Catch-up

I haven't really blogged in a long while and so I don't expect anyone to be reading this but just in case, I am about to relieve some stress. Blogging for me in the past has mainly been a stress reliever. Of course I have written about the fun stuff but looking back over my entries, the longest ones have been about trying days and things that I need to laugh about desperately to avoid dissolving into a puddle of tears.

Lately though my stress levels have been low. Last summer, they were at an all time high. I was still suffering from depression going back to the death of my father (untreated of course as I am English and we don't talk about our emotional problems with doctors), our house in Ohio had been trashed and abandoned by our scum of the earth tenants, and we were facing yet another undetermined amount of months attempting to pay a mortgage and rent amounting to about half our income, not to mention all the utilities on both homes.

So this summer has been positively idyllic in comparison. We sold the house in Ohio last November and have now bought a house here in our new home, Colorado Springs. This house for me ticks all the boxes. I have been beyond happy with the decision to buy again despite feeling so burned over our last house. We have over 3000 finished square feet, five big bedrooms, hardwood in the entryway, dining area, kitchen. The ceilings are high and we have loads of windows, even in the bathrooms. The previous owners landscaped the front and back yards, put up and stained a 6ft fence. They installed shutters on the windows and splurged for the upgraded cabinets and backsplash in the kitchen. I have a room to turn into a library once again and I am in decorating heaven.

This summer so far has been busy. I've been making new friends, painting the house, enjoying my simply adorable 4-6 month old Oliver, and keeping my 9, 7, and 5 year olds entertained. They have completed the library summer reading program, gone on many playdates, had friends over here, splashed around in the hot tub, eaten ice cream, baked goodies, riden bikes, broken bikes and gotten new ones, had telescope nights, played games, laughed themselves silly over wipeout, rented numerous movies and much more.
Sounds fantastic right???

Well this morning, after about 5 weeks of relative calm I totally lost it.
I have a few rules about morning behavior over the summer. I don't want to have to get up before 8.30am especially since I am running around here, there, and everywhere for the kids. I expect them to stay out of my bedroom and remain quiet until I get up. Oliver wakes up around 6am and at that point joins me in bed and I want him to go back to sleep for a few hours as well. For the most part they obey this rule. We've had the occasional disturbance with one of them telling tales on someone else but generally I've been able to get up about 8-8.30 pretty regularly.

This morning I was grumpy. Gary was gone at scout camp and when he's not here I tend to stay up late and not for anything worthwhile. I found myself watching music videos at midnight last night and then at 4am Oliver kicked off. He grumbled for about an hour and he was screaming by about 5am so he came into bed with me. I was hoping that I could stay in bed a bit later but Nathan came into the bedroom before 8, waking both me and the baby just to ask for an apple. I was NOT happy. When I got up I discovered that Leia and Spencer had gone into the pantry while I was asleep and eaten half a bag of rather expensive chocolate that I bought for myself. Now I am very lax when it comes to candy and my kids. Almost any time we venture into Target, Wal-mart, King Soopers, whatever, I buy the kids candy. Occasionally I have something in the house for myself. And this morning they ate that too. Writing it down totally lessens the crime. I'm kind of thinking "so what?" but this morning when I was tired I was MAD. Then the kids went outside to play.

Now we have a certain neighbor who is a good looking young man age 10. He has completely captured the hearts of all three of my older children, however I cannot characterize him as a great influence on them. He tells them we don't love them because they go to bed at 7pm and he threatens them with Samurai type violence according to Spencer, so the crime I'm about to describe doesn't sound too bad but it was a headache for me. The other day he convinced them to dig a big hole in the ground of the empty lot across the street and fill it with water creating a massive amount of mud. They then splashed around in it and attempted to track it through the house. I subsequently forbade them from playing in it. Gary's tools in the garage are also off limits to them.

So this morning while I was still grumpy they proceeded to get out Gary's tools, (fortunately I caught them before they did anything with them), and then they rode their bikes through the mud and covered our driveway in it as well as themselves and the garage floor. At this point I lost it. I docked their allowance to cover my chocolate, shouted at them pretty good and made them spend the rest of their morning cleaning their bedrooms and bathroom. I knew I appeared pretty insane to them as in the end they were crying and accusing me of not loving them. I rarely shout at them. OH BOY!
Well I apologized and we had a good talk about what I expected from them since they receive a lot of service from me 24/7. But I understand how little children can grasp of that concept. I never had a clue until I became a parent myself. No doubt we'll have the same conversation many more times in the future.
I've cooled down a considerable amount but going out for icecream has still been cancelled and I think I might go and buy a book.

On reflection I feel incredibly blessed. 5 weeks into the summer and I have had tiring busy days but this has probably been the only one where I've cast my mind ahead to the start of school. I even didn't feel burned out when Spencer split his head open AGAIN on Wednesday. We have about 4 weeks left and I think we can manage nicely. I might even be sad when school starts again, something that I couldn't have said at the end of last summer.