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!

Soooo CRABBY!

Ah...the quiet of a Saturday morning....I am up early enough, that I have the house to myself. Of course I have to tiptoe around and pray that the beeping on the coffee maker doesn't wake anyone...but still...to be able to sit and have some quiet time...priceless!  The afternoon is filled with BBQ's and baseball games...so I'm enjoying the quiet while it lasts...

It's been a week of rain, rain and more rain! Thunder and lightening, hail, torrential downpours...and while I love the rain (when I am not in it)...I think it has made me very crabby!  A couple of nights ago, I was SO crabby! And now, looking back, I can laugh about it...but I learned something...when I am crabby...BEING crabby is just not funny! I tried to write my blog that night...but I was just too cranky, I was afraid to post what I had written! I have gone back and read it...and it is fit to print...So here is my crabby Wednesday night:
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(picture from web)

I am so crabby! The crabbiest of all crabs! Things that normally don't bother me, are driving me nuts! Like a lot of women, I am feeling the hormonal surge that comes once a month...and it is not pretty! Everything my poor husband does, is irritating to me. I just want to sit down and watch (gasp) "America's Next Top Model" and fold clothes. Yes, I know the show is stupid...but I want to watch something stupid...and the husband is totally willing to watch it with me...which I find completely irritating.  See? He can't win tonight! I don't want him to watch it with me...he thinks it's stupid...God help him if he rolls his eyes or sighs loudly...so I am better off just letting him have the television right now... (which is making me crabbier)

At 10:15pm, I hear the boys upstairs...still awake...laughing...I know they are playing... I heard the oldest one come crashing out of his bunk bed about 30 minutes ago...so I am fairly certain he is in middle brother's bed. UGH! I hate that they are still awake, and love that they like to sleep together...so now I have to go up there and threaten them...I SO need a drink...

(Here it is...in my laundry room...still crooked)

Things seem to be breaking left and right around here. The dryer squeaks, my cute "WASH" sign in the laundry room is hanging on one nail, the switch to the lights in the kitchen are broken and I am forced to use the one fluorescent light, which bathes everything in a sickly green color....ARGHH....It is all driving me crazy right now! Every time I turn on the heater in the back of the car for the kids, there is a knocking sound...I always think it's the kids kicking the car, and then realize it's the heater...Luckily, we are heading into warmer weather, so at least that won't be an issue...but what do you want to bet the air conditioner does the same thing?

It's all too much for me right now! Everything is driving me crazy! The dog is shedding and leaves huge tufts of hair behind every time he stands up. It doesn't matter how many times I sweep the floor...There is enough dog hair on the rug, for me to rake up and build a dog. Or perhaps I could knit some bald dog a nice warm dog hair sweater! (If I could knit)

I'm still up doing laundry...the kids get to wear their "jog-a-thon" shirts every day to school. They are WHITE! UGH! Who gives white shirts to elementary kids and tells them to wear them every day? Not a mother! Hopefully next year, we can get the purple shirts and the middle school can have white. Oh wait...I will have a middle schooler next year...(I just can't win)

And really...all of these things would bother any normal person...however, I am also completely irrational right now...and I know it. The husband can't do anything right. His very presence is irritating to me. His breathing my air is irksome at this point. But he is smart. He stays in the other room, not uttering a word (for fear I will snap at him)...in fact...he is so good, that he is folding the clothes I unceremoniously dropped on the couch...

(Thank you Charles Schulz! Comic off of web)

Thank goodness for my Facebook friends who are sharing in my extreme crabbiness. I posted "Soooo crabby!" on my page tonight. Immediately my friends popped up..."Me too" said the first one. "Me three!" said the next...and on and on...until at least 10 friends said they were also crabby. Two of them are pregnant...so I suppose they have an excuse...but the rest of us blamed it on the rain that has been falling every day for a week!

My mood is lightening...after being on Facebook and reading the funny comments from my sisters and friends and instant messaging with my sister who is coming up with more reasons to be irritable, I am laughing at the whole situation. Oh, I still feel growly...and God help those kids if they come down the stairs this late at night...And the husband better cut a wide berth when he has to pass me to get to the stairs...but all and all...this too shall pass...but in the meantime...I think I will just give in and enjoy my crabbiness, knowing that my crabby friends are feeling the same way!

The Night that Wouldn't End...

I hate bedtime. It's like herding cats. The kids are going in different directions and I have to tell them to do something at least 3 times, before it gets done. Right now it is 45 minutes past their set bedtime. The middle child begged me to let him finish his new Lego set (he got a ton of them for his birthday)...the youngest is bugging me because she is "scared" and wants to sleep in big brother's room and big brother is down here pleading with me to not let sister sleep in his room. Meanwhile there is screaming, yelling and door slamming...which drives the dog insane, and he is panting and running in circles...

(photo from web)

The little one peeks down the stairs, "I am washing my face!" she announces..."I have soap all over it!" Okay...that's a new one. One minute later, she makes her way downstairs, "I know I look like a freak" she says, "I can't get the soap off my face!" Oh brother! I take her into the kitchen, get a wet paper towel and wipe down her face, only to find that I am making the soap foam up. "Wow, that's a lot of soap!" I think. I get another paper towel and try again...now she is downright frothy! I take her upstairs, get a wet washcloth and try again...wiping up to the hairline...and see that the soap is in her hair and I have just made it worse. UGH! Now I have to put her in the shower. "Why were you washing your face?" I ask. She starts crying and says, "Because my brother put a booger on my face!"

I find myself once again yelling something I never thought I would say, "Don't wipe boogers on your sister's face!" From the bedroom comes, "I didn't really do it, Mom! I was just kidding!" After getting the little one rinsed off and into pajamas, I went into the oldest's room. "For future reference," I tell him, "Don't even pretend to put a booger on your sister. She is 6 and it will freak her out." I went on to tell him how she went overboard with the soap...we had a good laugh, and he promised he wouldn't do it again...I wonder if I should have added, "Don't wipe a booger on your brother either!"  Oh well, I guess we will just fight that battle when we come to it. I'm thinking the younger brother will be the one to wipe a real booger on his brother...it's not going to be a pretty scene.

(photo from the web)

At 9:45pm, the kids are still not asleep...they are working me for more time with their lights on. It is now an hour and a half past bedtime. The husband walks through the door, just as the eldest is on his way down the stairs. "What are you doing up?" he asks. "I'm getting the dog," he explains. At 10, the poor kid is desperate for a dog of his own. Oh, we have a dog...but he is 14 and crabby. And he's really my dog. Follows me everywhere...which I love...well, except when I am changing my clothes and he stares at me. Makes me think he is thinking, "Good God! You have really let yourself go!" and then I feel so self conscious...

(Yep...this is Maverick...staring at me!)

Anyway, the dog refuses to go upstairs without me, so I have to take him upstairs to sleep on the bottom bunk of the 10 year old's bed. I generally don't allow this, but I feel bad because I accidentally tripped the dog earlier and he kind of fell. (Don't feel bad, Maverick...I tripped and fell down in the playroom yesterday...)

"So how was your night?" asks my husband. "Did you bring any beer home?" I ask. "Noooo," he replies. "I can't believe you left me with no beer!" I say. "Be right back!" he says as he heads out the door. "MOM!" I am being summoned..."Can I have some water?" asks the middle child. "Will you sleep with me?" calls out the youngest..."  This is the night that will never end...It's not like I have anything else to do...just empty out the lunch boxes, start the dishwasher, fold clothes, wash their white "jog" shirts for tomorrow...oh and copy down a verse for the little one so she can try out for the speech meet...yeah...that's not a lot. Forget the beer...I'm making a pot of coffee!