Some days it not only rains...it pours

This is from a different day, but Meli was caught
messing around in dad's office

As I was revamping the look of this blog, I realized I have not really stayed true to the title. I planned to write about all of parenthood (the good, the bad, and the in-between) and I noticed that I tend to sugar coat things or not focus on the negative of parenting as much. I think I do not want to come across as complaining because 1) I love being a mom more than anything and 2) I have been pretty fortunate with two healthy and well-behaved kids and I know others have to deal with a lot worse on a daily basis.   Still, everyone has bad days, so to stay true to the blog purpose let me tell you about my Monday this past week.

Now, to preface...I know that some parent's normal days are a lot worse than any of my bad days. That may be  why I do not want to come across as complaining. I follow a few blogs written by moms who have kids that have been dealt some difficult cards. These ladies' blogs are amazing and their strength and perseverance is such an inspiration. When I am having a difficult day, I try to step back and think of these ladies' everyday struggle and it puts my frustrations in perspective. One of the blogs is, http://patriceandmattwilliams.blogspot.com/. Another is http://theparkerfive.wordpress.com a mom who lost her little girl during the Sandy Hook school massacre.

I woke up very tired because I had spent the night in Meli's room. She decided she was not having the sleep thing and kept trying to come out of her room. This is the only night we have had trouble with this. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep. Of course since I had only a few hours of sleep to go on EVERYTHING went wrong that could.

One of the kids had messed with the interior light in our car. So, the one day we actually need the car the battery is dead. Will works from home, but had to run an errand. We had a neighbor give us a jump start, but lack of sleep idiot here turned the car off right when they left. I knew the car needed to run to recharge, but I was working against myself that day. The neighbor was gone so that option was out.

We had a friend with a portable battery charger, I would just have to walk to get it. I had to take Colin to school, so I thought "no problem". We walked a few miles to Colin's school, when I realized it was a teacher work day, so no school. I felt like such a space cadet. One with a headache. So, we made it to our friends house, grabbed the charger (which was heavy) and left for home. I had worked out earlier, so my muscles were so sore and this thing was heavy. It felt like such a long walk home. Oh did I mention it started to rain on our way there. Fun. That at least ended well. I made it home before collapsing and the car was started.

It was like the kids could sense that mommy was having a bad day...and wanted to contribute. Meli's contribution was:

*pulling all of my bookmarks out of my current pile of books next to my bed

*throwing my socks in the toilet

*starting a new issue with hitting Colin

*deciding even though she was so tired and ready for a nap, she did not want to sleep

*taking out EVERY single toy from her toy drawers and her big brothers (which caused a fight with Colin)

*spilling something at every meal (I swear a few were on purpose) causing 4 outfit changes for the day

*constantly stealing Colin's bunny and running away from him (poor Colin was a little whiney since he was not able to sleep much either with Meli's crying)

*pulling out all of my pots, pans and lids within the seconds it took me to take a bag of garbage outside

I know there was more but that is all I can think of right now.

Colin's main contribution was deciding he wants to give us a preview to the teenager years by starting to talk back and being very rude. This was partially due to being very tired. He also thought it would be a good idea to talk even more than usual since mommy had a headache.

Now on a normal day this would not have seen so bad, but man I was close to tears by the middle of the day!

Then my reminder that it could be a lot worse came with Colin singing over and over " things can always be worse"...a Backyardigan songs. This caused me to pull my silly self together and hug the two monsters before we started to have a "collecting ourselves" period of reading some Dr. Seuss. That always seems to help.

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family