I wish. We were watching our Friday night movie (Friday night is family night=a new Netflix and a [usually homemade] treat), and we don't have a couch (we didn't have one when we moved, and have been meaning to look for one, but this place is small enough and temporary enough that the motivation to actually go furniture hunting has been nil), so little girls just took turns sitting on me, hanging off me, pulling on my arms, etc. I finally had had enough and I tried to escape up the stairs, so when Kylie started to follow me, in hopes of deterring her I said, "I just need to use the bathroom". She smiled and said, "I do, too," to which I responded, probably sounding rather desperate, "Then use the one downstairs!"
So I escaped to lock myself in my bedroom. NOT! I don't have a bedroom. Our king-sized bed would not fit in any of the bedrooms, so the large "common area" at the top of our stairs is our room. The kids rooms open to it off on the side. But the little girls' room doesn't even have a door, so its always open to our room.
I am never alone. Seriously, never. Every waking and sleeping moment there is at least one other person (and usually multiple persons) with me. Most of the time that's just fine. I've gone full-on hermit since moving away from California. I talk to Doug (when he's in the mood to talk, after dealing with people all day), and I have a friend whose little girl I watch for a couple of hours most days, and usually we chat for a few minutes during pickups/drop offs, and I participate in lessons at church, but that right there is about the extent of my socializing, save for trips back to my mom's to hang out with family. So I guess being constantly surrounded by little people sort of balances out hardly ever interacting with big people.
[Side note: as if to reinforce my point, Keira just came all the way upstairs to see me, holding her finger out in front of her and saying, "More boogers, Mom". So I had to stop to find a tissue to deal with the mucus she was insistent on handing to me, and now she's hopping up and down on my back and pushing my head down while I try to type.]
Most days, this all suits me just fine. But every now and then, I really want a vacation. Don't get me wrong, the four days I spent on fire crew last summer, the three day trip to Utah last Easter, and the weekend up at Apple Hill in October 2010 were all wonderful, but its been a very, very long 2 years, and it would be nice to leave my kids for a few days and do something fun. Or even take my kids somewhere for a few days and do something fun. I would just really, really like to travel anywhere for any reason that didn't involve driving a UHaul, or leave my kids--all my kids--for at least 24 hours.
I shouldn't be complaining, though, because its actually been a very, very good day. I slept in until--get this--almost 8:30!!! (Insane, I know) I'd had a bit of a cold/cough all week, and it was never bad, but it just caused me to be tired enough to start my days really slow, and then crash at about 7 every evening, meaning I was getting nothing done after kids went to bed. So this morning, Doug got the big kids off to school while the little girls and I slept in, and I got my house completely clean and in order (my older three are all big enough to do real chores, so it had never gotten really bad), the laundry going, a shopping trip done, and some writing in all by the time school was out this afternoon. And then, Doug volunteered to go to Butte to make a Walmart run--something I didn't manage to get done today because Kylie was feeling pretty sick this morning. And--get this--Dylan went with him! Voluntarily! He wanted to go with his dad to run errands, instead of stay in the house and play games or watch a movie!!! But here's the real shocker: last weekend at Mom's, we had a simple BBQ for Mother's Day, which meant there were white bread rolls, chips of all kinds, licorice and animal cookies, and Dylan--without being bribed, cajoled, or even asked (a year or so ago, I decided that, as a rule, I was not going to fight him on food at family get-togethers. We fight about food almost every day, so if once a week or a few times a month he wants to fill up on nothing but chips and cookies, so be it. At least we're all happy)--Dylan put together a hamburger for himself and at the whole thing. He has also started going to sleep at relatively sane hours the last few weeks. He's getting dangerously close to "normal" territory.
Well, I mean, he did basically try to eat the computer a few hours ago while talking to me. You can't win 'em all.
So I escaped to lock myself in my bedroom. NOT! I don't have a bedroom. Our king-sized bed would not fit in any of the bedrooms, so the large "common area" at the top of our stairs is our room. The kids rooms open to it off on the side. But the little girls' room doesn't even have a door, so its always open to our room.
I am never alone. Seriously, never. Every waking and sleeping moment there is at least one other person (and usually multiple persons) with me. Most of the time that's just fine. I've gone full-on hermit since moving away from California. I talk to Doug (when he's in the mood to talk, after dealing with people all day), and I have a friend whose little girl I watch for a couple of hours most days, and usually we chat for a few minutes during pickups/drop offs, and I participate in lessons at church, but that right there is about the extent of my socializing, save for trips back to my mom's to hang out with family. So I guess being constantly surrounded by little people sort of balances out hardly ever interacting with big people.
[Side note: as if to reinforce my point, Keira just came all the way upstairs to see me, holding her finger out in front of her and saying, "More boogers, Mom". So I had to stop to find a tissue to deal with the mucus she was insistent on handing to me, and now she's hopping up and down on my back and pushing my head down while I try to type.]
Most days, this all suits me just fine. But every now and then, I really want a vacation. Don't get me wrong, the four days I spent on fire crew last summer, the three day trip to Utah last Easter, and the weekend up at Apple Hill in October 2010 were all wonderful, but its been a very, very long 2 years, and it would be nice to leave my kids for a few days and do something fun. Or even take my kids somewhere for a few days and do something fun. I would just really, really like to travel anywhere for any reason that didn't involve driving a UHaul, or leave my kids--all my kids--for at least 24 hours.
I shouldn't be complaining, though, because its actually been a very, very good day. I slept in until--get this--almost 8:30!!! (Insane, I know) I'd had a bit of a cold/cough all week, and it was never bad, but it just caused me to be tired enough to start my days really slow, and then crash at about 7 every evening, meaning I was getting nothing done after kids went to bed. So this morning, Doug got the big kids off to school while the little girls and I slept in, and I got my house completely clean and in order (my older three are all big enough to do real chores, so it had never gotten really bad), the laundry going, a shopping trip done, and some writing in all by the time school was out this afternoon. And then, Doug volunteered to go to Butte to make a Walmart run--something I didn't manage to get done today because Kylie was feeling pretty sick this morning. And--get this--Dylan went with him! Voluntarily! He wanted to go with his dad to run errands, instead of stay in the house and play games or watch a movie!!! But here's the real shocker: last weekend at Mom's, we had a simple BBQ for Mother's Day, which meant there were white bread rolls, chips of all kinds, licorice and animal cookies, and Dylan--without being bribed, cajoled, or even asked (a year or so ago, I decided that, as a rule, I was not going to fight him on food at family get-togethers. We fight about food almost every day, so if once a week or a few times a month he wants to fill up on nothing but chips and cookies, so be it. At least we're all happy)--Dylan put together a hamburger for himself and at the whole thing. He has also started going to sleep at relatively sane hours the last few weeks. He's getting dangerously close to "normal" territory.
Well, I mean, he did basically try to eat the computer a few hours ago while talking to me. You can't win 'em all.
1 comment:
Oh honey I sooooooooooooo know how you feel! Men think all we do is sit around and eat bon bons all day while watching our "soaps" when in reality it would almost be easier to just put the kids back in our womb rather than have them tryyyyyying to crawl back into our skin. The gym is my only escape...so I excitedly go every morning. Thanks for helping me. I can do the same...all you gotta do is ask ;)
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