Sick Child Syndrome

Some days, all else fails. Plain & simple. Not to be a pessimist, but with a statement like that I suppose I have outed myself. Yes, hard as I may try to be ever & uber positive, I often see the glass as half empty. Especially when I have two sick children. Two sick kids who are only fifteen months apart and both under four years old AND who love to fight. Or rather, one who loves to antagonize (the recently turned two year old boy) and one who hates to be antagonized (the three year old going on eighteen girl). So all I have heard for three days straight has been "Ow!!" Whine. "Ow!!" Crying. "Stooooop!!!" Crying & whining. "Owstop!!" (Ow & stop said all at once). And so on.
Two sick kids who desperately need sleep, but refuse to close both eyes at once.

So now it's my turn, "Ugh, groan, sound of hair tearing out, s%#x@!!!!!!! bleep..profanity, profanity, profanity!"
Once I saw an episode of Intervention devoted to a woman by the name of Leslie. Leslie would wake up every morning and say, "I'm Up!" then head directly to the kitchen in search of alcohol, which once she found, she guzzled right in front of her kids who were readying themselves for school. It was so very, very sad to watch. In fact so much so, that I have never watched Intervention again.
Today, the thought crossed my mind that living like Leslie, just for a day, didn't sound so bad.
You'll be proud though. Instead of drinking a Sam's Club sized bottle of mouthwash, I opted to pack the kids up and head to the beach instead. The warmth of the sun paired with the sound of the waves crashing in was enough to make me forget the long, hard last few days and get back to where I needed to be.
Do you ever have days like this where everything just builds and builds and needs some type of dismantling (mine usually involves immersing myself in nature) for you to forget your troubles and get back to being the you, you like being?
I'd love to hear your stress coping secrets.