I was so looking forward to this weekend. The past few weeks have been really difficult to get through. There’s just been a lot going on and we’ve been busy and stressed out about all kinds of things. The weekends seem like the only chance we have to come up for air…and we take full advantage. Last Sunday we all stayed home just because Sam did (he was sick). It’s not really a good reason…but it was nice to just hang out with no agenda…nothing to get ready for…nowhere to go.
Last night Sam and I went on a much anticipated date. Big Jasmin came over to be with the kids. I think they had a really good time with her. It’s been a few weeks since they’ve seen her. They miss Mimi a lot. So we were driving up to Lansing (we often go there on our dates) and I asked what he was planning to do. And he said he was taking me shopping! What!? I was shocked. This had never happened. Apparently he had some money and wanted to buy me some new clothes. Nice. So we got to the store around 7:30 but found out they were closing at 8. So I tried on as much as I could in that half hour and we walked out with 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of pants for work, a sweater and three shirts. We save 83.00 because of the sales, too! It was the fastest shopping trip I have ever done. But it was fun. After that we went over to Pancheros for some yummy burritos. Then we went to see a movie I am not proud to admit I saw, but it did have a good story line. Anyway, we had a good time.
My plan for today was to get a lot of house work done. It didn’t go as planned. Sam left early this morning to help out at Penny’s Estate Sale. I was expected (mine and Sam’s expectations) to spend the whole day cleaning and really make some progress on it. It’s been a while since I have done some good thorough cleaning and every room needs some attention desperately. So tonight, Sam comes home and he’s disappointed. I am disappointed with myself and feel really horrible about not even coming close to meeting our expectations. It’s just so hard when you have four kids running around, demanding stuff, wanting to eat every 5 minutes, changing diapers, cleaning up messes! (And there were a lot today…let’s see: spilled milk, spilled water, Karson’s playmobile mining rocks, rice, cheerios, paper airplanes and all the remnants of the process of creating them – they had fun with the stapler that I brought home from school this weekend, a broken glass, spilled malt-o-meal, bathtime – need I say more, and then there are all the toys and clothes and dishes!) I seriously felt like I spent the day following the kids around and cleaning up stuff. They were not very cooperative with me today. I noticed that when I try to discipline them, they ALWAYS ask for more chances…which tells me that my discipline is not very effective…which makes it REALLY hard to get them to do anything. Sam has no problem with that…but when I am home alone with them, it is always a struggle. On top of that, Jaz is teething. Well, she has her top two teeth now, but maybe there are more coming in…I haven’t really checked. But she was very fussy today. Didn’t eat well. It seemed like every time I tried to feed her she was overly tired and wouldn’t eat much. She did not take good naps today. Especially her afternoon nap. She woke up like 3 times. She was a little congested…maybe she just didn’t feel all that great, I don’t know. It’s hard to know what to do when it isn’t obvious what the problem is. I felt like I tried everything…but nothing worked and so I was frustrated a lot today, which made it hard on the kids probably, because I felt under pressure to get stuff done, and started to realize I couldn’t and I kind of took out my frustrations on them because they hadn’t done much…but I really didn’t create the opportunity for them to do things to help clean up. They did a little. But I mean, if I would have been more about making it fun and coming up with a goal to work towards or something, it might have been more successful.
Tomorrow is another day. We will all be at church. I am going to enjoy it. We’ll come home and eat our dinner and have our “family nap time”, I’ll do some loads of laundry, put it away, and do my lesson plans probably…hopefully I will not have to stay up till 2 or 3.
I think I am starting to get sick, because my throat is sore or swollen on one side…it’s really painful. It’s probably my body wearing down…I am sure I can’t keep up these late nights too much longer without getting sick. I should be in bed right now, actually. I think I will go put the laundry in the dryer and start another load and then I am going to bed.
Here’s a picture of the kids on their first day of school this year…Savannah in 3rd grade, Max and Karson in Kindergarten.