Had It Up To “Here”
Where is here; I do not know.
If I can just be honest, I’m in a funk.
Summer is here and is fleeting right before our eyes with little to show for it. We haven’t had a vacation in two years. The boys and I spent the first month of summer going to the pool every morning at 10am.
We’d come home around 12:30, have lunch, clean up, put Owen down for a nap, the big boys play games or watch movies while I do laundry, read, and get ready for dinner. Josh comes home, we eat dinner, go to church for one thing or another, go to sleep, and get up and do the same thing again. Every. Single. Day.
Since our foster children left on my birthday, May 25th, I’ve been waiting. Waiting for what’s next. Waiting for that long awaited call about our girls. Waiting for another foster placement. Waiting for whatever it is that God has for us next.
Last week I got tired of the mundane, so I did a week’s worth of lesson plans and told the boys we’d be starting school this week. Not 100% of our 2010-2011 material, but I’d say we’re at about 80%. They were actually pretty excited about it. I think they’ve been bored as well.
Monday was a holiday so we did things differently than I had hoped because Josh was home and the boys had spent the night with my in-laws the night before. Tuesday was like pulling teeth, only worse. By this morning, my house was in utter disrepair, there were toys in every room of the house, school books were all over the dining room table, but had not actually been opened, and everyone’s attitudes stunk.
After spending a good hour putting tons of laundry away, I got an idea.
I went to work cleaning the house. I spent the majority of the time in the boys’ room and the living room. I picked up toys, sorted them, put them back in their appropriate bins and boxes, laundry in the hamper, shoes in the shoe bucket, trash where it belongs. When I finished, I took the boys on a tour of these newly cleaned rooms and then I sat them down. The rest went something like this (in a cool and calm voice):
I’ve had it up to here. Your attitudes have been horrible, you’ve been ugly to one another, you’ve made messes in every room of the house and whine when it’s time to clean up. Every day this week you’ve complained when it’s been time to do school work. You’ve spent entirely too much time playing on the computer, playing your DSs, or watching movies. Enough is enough. From this moment on, there will be no TV, no movies, no video games, and no computer until I see one full week of excellence in your school work, your chores, and your attitudes.
Kind of sounds like something Mama Bear would say in a Berenstain Bears book.
Surprisingly, the boys took it quite well. With straight faces they said Yes, ma’am, and are now playing wildly, but nicely, in their bedroom. I can smell dinner in the crock pot and know there is yet another load of laundry waiting for me in the dryer.
Tonight is Putt-Putt family night for our church’s children’s ministry and the boys have been counting down all day. The truth is, I’d really like to tell them we’re not going, give everyone a bath, and put them in bed at 7:00pm, but that would be really mean. There are several key people out of the office this week so Josh is carrying the load of many men. As a result, he’s working late whenever possible just to stay on top of things.
Tomorrow is Thursday. I need to make bread, finish cleaning the house, and I have my annual OB/GYN appointment in the afternoon. I fully intend to leave plenty early for that appointment so I can sit in the waiting room and read in peace. I’m half way through Leigh Bortins new book, The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education. It’s been excellent. The beginning of the book was so inspiring, I decided to write an article on The Decline of America’s Youth. I’ll give you the link when its published.
Okay, I feel better now that I’ve gotten all of that off my chest. Time to vacuum and feed the kids before heading out to play miniature golf in the hundred degree Georgia heat.
~audrey