GO TO BED!

It's good to have your own Ninja...

It's 10:45pm and a Ninja, a Warlord and a Princess just ran through the kitchen!  Obviously, my three children  have inherited by night-owl tendencies...and while I knew it was inevitable...I really wish they would just GO TO BED! This is how it's been...every night of summer vacation thus far. I swore it would be different. I prepped them for a month before vacation, telling them that THIS year it would be different! They would be going to bed a half hour later than their normal school-year bedtime...everyone agreed...there was no arguing...so how is it that I find myself with three kids still up...playing pretend, complete with costumes, with no sign of slowing down, at nearly 11 pm?

I know it's my fault...I let them sleep in. If I can't get my quiet time after they go to bed, then I want it in the morning. I get up before them...quietly tip-toe downstairs and revel in the blissful quiet of the morning. Of course it isn't that quiet...the dog is up, scratching and licking himself and panting at me to go out. But I will take what I can get. I am getting a little quiet time right now, come to think of it. With the husband watching the baseball game he recorded and the three kids upstairs slaying dragons...I actually have time to think....
Not really...they are loud as they argue who's castle they are in, who is saving the princess, who is the bad guy...

Yes, those really are our lunchboxes!

I don't know what I am complaining about...I have been dying for summer vacation to get here!  No getting up early and driving the kids to school! No plans...no agenda...no homework or projects. No making school lunches...my most-hated task ever! I hate it so much that I calculated just how many school lunches I will make over my lifetime...not counting what I have already done...In the fall, I will begin my journey of making 6,860 school lunches!! NOOOOO! And really, if you count what I have already done over the years...and I did...3,675 lunches...for a grand total of 10,535! Yikes! Really? Wait a minute...sometimes the kids get hot lunch...whew...I feel so much better...that number is just too daunting and I am starting to sweat just thinking about it!

So here I am, thinking that I have it made...because I don't have to make their lunches...but wait...I do! I realized on the first day of vacation, that not only do I have to feed them breakfast and dinner, but they want numerous snacks, lunch, and after dinner, dessert! And the little one is a bored eater...which means, when she is bored, she wants to eat! (I worry about that girl!) The good news is that the oldest asked if he could cook dinner. Well, this is a happy surprise! What? Help me out? Learn something new? OK! I immediately picture he and I browsing through the cookbook, meticulously planning a meal...doing the shopping together and then leisurely cooking together. "How about I make macaroni and cheese?" he says, popping the images in my head. "OK.."  He looks in the refrigerator, studying the contents..."I'll cook this ham too," he says, pointing at the ham steak on the shelf. "Make that ravioli's and ham with rootbeer floats for dessert." So much for my meal planning. "Why the sudden interest in cooking?" I ask. "Well, I don't want to get to college and be living in my apartment and eating cold cereal and popcorn all the time!" Can't argue with that logic! Glad he is planning ahead!

(from the web...but ours looked like this!)

Since her brother tried his hand at cooking, the youngest wanted to have her own try at it. She announced that she would be making breakfast for dinner:  sausage, pancakes and scrambled eggs. She couldn't pick something that can be microwaved? Luckily Daddy was home to teach his daughter how to make pancakes! I am not good at it, nor do I have the patience to teach the art of pancakes to a demanding 6 year old! I would have definitely had to break out the cooking sherry! The next day, the middle child said he was making dinner. He is very ambitious...shrimp tacos, quesadillas, beans and rice...it took a lot of help on my part...but I am thinking that in the long run this is going to pay off! So far they have each cooked two meals...and have decided that for now on every Monday - Wednesday, they will be doing the cooking. The husband and I are responsible for the other four days... that's fine with me...now if I could just get them to help in the housework...

(Dust bunny creation from the web)

UGH...the housework...I have been seriously neglecting the housework. With all three kids at home, I find it nearly impossible to get anything done...it's like trying to brush your teeth while eating  Oreo's....impossible! Last night, the middle son was laying on the ottoman, watching TV. As he lifted his sock-clad foot up, he had a huge ball of dog fur attached. "Ewww...MOM!" he yelled. I looked over as he picked it off his foot and threw it on the floor...."you really need to do something about this, Mom," he tells me. Really? I think maybe it's time to teach my child how to use the swiffer thing to get dog hair out from under the couch! We could make it a game...whoever finds the most dog hair and dust bunnies and makes something creative out of them, wins!

Let's see...I have them cooking...I'll get the middle son to do the floors...now if I can get the little one to clean the windows and the oldest to do the dog's poop scoop, I might just have the summer I've been dreaming of! Whee!

Daylight Savings Time + Rain = CRAZINESS

Daylight Savings Time is kicking my butt. After 5 months of school, we had finally mastered the morning routine. It was awesome. The sun, having just risen, would greet the kids as they woke up. No one was grumpy and they would pop out of bed, get dressed and head downstairs for breakfast.  Everything was right in the world...and then Daylight Savings time happened and screwed it all up! Gone are my happy children, replaced by cranky, sluggish, sloth-like creatures, who's whole existence is to make the morning a traumatic experience for all involved. No one wants to get up. Everyone whines. (especially me!) They walk around like zombies, whining that "it's still dark out. It's night time." (Yeah, like I am really going to wake those three crabs up in the middle of the night!)

Not only am I dealing with the time change and all the adjustments we have to make...but it's been raining all week. It is just so delightful to pick the kids up after a day of school...all spent indoors. First comes the complaining: "I didn't get to play outside ONCE today!" Followed by the very dramatic, "Oh...this is what the outside feels like." UGH...I know how this is going to play out...

Once we are home, they are like caged animals. "Please stop raining," I say under my breath. The kids are loud. Talking loud, laughing loud....Loud. Loud. Loud! The phone rings, I grab it and run to the laundry room to insulate myself against the noise. Two...three minutes tops, and I hear screaming...and crying. "Is that crying or laughing?" I ask myself, hoping it's laughter so I don't have to interrupt my phone call. I peek out the door, to see the youngest straddling the back of the club chair, next to an open window, with the window screen in her hand. Panicked and thinking she broke something and not able to hang onto it for much longer, she is freaking out. "Calm down...just drop the screen, you are OK," I tell her, "Just leave it alone." Five minutes later I am off the phone and come out to see the two youngest children climbing in and out the window. Really? What part of this makes them think this is OK? Luckily they were doing this at ground level!

About an hour later, I start to prepare dinner...if you can call it that. Alright...I admit it...when Daddy is not home for dinner, the menu tends to be a bit lax...but mini pizzas and corn dogs are a food group, right? Don't judge... It's the best I can do...the kids are going stir crazy and driving me crazy in the process. It sounds like a herd of cattle, running down the stairs as I hear, "I've got your pants!" and the youngest goes running through the kitchen, laughing like a hyena...followed closely by the middle son in his underwear yelling, "give me back my pants!" ...Curse you, rain!

I send them upstairs and try to regain my sanity. I can hear them up there...they are up to no good. Yelling, laughing...and thumping. "Wonder what that thumping is?" I briefly think, going back to my very complicated microwave cooking. Big thump...shrieking...running..."Mom! Come quick!" I sprint up the stairs to find the little one wailing on the floor. "She hit her head!" says the middle son. I look around the room and can only imagine how this has happened... the couch has been stripped of it's cushions, which are now lined up on the floor like a launch pad. I cradle the little one as I look at the boys..."Were you jumping on the couch?" I ask. "Nooo...we were standing on the back of the couch, jumping off and landing on the cushions on the floor!" Oh, of course...jumping on the couch would have been too easy...We get the little one laughing by saying silly things, I put the cushions back on the couch and say, "No more!"

It's the rain's fault. Next time, I am just going to send them out to play in the rain! The younger kids will love it...the older will complain. But that's OK...I've been having my own fun this week. Every morning, I put out their clothes for school. They all wear uniforms but there are different colors to choose from. My fun game has been to dress them all exactly alike and see how long it will take them to notice. I snicker to myself when they come down the stairs...three triplets. I chuckle at pick up, when we all walk to the car and they are identical...and I am amazed the oldest hasn't noticed, since he hates to be copied. It took exactly four days for one of them to notice..."Hey! We are all dressed the same!" the youngest happily exclaimed. The boys looked at each other and looked at her. The middle son shrugged and looked at me...the oldest one rolled his eyes with a big sigh. "Darn it!" I thought..."there goes my fun!" Not so...today is spirit day and they are all dressed alike...jeans, purple shirts with the school logo and purple and gold hair. Today, it is fun....but come Monday...they will be watching me!

It's all OK...I get the last laugh. My car has a full tank of gas and my bags are packed. Mama is going out of town without the kids!  Good luck Daddy...it's supposed to rain all weekend. I will be thinking of you as I sip a green St. Patrick's Day beer with my best friends. (who are also running away er...taking some time to recharge their batteries...) I will come back happy and relaxed and ready to master this Daylight Savings time thing!