Our life is not normal and I realize that. I like not being normal, but sometimes it takes its toll. I went walking with a friend last night and she was saying how she doesn't know how I get through the day without a TV on. I'll admit, when my kids watch TV, they are still and quiet and I can do just about anything I want to, but they truly turn into zombies and I don't like it. Most people I know get to go back to the "real world" when school starts. They can send their kids off for the day and then go to their jobs and talk to adults and go to the bathroom without an audience or a screaming match in the other room. A lot of people get their kids to bed and then can unwind for the night. Granted, there are nights that I can do that, but if no one took a nap or rested during the day, this is when my work of laundry, planning for school the next day, and just catching up in general starts. Thursdays have become the hardest days around here. We do school all morning, try to get in a quick nap, head to Rachel's violin lesson, and then I'm on my own until bedtime. (Allen teaches a night course on Thursdays and has to go straight there from the middle school in order to be on time.) Today really just about put me over the edge! We threw in two over-due well visits (for Ford and Rachel) plus all of the errands I needed to get done while in town. We kind of had to rush through math and handwriting this morning, then shove some science and social studies in during nap time. Then Rachel had a meltdown at violin...she's terrified she's going to throw up again and has kind of a mini-panic attack when we get there. Then once we got back home, Ruby has one of her evenings of being absolutely crazy while I'm in the middle of trying to talk to our realtor on the phone. The one shining moment in our evening was that everyone actually ate their dinner (Ruby had three bowls!) and didn't complain at all. I didn't actually have any moments of throwing in the towel completely today, but all of it added together, plus that feeling of rushing from one place to the other with no down time in between was a lot. I think I just need to remember in the future not to plan anything for Thursday mornings. It was just too much! I also told Rachel that she is absolutely required to rest as long as Ruby is napping on Thursdays so that she doesn't go into meltdown mode again at violin which used to be her favorite thing in the world to do!
It was a wild ride today and we're taking a little longer than I thought to adjust to this whole school schedule thing, but in the end, I can sit here and type this and think of just as many good things that happened today:
Rachel and Ford are absolutely healthy!
All three kids behaved at the doctor's office and didn't tear anything up!
When Rachel started playing violin, she did a great job!!
Ruby and Ford and Rachel all entertained themselves at the education store while I talked to Mr. Toby, then we came home with some cool reusable stickers from the store and they actually all entertained themselves without fighting while I made lunch (that's a serious high point of the day!)
Ruby didn't have any accidents today and pretty much went to the bathroom by herself all day!
Rachel could tell me facts about the Polar Zone, Tropical Zone, and Temperate Zone as well as show me the equator and talk about what lines of latitude are.
Nobody got hurt...even though I must have said 100 times, "You're going to hurt yourself!"
Allen has a job (well, jobs) and at least one of them makes him happy. Hopefully this will all lead to an awesome career for him!
We're doing it, we're making it, I just need to keep focusing on the positives :)
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