Sim is on a Man Date tonight, so I’ve been the Lone Ranger for homework, dinner and bedtime. He went to an Orioles game with a couple friends and I’m sure he’s having a ball and devouring some fantastic nacho’s. Jealous.
I, on the other hand, have been dealing with everything from homework meltdowns to Conner’s favorite shoes breaking and causing some serious emotional distress.
He was so sad. I told him they weren’t’ fixable and he needed to throw them away. When I said that he started crying and said, “But mom, I was wearing these the first time I caught a minnow down at the stream, and I really need these in the summer.” I told him I would order him another pair, but he just couldn’t throw these away, finally we compromised that I would take a picture of him with them and he could cut a few pieces off and tape them in his journal. It always surprises me what brings out emotion in Conner. Shoes are apparently at the top of the list.
Then there’s Thatch. Thursday nights are already notorious for meltdowns from my Thatcher. He puts out a lot of extra energy all week communicating and learning and it usually comes to a head by Thursday night. Add the fact that it’s the end of the year to that equation and lets just say Thursday night meltdown was taken to a whole new level today.
Somehow we persevered and both made it through alive. Barely.
At some point during homework time I got a wild hair that we needed to clean the complete disaster that is known as Conner and Thatcher’s bedroom. I don’t know why, but it was just one of those moments where you decide it has to be done now, even if it’s not the best time and come heck or high water it’s happening.
I mean why wouldn’t a night where dad isn’t home, and I have to make dinner, be the perfect night to take on this gigantic horrible job that is bound to bring more tears and meltdowns.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Drawers were cleaned out, the bottom of the closet was rediscovered, under the bed was set free from bondage, trash bags were filled, shelves were organized, Lego’s were rescued from every nook and cranny, and I mean EVERY, nook and cranny.
And somehow, by heaven’s grace, we were done in less than an hour and a half. Now, if only I had a before and after picture….
Right before we started the bedroom craziness, I hurriedly threw dinner in the oven. I had picked up some pork chops at the store yesterday and got home to realize they needed to be used by the 3rd so I decided to go ahead and make them tonight.
I put some Italian dressing seasoning mix in with the panko breadcrumbs and they turned out really yummy. We also had baked potatoes, steamed green beans and fresh strawberries.
When the kids realized what we were having for dinner, they all started screaming, “Yes, this is the best dinner ever.” You can see how happy they were form the picture.
They love pork chops. Charlotte thinks they are giant chicken nuggets. I didn’t have any Parmesan or I would have made these Parmesan Pork Chops. The ones we had tonight were very similar and very delicious!
After dinner we went outside to play for a minute. I was happily surprised when Conner started trying to help Charlotte swing a bat correctly. He was so patient with her and it was really sweet. He usually has very little, or no, patience for his little sister, so this was extra special to witness.
I was only going to let them play outside for a few minutes before making them come in and do dishes, but they were playing so cute together I let them stay out for almost an hour.
By then it was 7:00 and I needed to go pick up two prescriptions I dropped off at Walgreen’s earlier today. They prescriptions are for eye drops that I need when I get Lasik tomorrow. I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Anywho, back to the story. I took the three youngest and jumped in the car thinking I would just go through the drive thru, but when I got there, there was a little line, and I thought, “What the heck, we’ll just run in and grab them really quick and maybe I’ll grab a little treat since I had a rough homework and room cleaning day. Treats make me feel better. I envy you if you can do hard things without needing a special treat after. I’m still working on that.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Thatcher fell and got a pretty good scrap on his elbow right before we got in the car. I had put band-aids on it, but the boy was sweaty from playing outside, so before we were even halfway to Walgreen’s, he was crying from the back seat that his band-aids had fallen off. I threw back a roll of toilet paper and told him to hold some of that on it until I could get him more band-aids.
We march in, me in my workout clothes that probably have dust bunnies stuck to the butt from the under the bed and deep dark closet corners I had recently cleaned out. Trever without shoes on and food still all over his face from dinner, Charlotte in her pajamas with hair that looks like it hasn’t been combed for three days, and a sniffiling Thatcher holding toliet paper on his elbow. And just like that I remembered why my original plan was to use the drive-thru.
Oh well, it’s too late now. I go to the counter, they bring up my prescriptions and I’m thinking, “Sweet, this is going to be quick.” WRONG! The Lasik office had given me a special card to get a discount on the prescription because there isn’t a generic version yet. I called earlier to activate the card, but here I was at the pharmacy with my three disheveled children and the pharmacist was telling me the card is showing that it is not activated.
What? I had talked to a real live human and she told me things were fine and to have the pharmacy call if there were any problems. The pharmacist was very nice, but I was feeling the stress of my three children touching everything on the nearest shelf and was hoping this would be fast.
He and I both got on the phone to try and contact the card people. I was waiting for a representative for 15 minutes, which mind you does not sound like that long, but it might as well have been 4 hours. Trever was refusing to be held, which means he was barefoot and trying to make an escape from the little pharmacy corner. Thatcher was begging for the fit bit on display and reminding me (at least 45 times) that he needed a band-aid, and Charlotte, well, she was putting on a dance show that showed her underwear at least every 30 seconds.
It was not my favorite.
By the time a human voice came on the other line, I was breaking out every bribe tactic I could think of. Promising ice cream when we got home, is how I go them all on chairs for the last 2 minutes, but as you can see that one in the middle, was pushing the boundary of how much of her needed to be sitting on the chair and still qualify for ice cream.
After that torture, I was definitely buying myself a treat. They didn’t have what I was really craving, Dove dark chocolate with little cookie crisp things in it. So I searched for something else that sounded good. I remembered having these little chocolate covered pretzel caramel bites at my friends house so I grabbed a bag. However when I got home I realized I had grabbed the bag that was just chocolate covered caramel and they weren’t as good. Sad.
I grabbed a handful of pretzels out of the snack cupboard and tried to make it do, but it was just okay, not great like I felt like I deserved. What I really needed was a slice of chocolate cheesecake from Wegmans. That would have made everything better.
(…and yes, that is what my living room looks like right now, and it’s going to have to stay that way til tomorrow.)
Mom’s heading to bed.
P.S. Here is a picture I snapped earlier today, I just wanted to show you that here we are a week later and Trever still has that Lawn Mower in his hand 24/7.
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