovely, forgiving husband about pushing the car back to the gas pump (literally directly behind the space in which the car was parked), I really thought that was too easy. It couldn't be that simple, right? Well, not if I had anything to do with it.
After picking up Daddy's car, I drove over to the repair place and did my best to communicate with the people there. It went surprisingly well and with a little help from my neighbor translating over the phone, we arranged for the key to be dropped off and they would have someone look at the car in the parking lot and then call me. I felt such a relief after "taking care of all of that" and went on about the day. When they didn't call by 5 PM, I started to worry a little bit so I called them. They knew who I was immediately. "Oh, yes, the benzene."
So apparently the gas thing? That was the problem. There was no gas. I went in a paid an exorbitant amount for 10 L of fuel and was given a very basic lesson in fuel management by a very straight faced Belgian. I'm sure there was mocking and sarcasm in French, but in English all I got was, "When the light is on, you must fill at the pump". Yeah, okay, got it.
Still after all of that, I did not reach my breaking point. I mean, it was expensive and I felt like a dope, but no harm done. Everyone was (mostly) healthy and the world did not come to a halt. We did have some really, really great news on the financial side yesterday so even after my expensive blunder, things really were okay.
I wasn't able to pick the car last night. Just paid and got the key. I then went to pick up Nathan from a friend's house. He has not been feeling 100% the past few days, but has been fighting it in order to not miss school or Cub Scouts or fun. He couldn't really concentrate on doing his homework and when I started putting dinner on the table he suddenly lost it. He made it to the bathroom and even most of it in the toilet. Yay the perks of having older children! Just kidding. He was terribly upset that he threw up and was very concerned that it could have happened at school or his friend's house. We talked about it and decided it would be best for him to stay home today even though he will miss St. Nicolas's visit.
We had a good night and everyone slept well. I assumed that I would have a fight on my hands getting Hannah to go to school when she discovered her brother was staying home. Au contraire, she was so excited to go to school today and not only that, but willing to stay all day in order to see St. Nicolas and sing the song she has learned to him. She did mention that it was not fair that she would get to see him and Nathan would not, but other than that, she gave me no trouble whatsoever. I love 4!
So we headed to school to drop off Hannah and the food I bought for cooking. Easier said than done. The traffic was moving so slowly, we could have walked there and back in the amount of time it took us to drive. Once we had left by car, we were pretty much committed as we were stuck in the line of traffic. Well, normally that would not be a big deal as people get stuck in traffic all of the time. There was a school bus behind us so I knew Hannah would not be the last one to school. That was not the problem. The problem was that Daddy's car suddenly decided to smoke and smell horribly. It also died twice. No, I'm not kidding. So apparently this would be my breaking point. The kids were all coughing and covering their noses from the smell and I was just praying that we did not get stuck in the middle of the road with no stroller in the car, Sarah not even wearing a coat or real shoes! I called my wonderful, forgiving husband and let him know I had indeed reached that breaking point. In hindsight, I realize this is a futile phone call. He is not even in the same country. He can NOT help, but I just needed to get out a few frustrations (none directed at him) and I know he can take it.
Well, we made it to the school. Hannah rushed in to a nearly empty classroom talking about how stinky her daddy's car is and by now I'm sure they have even more details about the last couple of days than I've posted here.
A neighbor gave Nathan, Sarah and I a ride to pick up our van after we got Daddy's car safely back to our driveway. The drive home was uneventful and it was as if the car had never had any issues whatsoever. As I told our daddy, "It still stinks, but it is not actively stinking". How is that for some mechanical jargon?
Wouldn't you know that as soon as turned the key in our van, the little gas light popped right on? Mocking me, I'm sure. All of the computer readings in the car have returned to French so we're guessing they did do some work on it and did attempt to check the battery, something. Now I can rest easy that we were not over charged, right? Well, after last night I know I can still sleep at night, I just hope those guys from the repair shop can.
As advised, we went directly to the pump and filled up the car. Voila! I don't even want to think about how differently the last two days would have been...nope that is not a productive thought.

After reading all of that, you are probably thinking this family deserves a nice quiet day at home, right? Well, I thought so. After I called to notify the school that Nathan would be staying home ill and settled in to do some laundry and clean up the kitchen, I got a phone call from our pediatrician. We have received two letters in the past few months from the city requesting proof of Sarah's polio vaccination. Because our pediatrician gave us a letter documenting the proof, I took it in to their office not once, but twice (assuming they had misplaced the first one and because I was wise enough to make a copy before I dropped it off). Well, today they called our pediatrician because she has only had 3 doses and Belgium requires 4. Why our Belgian pediatrician did not already know that, I'm not sure, but this is what he told me I "must do". I must go to the pharmacy and ask for the polio vaccine alone, not the combo which are the ones he has in his office. They will probably ask for a prescription, but that is okay, I can bring it later. (I have dealt with this before and even though it is so, so weird to me, I knew he was right). They will also probably have to order it so I should go right away so that I may pick it up later today and bring it into his office along with Sarah on Monday morning. Oh fun!
It was actually much less painful than I expected. Just part of the fun autonomy Belgium expects of its citizens. I never realized how much hand holding we have in the US, but I just like to call it convenience and I miss it so much! Sorry, just keeping it real.

After ALL of that and having reached and passed my breaking point, I am over it. We are all fine. Daddy's car clearly has some issues and that is a huge source of frustration considering we paid a lot of money for some "required" Audi service recently and since then have found that it smokes and stinks on occasion. But really, in the big picture, that is not a big deal. We'll figure something out.

I was so impressed by two male readers of our blog (one related, one not) who actually contacted me to find out exactly what Santa's problem is regarding the Belle dress--but they were nicer about it. I just found out yesterday that Santa has delivered in the form of Disney.com and even though I am sure she would have been happy with the other gift I ordered just in case it didn't arrive, I am so glad that Hannah's Christmas wish will come true. I really just found out yesterday which was another great piece of news to help push me back from that breaking point.

Now we're finally at home having that much deserved down time (at least deserved in my opinion) and for the first time this week, Sarah is going to enjoy as much nap time as she wants in her own bed. During all of the running around and "problem solving" I did yesterday, I fed my poor youngest child lunch on the run. She was holding a sandwich in one hand when I put her coat on and was very upset about something, but I couldn't figure out what she meant as I rushed her into the repair place. Later when I put her coat on again, her hand came out of the sleeve with a piece of salami in it. She was so happy and ate it right away. Suddenly it was clear what she had been upset about. Nathan seems to be feeling okay. He has eaten some today and seemed mostly concerned that he might throw up at school. I think once he gets through the weekend without any of that, he'll be fine. Daddy comes home tonight and for once we have an open Saturday. Here's hoping for a drama free weekend, but one thing I am learning is the more drama I experience, the less dramatic it all seems.