Every day maddness

Her side:

Mondays always seem a bit more stressful than the rest of the week. Mainly because I have such a short time to do everything since work calls for me to be there at 3:30. But that transition starts early because I have to get the kids up and in the car in enough time to drop off at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It may be a bit chaotic and stressful.

But Mondays are stressful, also, because of the weekend. We get so busy and usually I work 6 hours on Saturday. But since this was Easter weekend I didn't have to work and things still got piled up and busy! So, today I have washed and folded about 3 loads of laundry with some in the wash that will hopefully get switched out before the mildew sits in, which, admittedly, is normal around here. I got one load of dishes cleaned in the dishwasher with the last of my dishwasher soap. That was a HUGE blessing because I thought I was all out. But there are still dishes in the sink just staring at me. The kitchen floor got swept about 3 times just this morning and I am not suppose to be doing any squatting or bending over since I am pregnant. Ha.

I have to take more breaks and rests during my normal, every day chore routine due because of A) Baby Bear and the pregnancy issues (nothing to be really be concerned about) that I am having. All the squatting, bending over, lifting, and just moving has made my body want to begin getting ready for labor. B) The other 3 rascals running around. Amie usually does OK but she has her moments of needing attention. Penelope constantly opening the back door, opening the bathroom door and flooding our bathroom, whining (which has, unfortunately, become quite normal for her) and instigating trouble for her other siblings. Gordie constantly CLIMBING on things. Furniture, his train table, it doesn't matter what it is. He climbs. If Penelope is in the bathroom he is usually right behind her. Playing in the toilet, dumping all the bath toys, unrolling the toilet paper. C) EXHAUSTION. This mainly goes hand in hand with the first two points but I made it separate because this exhaustion has become sort of a problem. It causes blurry vision, lightheaded, headaches, body aches, etc. I clean one area and BOOM! another area is a disaster whether I just cleaned it or not.

With this daily issue and concern I have started to desperately get my children to help out. I give them one task to do. One thing to pick up and clean. Boy is that just the worst kind of torture for them! I  mean, seriously, its the easiest stuff they could do like recently, I wanted the girls' room cleaned up. I gave the simple task of putting books away to Amie and putting shoes away to Penelope. I know they can do it, I have seen it. But the complaining, refusing and saying "No" and "I can't" made the task last a lot longer than was necessary. It was, honestly, ridiculous.

And, folks, this is E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. for me. Mondays are shorter because of routine shift and work, but Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (Wednesdays are FULL days for us) its cleaning up one mess and having another one made to clean up. Its fighting with my children to help out. Its putting the gate up downstairs so I can do the dishes without Gordie climbing in the dishwasher. Its putting the gate up in the hallway and locking our bedroom door so I can take a shower and not worry about them doing something they aren't. Its constantly disciplining during nap time to get the girls to sleep. Its picking up food thrown on the floor by Gordie who is just too tired to eat.

This mommy needs a day of rest and then a day of NO children to get some of this chaos organized/cleaned.

I know one day we will have a clean house, maybe not fully organized, because, well, being honest with myself and my husband, we are not very organized people around here. But it will happen and while we wait for that to happen I have to constantly remind myself and recite this wonderful verse found in Colossians:

Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.