Back to the griiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind
Jan. 5th, 2010 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameWhoo, life feels like a whirlwind now that the holidays are really over. Yesterday was Grant's first day back at work. It involved:
-being like, oh, I got almost no sleep because Elise the threenager* kept us up from the wee hours but so what - and then nursing her and acting like, what, who's tired? as the day began
-put away a ton of laundry
-micromanaging my brother's schedule for the day and keeping him on the computer and phone being productive
-dragging children over coals to get them to actually do their chores for the first time in over a week
-beating my head against a wall to get them doing schoolwork for the first time in over a week
-running 15 minutes late after a SERIOUS headache because we're out of practice for all getting out the door to take the kids to dance class, particularly bulked out in cold weather clothes, which is unusual here
-taking the three littles to Whole Foods while A and A dance for strictly bulk bin and only-sold-there items, since we're budgeting, which was fine except for the traffic jam on the way there that drove Isaac insane, and Elise being a threenager...and getting some hot soup to share in the cold was nice
-picking A and A up, sharing food in the van, driving to BJs (wholesale club) for a whole list of things with everyone, which was fine except I was getting tired and all that stuff (like cases of canned beans and canned tomatoes, huge case of canned cat food, etc) is heavy..and Elise was being a threenager, and it's COLD outside.
-getting gas at BJ's where it's cheaper...did I mention it was cold?
-coming home and getting all this stuff inside from two stores and everyone bundled into pajamas (it really was actually down to 34 last night, it was a record) and cooking for everyone and sitting around the table talking and praying
-opening up iTunes with Annie and helping her register her new iPod shuffle (she used her $50 from Nana and Pa and her $15 Target giftcard from my mom - it's lime green) and use the iTunes giftcard that came with it to buy a bunch of Taylor Swift music (she is thrilled)
-brushing Jake and Elise's teeth, making everyone else brush their teeth, telling people to go to bed 57,000 times, pairing them up in beds for warmth (we really hate the heater air quality and smell and try to avoid it) and reading a bunch of chapters of "Caleb's Story" to children.
And now it's a new day and I've already made oatmeal for them and gotten socks back on Elise 4 times and went on a massive hunt for where the heck all the spoons have gone and forced Ananda to brush her freaking hair...now people are school-working behind me and I'm getting ready to cook what will be our dinner and bake oatmeal raisin cookies, while they do this, and Bob dodges me, until we have to leave to take Aaron to hiphop.
Bob is actually doing great in some ways. Like he put all the groceries away, AND ORGANIZED THE HELLISH MESSY cabinets for me last night when I got home. He also went out night and put a bunch more hay in the chicken coop so I would have to (it's cold for them, too!). These are things I don't even ask him to do. Like he got up and put away the clean dishes this morning without anyone telling him. It's the things like calling JobCorps to confirm that the tour really is this Thursday at 8 and sitting on hold with the adult center about GED requirements that are like pulling teeth for him. You can see the stress come on. I try to explain to him that while help is appreciated, I didn't bring him down here to make my life easier - he has to refocus some of the energy he puts into building the perfect bonfire that he's not even allowed to light and gluing a cheap shield someone got for Christmas back together. He looked aghast the other day, realizing he's going to be 20 this year.
Anyway. I have about an hour and a half to cook and bake and burn a CD for the road and get these 3 biggest kids done with their assignments and find everyone's shoes and, oh hey, the 3 youngest are all still wearing pjs as they play out in the yard :p
*Threenager: adolescence 1.0, when kids are majorly torn for the first time between their strongly burdgeoning independence and desire to be "big" and their babyish desire to be totally dependent on you. This often means, among other things, demanding to do EVERYTHING - including many many things you both know they CANNOT DO - themselves, to the point of snatching things from your hands or jerking away from you saying "No, me!!" (only to hand it back and ask for help a minute later when they've seen they really can't do it themselves - this goes for opening string cheese, buttoning their jacket, strapping their own carseat, etc One out of ten examples they will gradually learn to do if you keep giving them these maddening tedious chances). Also kids this age seem to suddenly need to be physically dominated to obey, i.e., you can only get them to come by going and GETTING them, or to stop by going and TAKING whatever it is out of their hands, and so on. You have to get up and be bigger and stronger than them to establish your own authority all day long as they test every single request you make to see if it really matters enough for you to bother. They suddenly will not simply hold your hand in the parking lot - now you have to either make some deal about staying close while on a hair trigger, drag them while they lift their feet and wail, or threaten them effectively enough that they grab your hand out of fear. This threenager crap strikes good children who never previously acted like tyrants, and then it also passes, just like later adolescence, only leaving a latent kid rather than a college aged adult.
Also, a lot of my e-time has been taken up by facebook, AIM and that formspring thing, which has been surprisingly active - http://www.formspring.me/altarflame
-being like, oh, I got almost no sleep because Elise the threenager* kept us up from the wee hours but so what - and then nursing her and acting like, what, who's tired? as the day began
-put away a ton of laundry
-micromanaging my brother's schedule for the day and keeping him on the computer and phone being productive
-dragging children over coals to get them to actually do their chores for the first time in over a week
-beating my head against a wall to get them doing schoolwork for the first time in over a week
-running 15 minutes late after a SERIOUS headache because we're out of practice for all getting out the door to take the kids to dance class, particularly bulked out in cold weather clothes, which is unusual here
-taking the three littles to Whole Foods while A and A dance for strictly bulk bin and only-sold-there items, since we're budgeting, which was fine except for the traffic jam on the way there that drove Isaac insane, and Elise being a threenager...and getting some hot soup to share in the cold was nice
-picking A and A up, sharing food in the van, driving to BJs (wholesale club) for a whole list of things with everyone, which was fine except I was getting tired and all that stuff (like cases of canned beans and canned tomatoes, huge case of canned cat food, etc) is heavy..and Elise was being a threenager, and it's COLD outside.
-getting gas at BJ's where it's cheaper...did I mention it was cold?
-coming home and getting all this stuff inside from two stores and everyone bundled into pajamas (it really was actually down to 34 last night, it was a record) and cooking for everyone and sitting around the table talking and praying
-opening up iTunes with Annie and helping her register her new iPod shuffle (she used her $50 from Nana and Pa and her $15 Target giftcard from my mom - it's lime green) and use the iTunes giftcard that came with it to buy a bunch of Taylor Swift music (she is thrilled)
-brushing Jake and Elise's teeth, making everyone else brush their teeth, telling people to go to bed 57,000 times, pairing them up in beds for warmth (we really hate the heater air quality and smell and try to avoid it) and reading a bunch of chapters of "Caleb's Story" to children.
And now it's a new day and I've already made oatmeal for them and gotten socks back on Elise 4 times and went on a massive hunt for where the heck all the spoons have gone and forced Ananda to brush her freaking hair...now people are school-working behind me and I'm getting ready to cook what will be our dinner and bake oatmeal raisin cookies, while they do this, and Bob dodges me, until we have to leave to take Aaron to hiphop.
Bob is actually doing great in some ways. Like he put all the groceries away, AND ORGANIZED THE HELLISH MESSY cabinets for me last night when I got home. He also went out night and put a bunch more hay in the chicken coop so I would have to (it's cold for them, too!). These are things I don't even ask him to do. Like he got up and put away the clean dishes this morning without anyone telling him. It's the things like calling JobCorps to confirm that the tour really is this Thursday at 8 and sitting on hold with the adult center about GED requirements that are like pulling teeth for him. You can see the stress come on. I try to explain to him that while help is appreciated, I didn't bring him down here to make my life easier - he has to refocus some of the energy he puts into building the perfect bonfire that he's not even allowed to light and gluing a cheap shield someone got for Christmas back together. He looked aghast the other day, realizing he's going to be 20 this year.
Anyway. I have about an hour and a half to cook and bake and burn a CD for the road and get these 3 biggest kids done with their assignments and find everyone's shoes and, oh hey, the 3 youngest are all still wearing pjs as they play out in the yard :p
*Threenager: adolescence 1.0, when kids are majorly torn for the first time between their strongly burdgeoning independence and desire to be "big" and their babyish desire to be totally dependent on you. This often means, among other things, demanding to do EVERYTHING - including many many things you both know they CANNOT DO - themselves, to the point of snatching things from your hands or jerking away from you saying "No, me!!" (only to hand it back and ask for help a minute later when they've seen they really can't do it themselves - this goes for opening string cheese, buttoning their jacket, strapping their own carseat, etc One out of ten examples they will gradually learn to do if you keep giving them these maddening tedious chances). Also kids this age seem to suddenly need to be physically dominated to obey, i.e., you can only get them to come by going and GETTING them, or to stop by going and TAKING whatever it is out of their hands, and so on. You have to get up and be bigger and stronger than them to establish your own authority all day long as they test every single request you make to see if it really matters enough for you to bother. They suddenly will not simply hold your hand in the parking lot - now you have to either make some deal about staying close while on a hair trigger, drag them while they lift their feet and wail, or threaten them effectively enough that they grab your hand out of fear. This threenager crap strikes good children who never previously acted like tyrants, and then it also passes, just like later adolescence, only leaving a latent kid rather than a college aged adult.
Also, a lot of my e-time has been taken up by facebook, AIM and that formspring thing, which has been surprisingly active - http://www.formspring.me/altarflame
