Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

And I’m not actually talking about cable, internet, and phone, here.  What I mean is that you have a period of time when not much is going on, and then BAM! comes the week from you-know-where.  Except that you don’t want to wish it away, because none of the things involved are bad things; it’s just that oh, my, couldn’t I have a break somewhere?  Somehow?  (Is there a place for us?)

Behold my week of things to do.  (Admittedly, a lot of the trouble here lies with the combination of evening things plus already tired children and school nights.)

Three days ago:  The middle’s first day of kindergarten, coming after an evening BBQ the night before (held 45 minutes away).

Two days ago:  The middle’s first day of dance, which completely messed up the nap of an already exhausted 2-year-old.

Yesterday:  My oldest’s first evening of dance, which resulted in a later night for the kiddos.  And my parents arrived, which is happy, but that meant all the adults went to bed late as well.

Today:  School skate night.  It wasn’t a late night, but the effort involved in making that happen was kind of exhausting.

Tomorrow:  Doctor in the morning, church dinner and outside games in the evening, which will probably result in a late night for kiddos.

Saturday:  Baby blessing (sort of like a christening) and lunch in the late morning and a family baby shower in the afternoon.

Sunday:  I must play the piano for the women in church.  I am not a good pianist, so I’m always stressed about how I’ll do.  Some weeks go better than others.

Monday:  Extended family party on the other side of the valley.  It starts at 6:30–on a school night.  This is worse because the venue changed this year.  It used to be 10 minutes away and involve negligible traffic for us.

Tuesday:  Dance for the middle again.

And etc.

I know a lot of people have it a lot worse, but adding an extra-curricular like dance is a new step for us.  And the late nights?  My children DO NOT SLEEP IN.  Which means that after staying up an hour or two past their bedtimes, they wake up between 6:30 and 7:30 and become weepy/angry/petulant/argumentative/aggressive and other unpleasant things long before bedtime.  You cannot make up this sleep with extra naps, because naps just mean the children won’t fall asleep at their usual time.  The only thing that works is to carefully rearrange your evening so that the bedtime routine starts earlier and ends earlier.  (And that only works because I finally took numerous people’s suggestions, including my pediatrician’s, and started giving my oldest melatonin.)

Anyway.  I’m done whining now (maybe).  That IS my explanation for why no book or recipe reviews happened today, though.  I’ve been “almost done” with a really, really short book for a few days now.  This drives me insane.

Here’s hoping I’ll finish before the process becomes irreversible…