stuff

Our house is trashed! All the furniture from Tom's grandmother's house is just sitting in our living room. The kitchen is still kind of a mess with the extra fridge(but it looks like we will finally be getting rid of that-found someone to take it!!) and the baker's rack sitting in there. I have to figure out where to put it and what to put on it. (Thanks for that Sue-I really do like that one though!) The lady acrosss the street gave us some kitchen stuff not long ago and I haven't had a chance to put that stuff away yet-now there's more! I think our dishwasher is starting to die (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's almost my favorite appliance!) Our house is so disorganized, I can't stand it. If we can ever get to it all and clean up, the place will look much nicer. But right now Tom's exhausted and I'm exhausted and we're not getting anywhere fast. I'm not even getting the basic chores done. There is no room in the house that doesn't need work done right now. There's just so much to clean and to throw away and rearrange-and I have all kinds or things waiting for me to get done. Boring things like clothes sorting and organizing toys. Putting away baby things that Timothy is starting to outgrow. Geting out the fall/winter stuff. There are so many things I want to make, as presents and just stuff I want to create, but no time to do it.

Then there are the parenting chores like working on getting the kids to bed earlier. I'm ready to take a page from my Mom's book and the next time someone tells me (as though I don't know. As though it hasn't been on my mind for the last two years!) she's going to have to start going to bed earlier because school's coming! I think I will have to pull their tounge out of their mouth and wrap it around their head. Consider yourselves warned.
As a Mom who worked the second shift, Leanna used to go to bed when I went to bed. She would nap during the evening, of course. But she had to get up to come pick me up from work, and her father wasn't going to do the whole bedtime routine when I wasn't there, especially not if she was getting up a few hours later to get in the car. And anyway I missed her so much while I was working, it was nice to have a little time with her before we went to bed. I know several other mothers who worked second shift whose children also went to bed when they did, probably as a result of their jobs. I wonder how common it is.

After I was laid off the routine was already established and very hard to break. I had been working on it and was starting to make progress when unemployment ended and I had to return to work. Then it was right back to square one because I was working all evening again. And pregnant again, so I was very tired. And then the same story all over again, I had decided when Leanna turned 4, in preparation for school we would work on getting bedtime back under control. We talked about it in advance and she understood. I was starting to get the bedtimes earlier and she was starting to fall asleep earlier, we were on our way. But Justin got older and very difficult to manage. He'd be bouncing all over the bed as I was trying to read bedtime stories to Leanna. Which would get her all wound up and frustrate me. I would have to stop and deal with him. And I was pregnant again and very tired. After Timothy was born, forget it! Everything flew out the window for a while. And now I am just thoroughly mentally and physically exhausted!

Sure, I've always had this image in my head of how I'd like bedtime to go. This wasn't how I wanted it to be. I'm only human. In real life it doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. They are on a schedule, just not the typical one. Generally the kids sleep in later in the morning, so they don't actually miss sleep because they go to bed later than most kids. I am not argueing that I think they should keep this sleep pattern. I do think it would be good for them to get to bed earlier. It might help Justin to nap better, or more regularly. But then again, they would also miss out on a lot of time spent with their father that way. They would barely see him otherwise, since he's gone most of the day into the night and most of the weekends. He gets annoyed that they love to come out on the porch with him when he smokes, but I'm guessing that they might remember more fondly those little moments with Dad than some of the bigger stuff like zoos. I guess I'm partly defending myself here and partly just explaining that it hasn't worked out to be as awful a thing as I would have though before having kids. The fact that they don't have a regular early bedtime has had it's advantages too. That said, yes, I am once again working on getting them used to an early bedtime. Yes, I am well aware that children need routines, schedules, and lots of sleep(especially before school). Never fear, concerned parties everywhere-it'll work out.