Each day I start out positive and go through what needs to be done in my head. I get up super early, take my shower, blood sugar, and prenatal vitamin, clean the bathroom, start laundry, do my own school work and lay out the kids’ clothes! My daily "To Do" list is written out and look how much I have crosed out! Wow! What a great start! Before I verbally do so, I start delegating the kid’s jobs:
"Fastolph, start your math work, there it is,”
“Posco, make you bed, and get your English, and can you get out the crayons for Fastolph's math assignment for me please?"
I dress the baby, wash breakfast dishes, put supper in the crock-pot. What a great day it is going to be! Today is the day I will get everything done that I intended. Not like yesterday or the day before that or the day before that…
It starts when Fastolph goes to his room to get dressed and never does. I have no idea what he does do. His clothes are laid out, but he wanders back in still in his pajamas. So we start the “Fastolph get dressed” wars. In the meantime Posco who is dressed and up, goes through the samething with school work. “Posco, start your math work” and he goes to the bathroom. “Posco, start your math work” and he sits at the table, to my satisfaction and 3 minutes later he is up wrestling with an still pajamaed Fastolph on the floor.
Now I start to slowly simmer. I pick up Fastolph and put him in his room and tell him to get dressed. His younger brother starts following him in his room, and I hear giggles. Toddler giggles are usually a pleasant sound, but at the moment, it might as well be IRS at the door. OK, not that bad, but you get the picture. I tell Posco to start his work yet again, and next thing I know Fredegar is up and Posco is sitting with him at the table letting him break crayons in two because it makes him happy. Now am I not only annoyed with the fact no one is doing what I asked, and my perfect day is going down the tubes, and no one is going to be educated and they will end up being illiterate, but this is third box of crayons I have purchased in the past 3 months and they keep disappearing! I put them in gallon bags, I put them up high. I have special kiddy crayons and I keep having to buy more!
Now the giggling in the middle boy’s room is getting intense and I go in there, and not only has Fastolph not gotten dressed, they have stripped their bed to hide in the blankets.
I look at the clock and it is time to get Sleeping Beauty up. The last thing I need ia dose of evil, but that is what I get: “I’m up! It’s too early!” Now like everyone else, her job is get up, make her bed, get dressed, eat and start school. This is the same routine since the establishment of the Upstate Moss household. But to every child it is surprise. Get dressed? In the morning? The oppression! She slowly wanders up, meanders to the dining room in her pajamas, and reads “Dear Abby”. She makes some comments about the current dilemma, which are usually both funny and insightful, but I am annoyed because she knows she is not supposed to be reading “Dear Abby”, nor have I had the opportunity to do so! Instead of taking the moment to bond with her, I snap at her about “yes, Rosey, but what are you supposed to be doing now?”
In the meantime, Fastolph manages to come out semi-dressed, but not in the clothes I neatly laid out for him, but in shorts and one sock.
“What are you wearing?”
“I dunno, this was all I could find!”
“Get the clothes I gave you!”
Back to his room and more blankets and giggling.
So after a day of planned 7 lessons for each child, Fastolph gets 3. I have managed to wash the sheets of 1 bed instead of 2. Instead of the full meal I had planned for dinner plus dessert, I am usually short a side dish and/or the dessert.
One load of laundry gets left in the dryer overnight instead of getting put away.
Please, please, please tell me I am not alone and other Moms who have been there have managed to raise decent children.
It's bad enough that she likes celebrity news, but Dear Abby?
For what it's worth, your post is inspiring to me :) I have only a 4 and
OK, back to my morning....
--Amanda
Good gravy, you get a LOT more done than I do!!!
I'm *almost* convinced that we've got a poltergeist or something that hides things away from us like crayons, keys, lego pieces, etc. ;)
I have to ditto Sparki. If I got half as much done a day, I'd be a happy camper.
I got tired just reading all that.
Need a nap now...
Wait, hold on one second. You actually pick up Gecko?
Oh my... you are NOT alone... except, I don't get near as much done and it is my fault because I spend too much time on this stupid computer, but also, because of that thing where you tell kids a million times to do something and they go and do something else, usualy some big mess... what could be more maddening than that?
I'm just glad to see I am not alone... Sometimes, I too think I must be alone. But this is how my day went the other day...
It's all in a day's work. (Coucoumelle's son)
Coucoumelle, that was hilarious. But maybe not so much for you though, eh? lol
You and Pansy are my heroes.
OMgoodness, you're living my life, except with more kids.
Totally get the toddler giggle/IRS moment.)
You and Pansy are my heroes.
No, you guys are my heroes. I thought I was alone and a huge failure. I have been getting a lot of pressure lately from many different family members (on different levels of input) that i basically "can't handle" so many kids, or home schooling or both. So everytime I have a day like the one described, I get really, really sad.
Yesterday I ordered pizza (again) and I was depressed about it. At 3-4 PM, I get really zombie-like tired. So seeing other Mom comments about the struggles of juggling make me feel sooo much better.
Pansy,
You ARE crazy for attempting that much! I have made the resolve to give myself ONE task (in addition to making dinner) every day and spend the rest of the time patting myself on the back. It's part of the project "make dinka a nicer person to live with". It's not working yet, but i am sure tomorrow is the day when it all comes together, I swear.
How can you be depressed about ordering pizza?! Remember it is better to be relaxed, smiling and ordering pizza than to have everything done perfectly but be in a bad mood. Um, I say that because you mentioned somewhere that you'd like certain "perfect" people to be smiling more when you went to visit them. So if certain people were smiling more, maybe they'd be less perfect too. And said people might not have to pressure you to be perfect too. Besides, perfect is boring right? What if everyone were perfect? We'd all be the same. You don't want to be boring Dani. You need to have quirks. That's what makes you interesting. Remember, no matter how imperfect you are, there is always going to be someone "imperfecter".
"20 years from now you will miss these days" But if someone had told Alicia that (then) she would have been convinced that they were crazy. So you can easily say that you can't believe what "those crazy older people" said. There were times when MY response was: "My parents survived me and my five younger sibilings. I can doggone well survive my own six children."
Now I am praising and thanking God for all the graces that were there and that we have received. Praying now because I did not pray near enough then. Too busy - that was the excuse then.
are we living parallel lives?!?!?!! OMgosh, that is really my life you are writing about. Do NOT feel alone.... we have the same struggles. I can especially relate to the shock and surprise the children express at the *gasp* thought they have to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and do their school work every day!!! What shock! What revelation! What trauma for small people!
> you are not alone..........