Sunday, October 21, 2007

Still cleaning but nothing is getting clean

This morning was wonderful. I got up early, exercised, showered, picked up a bit, and started correcting papers when the kids slowly woke up. I made them yummy eggs and English muffins for breakfast. Everyone was happy and talkative. After breakfast I explained to the older two, Karl and Abby, that as soon as they were done cleaning their rooms and the "middle" room (big, wide hallway between their rooms) that they could do what ever they wanted to rest of the day. That was at 9:30 am. At 2:30pm their rooms were still not clean and more fighting than cleaning was taking place. At 5:30 we ate dinner and since the work was still not done but the arguing continued, both kids lost privileges for the following four days. How does it take over seven hours to clean a bedroom? How many questions, complaints, or tattling can be thrown my way in a seven hour time frame? These questions and more (like how do I maintain sanity amidst total chaos) were answered today. Lucky, lucky me...
This weekend was MEA-Minnesota Education Association. What this means for students and teachers in Minnesota is a three day week at school. At our school, the students also had Wednesday off and the teachers had a work day. The weekend was too long and I got nothing done I wanted to get done. At the same time, Sam was at the doctor - twice, my house was not cleaned - not once, Aine threw several fits - several, she peed on the floor, the tire blow on the truck when I was driving the four kids back form a day in the cities. I didn't get any sleep, any school work done, class work done, laundry done, NOTHING.
I was cranky, had a constant head ache, and just was overwhelmed by the constant need and fighting of the kids. It is as though they didn't know what to do with each other, together, for that long.
I have good kids - they listen and are respectful - most of the time. But, kids are kids and are not perfect. Well, lucky me, I got to witness imperfection first hand by all three of my older children AND I had to take extra care of a sick, tired but hopped up on steroids and medicine three-month-old who can't get enough to eat and doesn't want to sleep but is still wheezing and not feeling the greatest so needs lots of extra love and care.
Needless to say, I am beat. I need a weekend to recover from the long weekend. So, I sit her e in bed correcting tests and papers (obviously I took a slight break to blog), wondering how long I will be up tonight; meanwhile, my husband, who worked all weekend and complained about how boring it was at work because they had no work coming in, is sleeping peacefully beside me...brat.
OK - enough complaining. Sorry.

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