October so far has been filled with a lot of patience-testing moments, tantrums and minor setbacks.

The daughter has been having Annual Day Dance practice almost the whole day everyday in school. This has resulted in tiredness, leg pain, frustrating meal times and a full-blown return of her tantrums and crying spells. I have been having a tough time controlling that impatience of mine and have been talking more than I should at more instance than one.

Then there was (is) that nagging lower back pain which had me struggling through most of my everyday chores. Even while the body craved for a much-needed break, I just couldn’t give it that. Add to it the side-effect of the muscle relaxants that I had for the pain! I generally avoid taking medicines and go for it only when I don’t have any other option. So, there I was, all drowsy and dizzy for two full days and struggled to remain awake all through the day.

Even before I could fully recover from the drowsy effect which made even the back pain a lot more tolerable, Diwali was fast approaching and that meant more standing and more work.

So I made a yummy Mysore Pak, a super soft Badam Katli, omapodi, the classic mixture and, finally, the Deepavali Marundhu which took up almost a whole day of mine by, at first, becoming one solid hard mass which refused to come out of the box into which I had poured it to, to later becoming watery all thanks to the multiple rounds of warm water that I had to pour on it to liquify it enough to take it out of the box. But despite all the time and trouble, the final result turned out to be perfect in the correct texture.

On Monday evening, as I was washing the last of the huge number of dishes, I heard me telling myself that I wish I could get a week’s rest for all the exhaustion resulted from the last few days. That’s when I came to know that my daughter was having school holidays from Wednesday till Sunday! Wow!

Later, when my sister asked me if it will be really a rest for me with so many days school holidays, it struck me how we sometimes prefer the routine since there will at least be some predictability in it, making it seem easier to tackle. My daughter loves going to school, but given the tiredness caused by this Annual Day Practice, I am sure that this time, she will love this break from it.

As for me, yes, it will be tough keeping both away from TV for long, but given all the physical and emotional exhaustion that I have been going through this month, I know that I will enjoy every moment of this much-deserved break.