Awake at 5:30 am. At least coffee is ready. Nothing else is, though. Two laundry baskets full of clean clothes in the hallway. Two more full of dirty clothes in the bathroom. Dirty dishes and cookware are stacked in the sink and on the stove. This just means that before I can start breakfast, the kitchen will need to be cleaned, or at least everything gets stacked on the counter. There are 4 or 5 half-finished projects around the house. And here it is 6:15 am and the kids are already getting out of bed. I get one to go back into the bedroom and as I shut the bedroom door, the other one opens. Ugh! You just cannot convince a 6 year old and certainly not a 3 year old to go back to bed. They just don't get the concept of sleeping in on a weekend. So "game on!"
Now it is time to play referee and goalie -- trying to keep them from fighting and arguing or playing too loud so Mom and baby can sleep. It also means trying to keep them from going into the bedroom where Mom and baby are sleeping. I think they believe that if they are awake, everyone should be awake. When they ask to go get their friends to play at 7 am, I should let them go!!
Throughout the day, it just seems to be a game of getting by rather than getting things done. Just about the time a meal is ready and served up, we all sit to eat and something happens - the baby wakes up and is ready to eat too, the dog starts barking at the mail man, or one of the kids needs something or spills something. When dinner is over, the kids are wound up and so the dishes can wait. Once the kids to get to bed, plus another 30 to 60 minutes of "get in your room", "go to bed", and "go to sleep", we are too wiped out to do anything and one or both of us falls asleep in the living room -- which is why the dishes are still there come morning.
Frustrations build because things are not getting done - I have not touched my homework, her work is stacking up, and we barely seem to have enough energy to talk about the things we need to talk about. The house needs to be cleaned, bills need to be paid, and chores need to be done. It just seems that the harder we work at getting these things done, the less that actually gets done = finger cuffs. The harder you struggle and pull to get free, the tighter the grip it has on you.
