Part of being Mom is going on even when you just want to climb back in bed, pull the covers over your head and not come out. It means taking kids to school and making meals and finding everyone clean clothes even when everything hurts and your head can’t decide if it’s going to explode or gradually leak your brains out your nose.

It’s exactly these kinds of days when the inspiration for things such as zombies and living dead becomes painfully clear. Some poor kid somewhere must have watched his sick mother stumble out of bed, into clothes and woodenly go through the motions of the morning routine, with vacant eyes and murmured growls for words… and right there, concept of the living dead was born. Granted, the then-kid eventually added in things like sagging skin, dark hollow eyes and missing limbs to play up the Horror aspect a bit. However, even though he wouldn’t admit it to his mother for fear of joining his creations, the only thing he really added in was the missing limbs.

Today is the kind of day when running out of Sudafed and caffeine qualifies as a Family Emergency, and even collapsing on the hard, sagging mattress of Temporary Living Quarters can bring tears of sweet relief to my eyes. Today is a day when any semblance of caring about healthy eating and regular exercise has a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving near me. It’s a matter of surviving while taking care of everyone else who needs me, a balancing act of the need to take care of those I am responsible for and the urge to crawl in bed and not come out until it’s over.

And all I’ve got is a bad cold - I guess you could say I really don’t ‘do’ sick all that well. At least I’m in good company - zombies are actually quite friendly you know!