Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Today brought...

  • kids woke up happy and we had a very easy morning
  • last week of Bible Study
  • wonderful breakfast at Bible Study
  • great friends at Bible Study
  • a little nap
  • clean kitchen
  • daddy came home after being gone for 9 days
  • happy kids (mostly because of the above)
  • supper is in the crock-pot; it's Daddy's special day so I fixed him something yummy and "homey"
  • laundry mostly done
  • 30 minutes to myself
  • a few hours of sunshine
  • a returning hair client from a while ago
  • the feeling that I can "let down" since Patrick is home
  • thankful, thankful, thankful



Sunday, January 10, 2010

Tonight, it's Maddie's turn

Patrick has been out of town since last Monday.  That doesn't mean, however, that his side of the bed has been empty.  The first couple of nights, the little ones slept with me because their bedrooms were so cold.  Even with space heaters, in seems like the unisulated second story bedrooms just are frigid.  This also could be an excuse so I don't have to admit that I was lonely. My big girls have been away from home for 4 nights and nearly 5 days.  An eternity in mama hours.  They came home safe and sound, but tired and really needing some TLC.  It is a deficiency that will take a few days to make up.  We started the make up process with a special McDonalds picnic for dinner, and closed down the night with lots of hugs and kisses. Tonight, Maddie is snuggling up in bed with me - she needed a turn, and even with a king size bed, she's pretty close to me.  My heart is nearly satisfied knowing  all 4 kiddos are home.  Now we just need to get daddy back home.  A few more days and that will happen.

Friday, January 8, 2010

JoAnn made me do it

Yesterday afternoon I had a few errands to run, and in typical fashion Michael fell asleep in the car.  That was fine, except for the fact that I had planned on stopping at Joann's Fabrics to look at patterns.  How was I going to do that?  I said to myself" Oh, that will be easy - he will be asleep and I can just carry him in and sit and thumb through the pattern books."  Mistake after mistake was made in that one thought.  First off, nothing is easy with a sleeping kid in a giant puffy coat... nothing.  Secondly, I momentarily forgot that Michael is the BIGGEST BEAR when he wakes up. Not just a typical bear, but a snarling, grumpy, horrible, screaming bear.  Without listening to that inner mama voice that makes sense, I instead listened to the inner crazy voice that said that everything would turn out fine.  Oh my goodness... should have paid more attention to voice #1.  So, we get into JoAnns, and he's starting to wake up.  I'm moving slowly, carefully, trying not to cause too much sleep disturbance.  I sit down and open the pattern books and it all went to pieces.  Michael starts crying, and crying, and crying some more.  Yelling, sniffeling.  It was awful.  So awful that it... made... me...CURSE... at my son.  I was shocked at myself, and even though Michael did not know the severity of what I said, I think he caught my drift because HE looked shocked.  Unless my memory is wrong, this is a first for me.  I try not to get pushed to this limit too often.  (Oh, who am I fooling... at least not in public I don't get pushed this far.)  But even when I AM pushed, I just don't typically use naughty words, especially with my kids.  Fortunately, the shock of the moment caused him to settle down a little bit and I was able to find a pattern that I wanted.  It brought to light for me that I really need to not be stretched so thin that one little (or big) tantrum by my child in a fabric store could bring me such a place of extreme frustration.   It felt awful to be so fed up.  I hope it was not only a first, but a last.