frustrations, annoyances, and things that just plain make me angry!

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So, I need a gripe session. One thing I have learned from doing this blog for the last year is that when I get stuff out of my head, it’s alot easier to move on with my day…

Today is one of “those” days! It’s been brewing for  few days, and I just kept thinking that if I made it through a few more hours then tomorrow would be a new day. But one new day after another, I keep waking up to the same problems. The overall problem here is that I have two (sometimes three) kids who think they can do what they want when they want! I have tried so hard to find a good balance in my parenting. I want my kids to be kids…and I know that means they will make messes, and be loud, and break things. I also want them to respect our home and our things. My nature is to freak out about every mess and every spill and every stray crayon mark on the kitchen table. I have fought LOTS of internal battles with myself…trying to reprogram how I look at these kinds of situations. I try to cut them a little slack, be understanding and sensitive to them as individuals. But sometimes enough is enough!!!! Here is how today became one of  “those” days…

It all started yesterday morning…about the time Eliza opened her eyes. She is fully immersed in “terrible-twodom” and is testing me at every turn (and this just occured to me, but I think it is rubbing off on Lexi and Isaac and they are returning to two year old mentality!). We were all ready and hurrying out the door to church (with two extra kids)…and Eliza was no where to be seen. I found her upstairs sitting in front of the bookshelf “reading.” Since my arms were full I could only take the book and tell Lize that it was time to leave. She said, “NO”, grabbed the book and sat back down! So I responded with the “Okay, well, goodbye, we’re all going to leave for church now” line that is supposed scare kids into running for the car. NOT Eliza! She started crying but made no effort to move. I went downstairs, we opened the garage door, loaded up all the other four kids, started the car, backed out of the garage, and still no movement… I came inside fuming! I found her still in the toy room forcing out a pathetic moaning cry…but in the meantime she had moved on to playing with other toys! Like she had accepted her fate…left home alone for a few hours, a little sad, but really okay to play in peace…What the heck!?!?!? I said nothing, picked her up (okay, and yes I might have given her a little extra tight squeeze) and carried her to the car. She continued to sob ALL THE WAY to church. I decided to stay in the car with her while Bryce dropped off all the other kids, hoping that she could calm down and we could start fresh. After another 10 minutes of pathetic moans and sobs I gave up on letting her finish. I felt kinda guilty, but I was dropping this teary, slobbery mess on the sunday school teachers! I gave her a hug and told her I was so sad that she was having such a bad morning…kissed her on the cheek and handed her off to an eager young helper. Not more than 5 minutes into the service the dreaded red box popped up in the corner of the big screen with a child’s code. It’s been years since that code has matched my kids number…but today…it was me! I was the parent who stood up and left to retrieve my inconsolable child! I had gotten just enough time away to let my blood pressure return to near normal…and seeing my red-eyed, pathetically sad little girl across the lobby tugged at my heart and made me want to make her all better. We snuggled for a bit and she seemed to snap out of it finally (ahhh, it really does feel so good when mommy can fix it). The tears and fits continued on and off for the rest of the day though…wouldn’t sit and eat lunch, woke up from a nice long nap screaming, flailing around on the floor tantrums…right up until bed last night! Oh, and the couple hours of peace and quiet we did get while she was napping was spent dealing with Isaac and his side-kick Abby who “accidentally, didn’t know” that the big chunky black and pink color crayons would actually COLOR on the carpet in his bedroom! Strangely enough, after they discovered that the first swipe across the carpet did indeed leave a mark, they continued to move around the room drawing stars, a stick figure, and even their names on carpet, sheets, and a board game. Spankings and groundings were doled out (to our child, not the friend) and he spent the rest of the afternoon in his newly decorated graffitti room picking up the millions of little shreds of crayon wrappers…oh yeah, did I mention that at some point they had torn the paper off of tons of crayons and were throwing the scraps and broken crayons all over his room?

At some point yesterday I crawled onto the couch…bundled up in, not one, but two big cozy blankets…and tried (with not much luck) to sleep off my frustrations. Bedtime came early for everyone. I had wonderful dreams about obedient children. 

Unfortunately, this morning was filled with the same naughty routine. Isaac (and Lexi too this time) got yet another toy taken away for the week before Bryce had even left for work this morning! This time it was the cork rifles. *Judge all you want, our kids play with toy guns…I don’t love it, but their daddy is a hunter and they love to “hunt” their stuffed animals* They got a nice stern talking-to from daddy (his voice always works bettter than mine) about rules, and the fact that we have some, and how they aren’t doing a very good job of following them, and how “not fun” life is going to get for them real quick if they keep this stuff up. 

Shortly after the cork gun arsenal was packed away for the week, I sat down at the computer…I had a few important emails that were nagging at me. As I sat working away…I could smell her before I saw her, and I knew exactly what I was smelling. Melaleuca whitening toothpaste with fluoride. There she was rounding the corner into the office. In her footie jammies, with transparent blue goo all over her face, hands and hair…some of it already drying into a white paste. She confidently handed me a VERY sticky ibuprofen bottle  sweetly asked for a vitamin (no worries, the bottle was empty and she had gotten it out of the garbage in our bathroom). I couldn’t decide if I was more upset about the mess she had made or the fact that she had just wasted a $4 tube of toothpaste! My internal dialogue is going nuts…I’m trying to tell myself that it is just toothpaste, and she’s just a kid, and it’s not worth getting angry about…but after the last 24 hours, I just want a break! I refrain from yelling and say…”Well, I guess it’s time for my shower now, and you’re coming with me!” I scoop up the minty little monster and haul her upstairs where I find that she has locked us out of our bedroom! After fussing with that darn “key” for a few minutes and unlocking a very sticky doorknob I walk into my bathroom where I literally slip on the globs of toothpaste smeared all over the floor! Surveying the damage I notice that she has slimed almost every drawerfront in the bathroom, the edges of the tub, the shower door, the toilet door, and every doorknob in my bathroom and bedroom! AARRRGGGHHHHHHH! I just sat down on the floor of my bathroom…I wanted to cry…I want a pause life button…no I actually just want that easy button from the Staples commercials! But life’s not easy, and life’s not fair, and the world keeps turning! So I suck it up and throw “Miss Melaleuca” in the shower with me. And on with the day…

Here are some other things I need to “unload.” Stuff that makes me crazy lately…

-Babytalk! Lexi brings home these ridiculous baby voices from school and Isaac copies her thinking it’s cool! SO ANNOYING!!!

-My broken camera Bryce laid on it up on the mountain Saturday…the screen is ruined, can’t see a thing!

-Lexi’s clothes issues…”what should I wear?”, “my socks are bugging me”, “this tag is scratchy”, “I don’t like that”, and so on…everyday.

-Pee on every toilet in the house! Actually, just pee in general and poop too! Pee on potty, pee on the floor, pottytraining, bedwetting, accidents, stinky pee laundry, stinky litterbox, pee, pee, and more pee!

-Repeating myself. I make a point of telling my kids and husband what is going on in our lives, the daily schedule, what’s coming up soon, what needs to be done…and then I have to repeat myself over and over and over! If I could get back the hours in my day that I spend repeating things I ‘ve already said…I might have time to clean up all that pee I hate so much!

Okay, those are the big five, and I’ll stop there or else I’ll be the one that’s annoying!  Pray for me. Send encouragement. Give advice. And stayed tuned…it’s bound to get better, isn’t it?

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