A whole new kettle of fish

My grandpa used to wiggle his bushy eyebrows when faced with my childish versions of all the problems in the world, and say "Well, now, Wendy-bird, that's a whole new kettle of fish." I always think of him when I get a great big bundle of new stresses, and smile a little bit. I only knew him when I was really tiny, and that is the one memory I have of him, other than that he died. It's amazing that he still makes me smile, when he's been gone since I was 5!

So bear with me, I'm just going to vent stress.

My grandma Ruth got on a senior bus tour and took off for far northern Canada. She got sick while there, and ended up having two emergency surgeries. Obviously my whole family is worried about this. She is talking about wanting to be in a nursing home, so we're scrambling to find an alternative way to care for her. She thinks she's a burden on everyone. It's terrible, and it's a whole new kettle of fish.

My dad recently found out he had cancer and had it removed, without telling any of us until afterward. I wish he would at least keep us up to date, and I hate that he would rather be all alone than worry us. Of course I'm worried! He hasn't been returning my calls. ANother new kettle of fish.

My munchkin's new school is sending home tons of homework, and try as I may, I am having a hard time keeping up with it all. By the time I pick her up from the sitter every day it is 5:30, and then we have dinner, and we end up doing homework until she goes to bed. It's really quite a drag. She ends up so stressed out she can't stop laughing or crying. What's worse, a lot of it is math, which is a bad thing, because I'm numerically dislexic. I'm not able to be very helpful, though I try really hard. Forest helps her when he's free, which is a relief, but no substitute for a mom with a clue. More fish.

I'm still financially screwed because of my insurance company messing up my automatic payments, and I have to pay for my furnace now. So I had to borrow money from family, which is really uncomfortable for me. Particularly because Forest borrowed it from his dad. Forest's dad is a really generous man, but I don't want to take advantage of him! I want to bend over backward and pay it back right away, but it's so much that I can't possibly do that and still make my house payments. Blech. So I swallow pride and pay it back as fast as I sanely can. A whole new kettle of fish.

I'm still semi-stressed that my life as I knew it is gone, and I have to try to make a new one. Fish all over the place.

Forest is stressed because his work has been screwing him over on his schedule, among other things that I won't get into here. We'll just say his list is longer than mine. I hate that he's stressed. He hates that I'm stressed. Which only adds to the total stress. I hate fish.

So last night we did a few hours of Tae Kwon Do, and then collapsed into a quivering heap of snuggle on the couch, under a big warm blanket where the world couldn't get us. At least I'm blessed to have someone to hide from all the fish with.