Karma Kids

Don't be lulled into thinking you've finally gotten the upper hand on a good night sleep. Don't work until 12:09 in the morning, ripping through three chapters of your new YA, smirking at the thought that you're still going to get almost seven hours of sleep, and that's pretty good. Don't take some Nyquil and then top it off with a little Robitussin insurance to make sure that this hacking cough won't keep you up all night again. Nope, this time you are going to get a solid seven hours. Don't spread out in the giant king sized bed with the wonderful new Egyptian flannel sheets that you have all to yourself because DH is on the other side of the world on business because tonight you're going to get a nice, quiet seven hours sleep. Don't put the fact that you only have two more days to write four web articles on a tight deadline behind you. You aren't going to let that keep you up tonight - nope, tonight you sleep. Because if you do....

...that's when your eyes will pop open at 2:36 am and your mind will race, wondering if that noise you heard was one of the kids. Yes, there it goes again, a plaintive little cry from the bathroom. Mo-om! There you will find one of your children hunched over the toilet, puking his guts out and shivering from a headache and fever. After countless hours sitting on the cold bathroom tile with his head in your lap, you finally maneuver him back into bed and then climb in beside him. After all, somebody has to hold the bucket.

Ah, well. Sleep is vastly overrated.

On this date: In 1898 the U.K. had its first auto fatality.