If you’re new here, read my first What’s for Dinner post to get filled in on what’s going on. If you’ve been to this rodeo before, let’s get to business.
Oh man….as I type, Charlotte is in her room screaming DAD!!!!! over and over again at the top of her lungs because she wants one of us to go in and re-cover her…..which we have each already done twice.
Parenting can be so fun sometimes. You would think I’d be numb to Charlotte’s tantrums by now but I’m not. They drive me crazy and I find phrases like “is this really my life” and “put that thing back where it came from” going through my head. In short I would rather slit my wrists and do push-ups in salt water then be anywhere within ear shot when she gets this way. Yes, I just said that out loud.
Even my friend Trever who is usually my favorite, was having an “off” day today. He didn’t take a decent nap all day and has done more then his fair share of crying. By the way it’s really easy to qualify as my favorite child, you just have to throw a minimum of three fits a day. Conner and Trever are usually the top two slots.
However, Conner slipped in the rankings today after the horrifically painful hour I spent working on spelling words with him after school. Trever is a bit to blame for part of the painful experience. He was at the point where I had to be standing and bouncing him just the right way in order for him to be happy.
I can’t even describe how frustrating going over the spelling words for his test tomorrow was.
Just know that I am pretty sure I have failed as a mother because my third grader cannot successfully spell “dancing” no matter how many times I tell him the “s” sound is made by a “c”in that word. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! And that words like hop and shop have double p’s when you put “ed” or “ing” on the end of them. DOUBLE AHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I can only be patient the first 14 times I explain a rule.
After dinner I told Sim I needed ten minutes to sneak off somewhere in the house and be ALL BY MYSELF…..just ten minutes.
I grabbed my special cupcake (that I was hiding) out of the fridge and snuck outside to try and eat it in my 10 minutes of peace. I picked a spot I thought would be the most unlikely place for the children to come looking for me in. (I ate my cupcake next to our recycling bins and garbage cans.) I realize that sounds really disgusting and unappetizing, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
My plan failed. After 5 minutes Thatcher popped his head around the corner and let out a happy squeal that he had found me and then proceeded to beg for a bite of my special cupcake.
All I needed was ten minutes people! Ten minutes!
Up until 4:00 I had actually had a pretty great day. Despite the fact that the baby hadn’t napped well and Charlotte didn’t fall asleep during her nap time, I was remaining positive. Apparently nothing can ruin my day quicker then an hour of spelling word frustration.
Charlotte’s little preschool group met at our house today and I was the teacher. They are so cute and it was really fun. We keep it really low key because they are all only two. There are only four kids in the group and one mom stays to be a helper. Today we talked about caterpillars and butterflies.
I didn’t really make a plan for dinners this week, so we’ve been kind of flying willy-nilly.
I gave the kids a choice of two different really simple dinners I could throw together in a hurry….seeings how it was 4:30 and I hadn’t started anything. They picked Teryaki Chicken, rice and broccoli, which is exactly what we had last night. I decided to turn the meal into teryaki chicken wraps to make it a little less redundant.
As for my night, things are looking up…..Charlotte has officially screamed herself to sleep. (Hallelujah) Conner made a point, before heading to bed, to come tell me he thinks he is going to get 100% on his spelling test tomorrow and Trever has even fallen asleep already. The house is so quiet. Boy, what a difference a little time can make. I’ll try to remember that next time my afternoon takes a turn for the worst.
Keep it Real!!!
Maria
I feel your pain in the spelling department. My Kindergartener had “the” on her spelling homework last night. And not matter how many times I told her the word she was writing was “the”–“the” is spelled “t-h-e”–ten seconds later if I asked her what “t-h-e” spelled, she had no clue. Some people are cut out to be teachers in early grades. And some people, like me, were smart to steer clear of it.
Oh Emilee, Thank you for validating that I’m not the only mom having the occasional mental meltdown over spelling homework. 🙂
Your blog is super entertaining and definitely my fav. I seriously love it because it really is real. When I need 10 min away from my 3 screaming/complaining/tired/etc kids, I usually have to sneak in the bathroom and lock the door or go sit on top of the washer. Life is good as a mom, but it sure is tiring and patience-trying. Especially when spelling words are involved.