Saturday, September 15, 2012

In All Honesty

It's funny how the details can make or break something.  I knew today would not be the best day for me.  It's been a long and busy week where I hardly saw Craig at all.  And it's looking like most of our weeks will be like this for the foreseeable future.  But usually we get Saturdays to relax together as a family and that kind of keeps me going.  Because I thrive on getting to be with Craig.  It's why I married him, after all.

But today is not going to be one of those Saturdays.  Craig has an elder's quorum activity all morning (they're going shooting, of all things, and he says I'm not allowed to whine about it since he was the one who planned it) and then this afternoon he has training for the stake.  So, yeah, just me and the kids, for the most part.

So here's what we've done:

-I got up early and went running with Vangie before Craig could leave.  (Well, "running" these days for me is a little bit of jogging followed by a lot of walking.  But it's still better than nothing, right?)

-I let the kids play outside while a friend of mine stopped by for a few minutes, then I did some quick vacuuming while they were still happy

-I let the kids play in the sandbox while I sat outside watching them and chatting with my sister on the phone

-I gave the kids baths to wash all the aforementioned sand off them

-I scrubbed out the tub so it won't be all sandy the next time we use it

-I went through all of Ryder's clothes, boxed up the ones that no longer fit, found Bentley's old clothes and began washing them so Ryder can wear them

-I got the kids to clean up a decent chunk of the dry cereal they'd dumped all over the floor before allowing them some movie time

-And now I'm blogging about it all while they watch TV and Ryder naps.


If you just ignore the ten minutes I spent screaming at Bentley for being an insufferable brat and complaining about every fun thing I let him do and never listening to a word I say and staying up too late despite my best efforts to get him to go to bed at a decent hour (which is why he's being so awful), I could almost pretend that I've been a really awesome mother today. 

But I can't ignore those ten minutes, and I'm feeling terrible (but still justified) about them. 

So instead of feeling proud of everything I've accomplished, I just want to curl back up in my bed and pretend this day never happened.

I hate it when I mess everything up like this.

4 comments:

Jen Evans said...

I'm not an expert, but I'm convinced 5-6 years old is worse than teenagers. They complain about everything. You gave your kids a great day. Reward yourself with some delicious brownies.

delilas said...

I remember those days when Saturday's you looked forward to and then they where taken up with Church stuff. Hang in there, callings get changed and kids grow up. I know Craig has been in there a long time but all things come to an end but when you are in muck of it all it seems like you will die with your head in the diaper pail, I know been there almost done that.
Also, from my experience, with now adult children, they are very forgiving. It is a new day!

Erin said...

I don't think ten minutes of frustration can mess up the rest of the day. What is it about 5/6 that means they turn obnoxious? Things only started to be better at 3/4 and I was hoping it'd continue to be good from there on out. But, no. Gareth acts more like a spoiled obnoxious brat now than he did at 2! He will throw full-on tantrums now over the dumbest little things. And don't even get me started on how we'll spend a whole day doing fun things all for him and then we'll get home and he'll complain about how it was all boring and we never do anything fun. So, yeah, blame it on the age, not yourself.

Natalie R. said...

I've totally had days like that, and they're always really frustrating. I hope the rest of your weekend was much better, and that this weekend is relaxing (at least by comparison)!!