A break

Yesterday morning little sister was complaining that her stomach hurt.  Since all of my kids have issues with constipation (sorry, TMI!), my first question is always "When is the last time you went #2?"  She said she'd just gone the day before, so I figured she was actually sick with something.  I sent her back to bed.  Big sister is on safety patrol this week and has to be there early, so I took her and dropped her off.  It was not the greatest of mornings for her.  In fact, it's been a really, really rough couple of weeks with big sister.  *sigh*  I'm not even dealing with real hormones yet, heaven help me.  Anyway.  I came home to the sound of little sister screaming her head off in the downstairs bathroom.  I went to investigate and, sure enough, she's constipated.  And in a lot of pain.  Poor kiddo.  She asked for a suppository - at least she knows that this will provide pretty immediate relief!  After a little bit, she was resting comfortably back in her bed.  Since I knew this wasn't a stomach bug, I could've taken her to school.  But Little brother's preschool friends were arriving soon.  So I told little sister she was not to come out of her room until we were done.  I had a lunch date with a friend yesterday, as well.  Just meeting at McDonald's so the kids can play and we can eat fries and chat.  Once I got preschool taken care of, I was about to get little sister ready for school when I got a call from Big sister.  She was complaining that her stomach hurt.  Oy.  I wasn't sure if she knew that little sister had stayed home, since I've been taking big sister for safety patrol and then coming back for little sister.  Was this just power of suggestion?  Or just jealous that her sister was at home?  Or did she know nothing about her sister staying home?  Again, *sigh*.  I went and got her.  The lady in the office told me that they'd had about 10 check out that morning with a stomach thing, so it was possible this was legit.  I brought her home and then took the other 3 to lunch with me since I was already running late.  Lunch was fantastic - nothing beats a McD's Dr. Pepper, fries and a hot fudge sundae.  And I am just blessed with some of the most fantastic ladies as friends!  Chatting with my friend was lovely, a much needed break.  The kiddos loved playing and played together nicely.  Love that.  Then we came home and the kids just played together the rest of the afternoon.  I did do piano lessons with them, but we didn't do homework.  They just kind of hung out together.  With minimal fighting!  That, my friends, is miraculous lately!  The kids all got to put their names in the obedience basket several times because they were just being good.  Big sister still wasn't acting sick, so I made her go to dance, and then they all got to take a bath in mommy's big bathtub.  Big sister is working on fluency in reading, so her teacher told her to read to her siblings.  So she got to read the bedtime story and then everyone went to bed.  It was just a good day, and we haven't had one of those in a while.  I got to chat with big sister about how well she did and discuss how much nicer it is when she obeys and is nice to her siblings.  It was great to discuss something she'd done right and focus on the positive.  That's been pretty hard lately, too.  Truthfully, I don't think either of the girls was sick enough to stay home yesterday.  They would've been fine at school.  However, I told Husband when he got home that maybe it was okay to just take a day off and have a break.  Don't get me wrong, we cannot make this a habit!  But a "sick" day seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.  One more reason I like the multiple breaks throughout the year - my kids need them!  Is it December yet?