I've been sick for almost 2 weeks. And I don't have to tell any of you that being mom and sick is the situation we all hope to avoid as long as we can.

At first, I felt lucky -- I do have an au pair, who cares for Rebecca part of each day.

Then, the flu took over and my body collapsed with fatigue and fever. A couple of days later, I hired a babysitter to take over when the au pair finished her hours at 2pm. Last weekend, I hired a babysitter so that I could sleep 4 more precious hours during the day. I was feeling better that Sunday, so I used an hour and a half to slip out to the grocery store to pick up some staples that were running low. I was still exhausted when I paid her and looked at those two eager faces so longing to spend time with me.

Last week, the flu morphed into strep.

All week, I ate ice pops and let the au pair do as much as allowed by our contract. I snapped at my son for really stupid things. I barely cooked dinner mostly because I had no appetite and got nauseous looking at food. Luckily, Rebecca loves scrabbled eggs and those did not make me want to vomit. On Friday, barely able to swallow or speak, I finally got to the doctor.

As my family leaves winds down, I find myself thinking about how I will work, shop, spend one-on-one time with my older son, spend one-on-one time with my daughter, clean, and run the household -- those tasks that don't fall into any of the above categories but must get done. And go to the gym to swim (which my knee and rest of my body needs). Of course, none of this is different from what everyone, every mother, every woman has to deal with. With all this on my mind, and a couple of days worth of penicillin in my body, I was intrigued to read Penelope Trunk's latest post exactly on this topic

I just hired someone to take care of my house for $50,000 a year: A house manager. This is in addition to the full-time nanny I have. And the cleaning service. And the assistant I have at work.

I know the first thing going through your mind is that I’m loaded and I’m lucky. But I’m not either: for instance, the house I live in is so small that I sleep in the kids’ room. I chose a house like this because I think having money to pay people to help me maintain a sane household is more important than having tons of space for tons of possessions. Having to make choices like that is what makes this topic worth writing about.

Now, I'm not even a fan of Trunk's, nor am I writing this to further the faux 'mommy wars' or to judge her choices -- but it sparked me to wonder - for myself as much as anyone else:

How do we find people we trust to work with us and our families?
Do we have to pay people or do friends help friends?
Are men talking about these issues? Frankly, men my age (48) don't seem to be.
How do/did you create your village?