Why do we call it down time? I mean…shouldn’t this be marketed a little better. The kids are in their beds and they’re quiet. The kitchen is cleaned, the laundry is folded and put away, the list for the day was mostly checked off and I could do something productive now.
Alas…I’m too tired to do anything spectacular. I no longer have Night Of Laughter to consider so it’s just me and these unpainted walls, these pants that need fixing, these floors that need vacuuming and these boxes that need unpacking. What’ll it be?
I choose none of the above and opt for a soak in the tub. It holds lots of water and has jets. Have you ever tried to take a bubble bath with jets? Wow! Bubbles that won’t go away I tell ya. I hope that’s not bad for the system…it didn’t come with instructions. I guess they figured we knew how to take a bath.
What I would love, is to have a quilt set up right now and to sit at it with no sounds beyond the thread running through the layers of fabric and batting. My mind loves to wander during those times and I can play, and sing and laugh at my own jokes to my heart’s content. A lot of people prefer music playing while they do mindless tasks. I do at times, but I am more apt to listen to my own head.
Fun fact for the day: Aron sings.
It’s not super melodic but he’s definitely singing. I will post details on his blog.
No painting was done today…I went to Bible study and then it was full throttle the rest of the journey here. I stopped at the grocery store, picked up Owen, put Ivan down for a nap, fed Owen and Aron lunch, started laundry, spanked Ivan, talked with Ivan, hugged Ivan, talked with Ivan some more, sang Ivan to sleep, ate lunch, helped Owen with letters, put Aron down for a nap, worked on laundry, played baseball with Owen, worked on laundry, fed Ivan a snack, started dinner, worked on laundry, made Ivan’s bed, worked on dinner, checked on Aron, ran after Ivan for heading down the street with his scooter, worked on laundry, worked on dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up kids, cleaned up table, cleaned up counters, cleaned dishes, stored food, finished laundry, prayed with kids and here I am. You know the usual mom stuff. Some days I think that sounds normal…today I just feel drained by it so I had to write it all out so that I’d feel justified in being tired. Aren’t you glad you read this far?
Thank God Kris came home at a decent time tonight. I think I’d be crying right now because I guarantee had he not been here to play with them and keep them out of the kitchen, it would not be clean and the laundry would not be done and I would be just as tired but have a whole lot of frustration heaped on top of it. To those of you whose dear husbands have been working long hours, I sympathize as Kris has been working a lot of weekends and late nights too, but I also encourage you to give yourselves some grace. You aren’t a superhero and you don’t need to be too hard on yourselves. The earth will not give way if they go to sleep without a bath or with their school clothes on now and then. You aren’t a bad mom if they go to bed with tears still on their cheeks and you can only give everything…after that God will have to start kicking in some miracles. You know what I’m talking about…miracles like people telling you that you have the sweetest kids. Miracles like your husband complimenting your hair when you didn’t do anything to it. Miracles like enough food in the house to make a great meal even when you know you should have gone to the store. I see God doing stuff like that for us all the time. Aron can’t climb stairs yet. I think that’s one of those little things that doesn’t sound like much on the surface but what a difference it might make in my day to day. A miracle designed just for my personal pursuit of peace.
Time for that bath.
I think they call it down time because you can actually sit down, or wind down or whatever you *choose* to do instead of what you have to do. Was that a rhetorical question? 🙂 I definitely feel your pain on the homefront. Hopefully that will wind down soon. Or since Kris is his own boss, maybe that’s a good thing?
On the paint front, isn’t it tough to move into a new space when you spent so much time personalizing the old one? Then you move back into white walls with more kiddos and more responsibiltites. I suppose it helps that you like to paint. Oh and I would rank Arons inability to climb steps with a big God type blessing. And his singing too, how sweet.
you mentioned that you were afraid you had talked too much. we enjoyed our visit with you and i personally wish we had had more time to talk about stuff! loved your role in the night of laughter! you and your limericks were such a hit with everyone!
Yes. Baths. I’m a big advocate for baths.