Strep throat & other winter hazards

Yesterday morning, my little man woke up to a sore throat and general tiredness-this is after he had a snow day on Wednesday. No fever, no white spots on the back of his throat-so I sent him to school. Fast forward several hours later, Nurse Betty calls me that he has a fever of 103 & could I come get him? The poor little guy! I call the doctor & get him into the clinic, and sure enough angry tonsils & white spots abound. My heart breaks for him because he's such a little guy and he's not feeling good. I'd rather be the sick one and he be healthy. So not fair!
On a positive note, he is taking his medicine, so he will be able to get rid of this nasty infection and be back to normal.
Speaking of normal, its day 3 and my kitchen counter is still clean. It makes me smile when I walk into the kitchen and not see a mess and clutter everywhere. The bottom line is I really like it neat & clean, but I struggle with keeping it that way. I think it just takes work every day to do it. I made it a habit to clean up the bathroom everyday and now I'm on auto pilot. I wipe down the shower and spray my daily shower cleaner (lemon juice, baking soda & water). I wipe down the counters, toilet & sinks. I swish some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet & voila! Clean bathroom. I do the little man's bathroom when he's taking a bath, so that stays clean too.
Its just like what I do in the mornings after I take my shower-I have my little routine. I empty the dishwasher, clean off the counter, use my swifter duster around the main floor & swifter the kitchen & bathrooms (the swifter & dusting is most days) and try to do a general tidy up. Sometimes I can squeeze in doing a load of laundry in the morning, but that usually requires more thought that I can allow. I try to keep up with the laundry, but it seems some weeks I am better at it than others. It seems like some weeks in general I am better at the whole housework thing than other weeks. But I do try my best.
Its just like with the little man-all I ask of him is to try his best. I don't want him to feel pressure (for goodness sake he's only in first grade!) but I want him to get the foundation of good study habits and good life habits. I want him to practice picking up after himself. I want him to do his homework every night without a fuss. I want him to put his dirty laundry in the hamper. Its important to get these set NOW because by the time he's a tween its too late. I am especially concerned about the study skills because he's so darn smart. I am afraid that he will try to coast by with his natural intellectual ability, and not even really try. That will be a problem by the time he gets to high school & college. What I would really love is for him to come home from school, have a light snack (like apple slices or an orange) get changed, and then sit down & do his homework. Most nights its just his spelling words, sometimes there's reading and math. Its hard to do this since I am still at work when he's getting home from school. I can hope, however! Even if he starts his homework before dinner, he's gotten it done and out of the way. The other part of my vision is that we eat dinner as a family (which we do)and then the little man & I do some activity together (like a craft project or something). We did for a while, and that stopped (probably because I was tired one night)and it never restarted.
I also have visions of me cooking dinner, but that usually doesn't happen due to the fact that I don't get home from work until 5 or so, which means we won't be eating until 6 ish & the Big Man needs to be in bed by 7:30, and he doesn't want to go to sleep completely full and undigested. So, he does the cooking, and I veg out. Somewhere along the way I need to find time to hit the treadmill, and work out. I used to do it in the mornings, but that basically stopped because I wasn't motivated. I need to get motivated again, but its not there...yet at least.
I also have to find time to get housework done during the week, so my weekends are not consumed with cleaning and doing a mountain of laundry. I am tired of punishing my son for not doing stuff he likes with me because I have housework to do. I am tired of him feeling like housework is punishment, because it ruins our time together. I am tired of punishing myself, with errands and housework and feeling like I don't have any fun anymore because of it. I need to get the grocery shopping done during the week, I need to run errands during the week. I need to keep my weekends free so the Little Man & I can do stuff together (the Big Man can join us if he wants, but he's a total homebody). The Kirby Science Center has free fridays the first friday of every month, which would be a fun thing to do, but we never go. We could (in nice weather) go for a walk along the bike trails (but we don't) we could go to any of the musuems here in town but we don't. Story time at Barnes & Noble even...but none of that happens because I am so wrapped up in keeping the household running, that my little guy is missing out something so important-time with his mommy. I don't want him to tell me 20 years from now that I ruined his life because I didn't spend any time with him due to housework. I don't want him to think that my job took precedence over him, I don't want him to think that he was second or third tier in my life. He's my number one (with Daddy a close second-since he's a grown up and can take care of himself) and I have to treat him that way. It shouldn't take a bout of strep throat to reorganize my priorities, but it did.
Going forward, I am going to try to be a better mother. I am going to make time for us to do fun things. I am going to try to organize the rest of my life so that it doesn't run into my time with my boys. He's only going to be 7 once, and I need to think of things that ensure we spend time together. I want to enjoy every minute of this, and the housework and errands and grocery shopping can wait.