Mothering Many

That’s me. This blog about the kids is all about the mama tonight. I’m tired. I have done school, I have practiced the Christmas program, I have done laundry, I have cleaned, and I am just tired. And also, some of us are getting sick. You can include me in that number. This does not make me happy, because I need to keep teaching, practicing, washing,and cleaning. There is no time now for sick, or for Pigeon Forge cabin rentals and vakay. Did that earlier this month. I Must Press On. In spite of the fact that I want to be in bed already at 9:30pm.

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If you get a chance to buy these cookies, don’t. These are the nastiest cookies I have had in a long time. A quick look at the ingredients reveals that they contain “artificial honey flavor”, but no actual honey. There’s no bear meat in them either, in case you were wondering. In fact, they mostly taste like old cufflinks: cold, flat and metallic.

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From the front room window, that is.

High on the list of things that continue to frustrate me: my living room blinds. Remember the kids broke them? I know I said that. It’s been months now, and *cough* they are still broken, because…well, cleaning while you have kids is like shoveling the sidewalk while it’s still snowing and repairing things while you have kids is…required. But I plan to replace, not repair, and I actually plan to use roller shades, like the ones I have in my bedroom. As much as I like the Hunter Douglas blinds, and as much as I love the idea of shutters, I know that the shades would be a better choice for now.

Surprisingly enough, my vertical blinds have remained relatively unmolested. 5 years here, and we’ve still got all of them, and the slide mechanism still works. Perhaps that’s because they 1)stay slid back all the time and 2) face the boring back yard where nothing cool ever happens.

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How come everyone gets a nap but me? I know I mentioned yesterday that I am trying to get the kids back on an even keel, and part of that includes an earlier bedtime, and fuller school days. The kids are just thrilled, I tell ya, ab-so-lute-ly THRILLED. And I am dogmeat tired, and have the brain power of a bowl of cold oatmeal by 3pm when it’s finally time that I can think about writing. Oh, and Miss Drama, she does hate the idea of he light being off and also the idea of her own bed and also she “wants to sleep on you”, meaning she wants me to rock her to sleep again. Ooooooooookay. What else am I gonna do, eat bonbons with a hydroxycut chaser?

Seriously, I am tired, and just so you don’t think Pollyanna is writing this blog, I did lose it last night with Drama. Even DH commented, asking me what was up. I was tired of pouring out, pouring out, pouring out. I was angry and I was empty, and I just wanted them all to go to bed and leave me alone, for crying out loud! And then I remembered something almost magical–those same kids who drain me also fill me up. I was so tired I had forgotten to let them refuel me. I met their needs and then got up to do something else, instead of allowing them to meet mine. So I pushed my work aside (yeah, I really need to get to that still), and I picked Drama up and we rocked; snuggled up in that comfy chair, we rocked. And I forgot how long he day had been, and I forgot how tired I was, and I forgot how she was supposed to be sleeping, and I just soaked up that good baby lovin’.

Here’s hoping I remember that lesson before I get waspish and ornery again.

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You know, something may be a little awry when a full day of cleaning, schooling and general mom-ming leaves me frazzled and unable to string three words together in a coherent and meaningful manner! Obviously this past few months of football and cheer have taken their toll on every facet of our lives, and it is going to be a struggle to get teh kids back on an even keel.

I started last night with earlier bedtimes of 8 and 9 for the boys and girls respectively. It’s time for the adults to have time to themselves again around here. Drama thwarted this by getting up around 10:30, but by then dh and I had actually managed to have a conversation about nothing without interruption, so I am calling it a grand success.

Right this very minute, I am listening to Diva and Country fight because I won’t let them have a life until they excavate the sty they call a bedroom. Yeah, I know according to the gurus I should let them keep their room the way they want, but they share space and I don’t think it’s fair to let them make each other live with the piles of whatever-it-is, so I make them clean it. Besides, we can’t find Drama’s underwear, so it’s time. Of course, if you have a sizable piece of land for sale right here in my neighborhood and connections that will enable you to put an 8 bedroom house on it, then call me. I’ll also accept donations toward an addition on our current home-HA!

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I hope you enjoyed following along on our trip. I did not realize that the posts would not format correctly, so I am going to cut and paste it here, in the order that I posted it, along with some pertinent twitters. Then I’ll delete the messy stuff, hoping that Google has not crawled in the past couple of days, because broken links can hurt your page rank, and I really don’t want to go any lower than my current ZERO.

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We’re outta here!!!!!
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Finally, we’re actually on the road. Caravan to Charlotte.
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Do you see age spots? I do not see age spots. Country says there are age spots. I say she is seeing things.
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Just called my grandma’s. Yearly dose of guilt duly received. Sigh and cry.
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Lunch at Golden Corral complete with banana pudding and chocolate chess pie. Cool Whip overload.
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Here is our room. My girls and another cheerleader. Our arch-nemesis team is here on the same floor.
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At hotel. Sorta boring. Pool closed. Just like everything else on Thanksgiving.
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Hanging about, waiting for pizza (very expensive pizza) and hair-dos (those are free)
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The lengths we go to! And wait til you see Country.
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What we did to Country
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We are here at the stadium. At the stadium, excitement incredible, adrenaline an actual touchable substance. We have 4ish hours of watching before we take the mat.
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The girls nailed it
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8 states worth of Pop Warner cheerleaders, upper 3 divisions on the floor, the big wait begins. Orlando or no Orlando?
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Did not get a nod, will not advance.

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Today, I am a mad mama. I have written a post all about why I was angry, and it has nothing to do with projection televisions, and everything to do with how Virgin Mobile sucks.

I’m also a sad mama. I thought I did not care much about celebrating Thanksgiving with the extended fam, but no that the reality of it is pressing near, and I am reading about everyone else’s plans, it’s getting to me.

And also, a bad mama. There’s laundry to do, food to cook, bags to pack, and lists to make, and yet, here I sit, blogging, cause it’s what I do.

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No, I did not. No, I did not. No, I did not. I did take all the stuff with me last night to make a master to-do list, but instead I wound up planning stuff for the church youth group which I am now apparently helping lead. K, thanks So, I will take it with me tonight, and try again, of course, it will now be longer, because I have to add in the stuff that we talked about last night. I tell you, I am beginning to feel like I belong somewhere in this picture:

Of course, which of the children are accompanying me in Stooge-dom is ever changing, and occasionally there are more than two, LOL. Usually though, it is Country and Diva that I am cutting the craze with these days.

Of course, there are those moments when I get in trouble all by myself, and then I feel like I belong in this picture:
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TheClone and I both think Lucy is just about all that and then some.

So, here’s the deal. I want you to visit the memorabilia site, and find a picture that makes a statement about your life right now, and then come tell me which one it is. We can laugh our way back to sanity, right?

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Do you remember yesterday I said I thought I would work on a todo list? Well, as if in cyber-confirmation, Carmen, otherwise known as Mom to the Screaming Masses said today should be about doing something for me, even if that meant crossing something off my to-do list. Since my most aggravating issue is the fact that I can’t remember all the stuff I need to do, I plan to gather up my scraps and cards and notebooks and make a master list tonight. Since I have jotted some stuff down on blogs as well, I’ll pull those in, too.

As for the rest of what I said last night, I did not get up quite as early as I wanted, but I did get to spend some time with the Father, and we did get some tidying done. Tomorrow: lather, rinse, repeat! No need to polish the kohler faucets, but I would like to see all the dirty towels washed, dried, folded and put away. Today, I’ve concentrated more on the clothes we wear.

Let me tell what else I have discovered: I am way to easy on my kids in school. According to the children, DH made Stuntman write his numbers correctly and Batman re-read the page until he got everything correct. Now, I had been reading the numbers as written and asking for clarification if I needed it, and I had been gently leading Batman through corrections and letting him do it again tomorrow. That mess stops immediately, muhahahahahhahahaha. Let’s pick up the pace a bit, umm-kay? Kay!

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Tomorrow, I am getting up on time, I am going to enjoy a few kidless, quiet minutes and then I am going to start us on our day. Batman has a follow up at 9am from his T&A, and we also need to have school and do some cleaning. I am going to have a vacuum this weekend or……….well, I refuse to put up the Christmas tree without vacuuming, so that’s that. And also while the kitchen is messy, and there is laundry on the couch.

We also have 2 cheer practices and then a day off and then Thursday/Thanksgiving Diva, Country and I are traveling to Charlotte. Remember I said I had at least a week of cheer season left? Regional Competition is this Friday. Nationals are the first week of December, so I may be working on some fundraising in the next couple of weeks. Unless you know of someone who would be willing to donate to help offset the $9,000 it’s going to take to get the cheer squad to Orlando. I guess I could ring up Nike golf and see if they’d do it, but somehow loud cheerleaders and quiet golfing don’t quite go together in my mind.

And somewhere in all this, I want to do that stuff I talked about earlier. In fact, it might be a good use of time to make a big to do list tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

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