I had the craziest Sunday that I have had in so long. I felt like I was outside of my body for some of it. Like all the kids were playing some kind of practical joke on me.
After waking up to like 6 inches of snow on the ground, we had to make the decision if we were going to weather the roads to go to church or not. Jordan was singing and it was our Annual Pledge Sunday. Paul didn’t have any interest in getting out in the cold and snow, but I could tell Jordan really wanted to. I made the decision that Jo and I would go, we would leave really early giving us plenty of time for the roads.
Good thing we went to church, because only 3 girls from her choir showed us. Luckily, all 3 of them know the words and they were really loud, it was beautiful. I saw a few good friends, got a lot of compliments on how I looked and even left with 36 Eggo waffles and a 5 gallon thing of syrup. Plus, Jojo and I adopted a teenage boy to buy Christmas presents for. All in all, wonderful day at church.
Then, when I got home the baby started right up with me. I want this, I want that, the 8 year old saw the waffles and said “hey mom, make me some waffles”, all before I even took my coat off. So, I put my things away and then I made waffles for everyone. After lunch, the two older kids go downstairs and I hear them yelling their heads off.
I look down in their playroom and the nearly 8 year old his hanging from the bunk bed like a monkey, while the 6 year old is standing on an ottoman singing songs to him. Now, I can’t remember exactly what had happened at the lunch table, but I had just told the two of them to stop dong things that they know the 3 year old shouldn’t be doing. That they need to be setting an example for their baby brother. In case it isn’t clear, I don’t think that hanging like a monkey from the bunk bed is setting a good example.
Needless to say, I sent them both to their rooms for a little while. The whole time the 3 year old is yelling and screaming, trying to get in their rooms. “He doesn’t care”, that they are in trouble. Then, nap time came, after an hour and a half of trying to get the 3 year old down for nap, he was still awake, pounding away on his door like the Hulk.
At that point, I gave up. I was SO overwhelmed, but hadn’t yelled or exploded, much. The 3 year old wouldn’t stop talking back, the 6 year old couldn’t stay still or quiet to save her life and the 8 year old kept smirking every time he did something he wasn’t supposed to do.
After the older two went back to their dads house around 4, that baby was still a piece of work. He had swim lessons at 6:35 that I wasn’t convinced we would be taking him to. I have a hard time sending the kids to something when they have to listen to an adult other than us, when they have been terrible all day.
I decided I would take him. Again, it would be just me and the kid. The day would end in the same way it started. I would take some deep breaths, jump in the car with just 1 child and take them off where they needed to be.
After being a total pain in the butt all day, Noah put his listening ears on for his swim teacher. Don’t worry though, he was back to his talking back self the second he got out of the pool, right up until he went to bed last night.
I have never been so happy to see a Monday in my life!!
Making Time For Me 