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Saturday, August 30, 2008

Relaxing week, uh, not so much

This past week was supposed to have been a little stay-cation for me while David was in Germany on business. No cooking, no housework, catching up on some reading, watching the convention, so on, so forth. Just me, the dog, the cats and sixteen chickens.

Okay, just for fun, throw in an almost-seven-year-old boy, a five-and-a-half year boy and an almost-three-year-old girl, the first day of school, and two parents who both started working second shift. I decided to just keep the kids here overnight so I wouldn't have to drive home at 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. That meant, of course, that I picked up the two youngest at home before going to school to pick up the oldest, big-boy first-grader. Then bringing them back here to play, have dinner (which no one wanted to eat, but Gaige bravely managed to eat some of the fried rice), play some more, have baths, bedtime snacks, teeth brushing, bedtime stories and finally (sigh) singing the usual songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Are There Stars Out Tonight?, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Yes, there is a theme running through the selections. The selections can never be altered, neither in content, nor in the order in which they are sung. That much you can count on.

Think that sounds like enough? Oh, no, no, no! Said boys are VERY active and love to try and kill their Grammy with their rambunmctiousness (not sure that's a word, but it sure is descriptive!). And the noise level is tremendous! I'm thinking of investing in some Bose headphones!

Hoping to quickly scoot downstarirs to watch television and unwind after a hurried and much-needed shower was beyond the realm of possibility. The hall light had to be on and the door placement just so. And there's no chance of Kaitlyn just going to sleep on her own little Dora toddler bed. No. "Dammy (grammy), you seep wiss me? You lay down wiss me?" There is no bargaining on this point. I learned to just do it, and save myself a lot of grief. Luckily, I have a very comfortable guest bed in that room and it usually doesn't take long for her to fall asleep. Of course, there's the usual litany of excuses not to fall asleep. Each one has to do the following at least once before falling asleep: drink of water, go pee, needs a tissue, one more hug and kiss. (More sighing)

Finally, everyone was fast asleep and I quietly slipped downstairs to watch the convention which had already started, but with the magic of Tivo, I could watch in its entirety sans commercials and speed past the talking heads' commentary and get to the good stuff. What? What is that? Are my eyelids closing involuntarily? How can that be after such a peaceful, relaxing day? Knowing that I would have to get up early in the morning to get Gaige ready for school and the others ready to go home, I gave up and went to bed. It would have been nice if I could have slept on through the night, but, every time Kaitlyn rolled over and opened her eyes a crack, she would call for me and I would have to go and "seep wiss" her.

Caffeine, lots of caffeine the next morning and rewind tape and do it all over again Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At least David got home last evening and took some of the pressure off me, but he was suffering from jet lag and had to hit the sack early. I'm off for three days and then get to do it again next week while David is in Colorado on his annual bowhunting trip for eight days. I hope he's in jet lag hell he has a great vacation. This time, Nathan will be starting Kindergarten on Wednesday. Sounds like a new layer of fun to be added. I may be posting from the insane asylum after next week. Can you type while wearing a straightjacket?

Big boy's first day of first grade.


Oh, yeah, still no eggs! They're 19 weeks and I was hoping that at least the Golden Comets would be laying. Goldie is sure sitting in the nest box every morning, but nothing but the wooden eggs that I put in for decoys.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your week "off" sounded like my last week "off". I'm going to do better this time though...I promise. I had to rely on my mom a lot when Derek was little and couldn't manage on his own. Bless her heart, she was always there when I needed her!

That Goldie is such a tease! Don't worry, she'll be laying soon. When they start acting like it, you're not far!

Susan said...

Amy, I guess I'm racking up those gold stars in my crown, eh? And still no egg this morning!

ninjapoodles said...

That's about the same age as our first group of pullets, and yes, the waiting, it is KILLING me.