One of THOSE Days

Good Thursday evening to you from Winchester!

It has just been one of those days...  One.  Of.  Those.  Days.

It all started off well; new blog post, good page views, and eggs and toast for breakfast (with a little sriracha mayo).  Nice, right?  It was all going so well...

Then the two middle terrorists and my oldest child got home from school.

Let's discuss the first problem, which I always totally lose my cool over: lying.

Terrorist #2, aka Natalie, told us at the beginning of the week that she had no homework.  I believed it.  It was a short week with Labor Day, and it sounded entirely plausible.  I asked her several times, "Are you sure?", and she said, "Yes", while looking me straight in the eye.  Mind you, she is 8.

This morning, I found a paper in her backpack (dated for this short week) listing 20 spelling words and different activities.  This is her typical homework.  She is supposed to do 4 activities per week, one every night until turning it all in on Friday.

Terrorist #2 had no idea where the sheet came from and how it got into her backpack this morning.  This afternoon, after a rough interrogation, she admitted that she lied to us at the beginning of the week about it.

Let me just say, I hate my kids' homework.  I hate it more (I think) than my own homework from when I was still in school. Why do I hate it?  Because it's like I have to repeat school myself.  It's all this interaction and checking and quizzing!  What happened to checking it in class and dealing with the consequences?  The last thing I want to do is re-visit the regions of Virginia and math strategies that simply make no sense at all to a normal human being.

I never remember my parents having to help me with my homework.  Can't we go back to those good ol' days?

Back to Terrorist #2.  After losing my cool and tacking on hard time to her current grounding, we were still faced with 4 spelling activities to do.  Shoot me now, I thought.

So then we hit Terrorist #3, otherwise known as Jesse.  He asks to play Wii.  OK, no biggie.  I forget, and conveniently so does he, that he has reading homework.  He rushes downstairs to play for 30-45 minutes, our normal time limit.  By the time he's done, #2 is done with 2 activities and I'm ready to go to the gym.

Note: my gym has childcare, the best thing ever.

I tell #3 to get ready to go.

Fit #1: He's hungry.  I have scheduled snack time after they get off the bus and if he chooses to not eat (because Wii is too important), then he doesn't get to come back and snack later.  Ohh... we've only discussed this about a billion times.

Fit #2: I didn't tell him we were going to the gym.  See, he likes to play on the XBOX at the gym, and if he's already played Wii, that means no XBOX.  Totally my fault, right?  I mean, my plans always need to be ironed out with my 6-year-old.

Ensue tantrum.  Crying.  Writhing.  Screaming on his bed.  Punishment of 2 days with no video games is assessed to the terrorist, who finally pulls himself together, and we're off to the gym.

We get to the gym.  Being child-free is in my sight, literally, as we are walking towards the front door.  I set Cassidy down to walk, and she immediately falls flat on her face on the sidewalk.  Scraped knees, no blood.  OK, looking good.

Then the blood starts pouring out of her mouth.  The inside and outside of her bottom lip is totally busted.  I yell at Calvin for a baby wipe, and we head back to the car.  No gym.  No childcare.

So, I sit there for a minute.  The bleeding has stopped but Cassidy is an emotional wreck.  What am I going to do?  We discuss leftovers, and who wants what.  I think, I don't need to get fast food.  There's plenty in our fridge.  What do I need, though?  Alcohol.

We head to the ABC store.  I'm on a kick to recreate a "Texas mule", as the bartender called it, from a restaurant we went to on our anniversary recently.  I needed grapefruit flavored vodka, and I needed it now.  On the way, though, I see that we're going to pass Costco, so I figure I'll fill up the tank.

The line was worse at that gas station than I've ever seen in my adult life.  You would have thought a hurricane was about to make landfall in the Shenandoah Valley, followed by an earthquake and a gas shortage.  I peeled off and immediately decided that the kids were going to eat McDs.  No doubt about it.

So then we went to the ABC store, 4 kids in tow, and really, shouldn't they give discounts per child in there, sorta like a tax credit?  And then Cal, who to his credit, had to pee as soon as we left our house, was about to pee his pants.  Thus, we went into Dollar Tree to fix that problem.  Mind you, we're about 3 minutes from home at this point.  $10 later with no idea what 10 items I purchased, we are at McDs and I am able to not order anything for myself!

Success!  I am made of solid willpower.

Or, I am saving those calories for Texas mules.

Yes, one of those.

I am currently one mule down, the kids are in bed, and I think my husband is finally home from work.  Either that, or someone has broken into my house upstairs.  I survived.

Oh, and yes, Natalie did finish her homework.  But now that I think about it, what if she only had to do 3 for this short week?  I made her do 4...

Ugh.  Milk bomb.

Say a prayer for me,

Kristin