Once More With Time!

Ugh. Time. Most days it seems to be my worst enemy. I don't think it's ever come anywhere near to being even an old acquaintance. Time and money seem to be the two things I always wish I had more of ;) But of course, money is another topic altogether...

One day I posted as my status update that I would love to have an extra hour or two added to each day. One of my wise friends pointed out that then there would just be an extra hour or two of work added to each day. So true.

Every day I feel so completely stretched. Every day I plan on doing ten million things. And I always seem to come up shy of accomplishing one.

I have absolutely no time for myself. But yet I spend countless hours a day "wasting" my time away on the computer. At the moment it's researching every aspect of cloth diapering and making training pants.

Spending time on the computer is easy. And I can get up and down and go here and there and do it all sporadically while feeding kids and wrangling toddlers and answering a gazillion questions from an almost 5 year old.

It's almost impossible to find the time to actually sew any of the diapers/covers/trainers I'm researching and purchasing online to make. So many days I've gotten something cut out and sit down to sew and then it becomes crazy time and as soon as I have things calmed down it's time to start dinner. And with my husband the way he is - I can't do a thing in the evenings. It sucks. It's one of his few flaws - everyone has them. I'll take his flaws most days above other husbandly flaws I've come up against. But I hate it nonetheless.

We had a huge fight about it over the weekend. Because I'm in total burnout mode. I'm desperate for some time to get anything accomplished. Some husbands actually come home from work and play with or spend a little time with their kids. Some husbands let their wives get some kind of relief. Some kind of rest from having to do it all. I swear I feel like a single parent most of the time.

It might help you to know that we live in a remote area. I have no friends or neighbors or family near. He has family around here, but they are older and don't have kids and we don't really socialize with them much. Not like I would have expected when we moved up here. (On a big distracted side note, I am soooo desperate to take a road trip to visit my family - I haven't been able to go back for a visit in a year. But we can't afford it and I'm seriously bummed!). So we have no one to babysit or anything like that...

So - long story shortened because my kids are getting crazy (how I wish I actually had time to write more often!)....

The argument helped a little bit. The other night after all the kids were successfully asleep and in bed at a decent hour, I drug out the sewing table and machine and started in on a diaper I had cut out weeks ago. I expected my husband to get mad. But he actually pitched in and helped. He's the sewer in the family ;) It was a nice surprise. So I'm glad we had the big blow out.

Tweenie is now a Teenie!!!

I have a teenager in the house folks. 13 was a much anticipated happy, happy milestone for tweenie! Who now I must refer to as Teenie. Or maybe something more clever and telling? Maybe tween-dult. She thinks she is an adult around here. Which is what leads to most of our issues. She tries to take charge of everything around here like she's the parent. And it is driving me completely bonkers!!!

I suppose I have let the situation go on for too long. I'm not that take charge kind of person, so a lot of times I just sit back and let her go and only say something when she goes too far. But it's irritating. And frustrating.

She's been really awful at the dinner table. Constantly nagging Little Man to eat. His dinner eating antics are almost out of control. And the big thing is that she insists on doing the whole nagging thing while the husband and I are sitting right there. The thing is - one day last week she had some event which kept her from eating dinner with the family. Little Man ate like an angel.

Since then, the husband and I have told her that WE are the parents and that it is our job to reprimand him if necessary. And that she's to mind her own business and tend to her own eating at the table.

We've had to remind her every single night. And she has complete attitude about it! But seriously, it's not her business. She's one of the kids!! She needs to understand her place and understand that her authority has limits and boundaries. And that she has NO authority when dad and I are in the room. She usually "watches" the little ones while I make dinner, but even then she takes what little authority she has to the extreme. And I constantly have to watch her watching them! It's insane. I keep talking to her about it, but it seems to do no good.

The really messed up thing was that after we have been working on Teenie for the past week or so on this issue - last night at the dinner table I was busy with Lazy Baby and Baby Sister was smearing her peach juice all over herself and the table - to which my husband looked to Teenie and said something to the effect that she should have been all on top of that!! Which totally goes against everything we've done and told her for the past week! UGH!!

Any suggestions?? Of course I will be saying something to the hus about this...

Since I'm on a Roll ;)

with the complaining about talking and the complaining about everything else ;)

My biggest pet peeve ever. My husband. His calling me constantly from work. It's not so bad that he calls me all the time (OK, yes it is soooo annoying!!!) but it's that he actually expects me to give him my undivided attention.

What about taking care of three children ages 4 and under leads him to believe I can give anyone my undivided attention??

When I talk to my mom on the phone it goes like this
Ok, so I'm making...GET DOWN FROM THERE!...cheesy potatoes again and...I SAID GET DOWN NOW!! NO YOU CAN'T HAVE OREOS RIGHT NOW...I know I call every time, I can't ever remember how much...LEAVE YOUR SISTER ALONE!!...sour cream to put in...
And it seems that I'm always holding the baby and have Little Man on the potty needing a wipe, as the dogs are barking madly at a big truck that just went by...

Whenever anything else is going on when I'm on the phone with the huz, it ticks him off. And I just don't understand how he can't understand that I have to take care of what's going on when it's going on!!

The stupid thing is that he calls all the time and wants to talk for a half an hour and has got nothing to say. It's so aggravating! I wish he had a job that occupied all his time.

The other day, he was filling me in on all the drama that's been going on at work, so I had to listen and respond attentively... so I leave the kids in the living room (the 2 and 4 year old pushing each other off a stool and the baby having a screaming fit in the playpen)...2 minutes later Baby Sister fell onto the stool nose first. Of course I had to let him go, and he was pissed. WTF?? If I didn't go take care of her what would he have said? What does he expect?

Sometimes I wonder if men have any brains at all ;)

Candycorn anyone?

Dear Husband,

OK, I admit it. It was me last night eating candy corn in bed at 3am.

I couldn't help myself.

It was calling to me from the counter when I got up to pee for the second time.

I would have just eaten it in the kitchen, but I was holding sleeping baby girl and didn't want her to wake up (the joys of co-sleeping). So I crawled into bed with a handful of candy corn. At least it was a quiet food and I didn't wake everyone up with my munching.

But yeah, OK, there may be a little orange stain on the bed from when I fell asleep in the middle of my snack. And maybe a few stray candy corns under my pillow. At least it wasn't chocolate pudding I was sneaking in bed.

I know, I know, I am a big freak about not eating in bed and have forbidden you to ever do so. But you should know by now that the "no eating in bed" rules change for pregnant women. I'm exempt from this rule for the next 7 or so months. You however, are still forbidden from eating in bed. I just don't like the idea of sleeping in someone else's crumbs.

Thanks for understanding :)

Got Socks?

Dear Husband,

No, I do not know why you never have any clean socks.

No, I'm not doing anything with them.

Neither is the washer/dryer.

I haven't hidden them on you. I'm not prancing around with them all over my body while you are at work. I'm not holding them hostage as some kind of petty revenge strategy.

And it's no fault of my laundering abilities.

Seriously, I have bought you socks about 20 times in the past six months. You should have an entire dresser completely full to the brim of socks, nothing but socks, with socks spilling out.

I have no idea where all your socks have gone to.

Maybe if you put your dirty clothes in one pile... anywhere near any other dirty clothes in this house you might have some clean socks? Just maybe?

Have you looked under the bed? In the sheets? On the other side of the bed? Under the bathroom cabinet? In the living room under the couch? Under the recliner? Next to the remote control? Under the keyboard? They must be hiding pretty good because I haven't seen them in weeks.

I guess I'll just go buy some more so you can have some clean socks for next week.