Mother's Day, Keepin' it Real

My mother's day got off to a real interesting start. 

Without going into a lot of detail, I was at the end of my rope by 9 am.  The reason that I was at the end of my rope is twofold and really nobody's fault but my own:

1) I have gotten really bad about going downstairs because the boys spend so much time there.  The combination of dog, testosterone, and dust has become too much for me and I am going to have to seriously "hit it" on my next "high energy day".  I pray it hits on a weekend because I only have a couple of vacation days left before July.

2) I have gotten slack in making the boys eat at the kitchen table.  Please remember that these are children number 3 and 4, plus the fact that I spend most of my time these days wandering from room to room looking for stuff I can't find....Plus I was really tired the night before from blowing stuff to Kingdom Come all that day.  More on that later.

My solution for not finding stuff upstairs is yelling downstairs and asking the boys where the lost stuff is, due to reason number 1 stated above.

So, it's Mother's Day, I am trying to fix a brunch so I can feed everybody before we embark on our afternoon plans, and I can't find any plates.  No clean plates, no dirty plates.  Now, I distinctly remember having used plates the night before to fix some kind of frozen food that neither of my grandmother's would have even considered "real food", but boys of the new millenium are thrilled to eat.

Naturally, I look around upstairs, and find no plates.  So I yell down to the Grand Finale telling them to bring me the dirty dishes.  They yell back that there aren't any dirty dishes down there.  Right. 

So I yell louder, (Did I mention what a beautiful day it was?  ALL of our windows were open), asking where the plates are at.  They yell back that they "don't know".  Right.

Everybody knows that you only get 3 strikes, and the Grand Finale is no different.  We all knew it was time for them to get real, but did they move before the third strike?  No. They did not.

Which is why I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to any neighbors who heard some woman yelling (as if they wouldn't know it was me) that WHILE WE MAY ACTUALLY OCCASIONALLY "LOSE" A PAIR OF FINGER NAIL CLIPPERS, BOYS, OR A SCREW DRIVER, IT SIMPLY IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR US TO "LOSE" THE PLATES WE EAT OFF OF!!!"  And then, just to seal the deal, because I was already wanting to just go back to bed, I threw in the old stand-by threat that always, ALWAYS works, because I could hear that the video game was still going and I knew in my heart that neither one of them had moved a muscle, "IF I DON'T HAVE ALL THE DIRTY DISHES UP HERE IN 2 MINUTES, I'M COMING DOWN THERE!!!"

This is the threat they hate more than anything.  It never ends quickly or well when I go downstairs.  Muaaahahahahahahahaha.

Immediate sounds of plates and silverware being gathered up.  It sounded like they had even put the dirty dishes in the sink.  This fact, sadly, and I probably shouldn't even admit this, made me proud.  I know it's not much but it is progress.

At least I didn't have to actually go down there.  That would have meant throwing the fit where you ask them if they were born in a barn and then I would have had to spend the entire day making them sweep and dust.
I thought it went much better this way.  It was Mother's day, after all.......

Hope you had a good one, and if not good, at least memorable.

I Hit it!

I have always tried to live my life with "the flow" of the direction I feel my life is supposed to follow.  Part of this, and it may seem like a trivial part, is the urge to clean.  I have what I like to call "high energy" days and "low energy" days. 
A high energy day is a day when you get up and feel like you need to "accomplish" something.  This could be re-organizing your cabinets, yard work, cleaning, or paying the bills.  It doesn't really matter what you do, all that matters is that you have this urge inside you to get it done and you just "know" that you can do it and not get tired.
A low energy day is a day when you get up and you don't feel like doing anything.  You might sleep, shuffle around in your pajama's all day, not shower, read, the list is endless.  It doesn't really matter what you do on days like this either, and do not make the mistake of torturing yourself for not doing any of those things on your list.
We need both kinds of days.  The low energy days are days when we need to take a break and nurture ourselves, let ourselves rest, concentrate more on our spiritual lives.  The high energy days are when we have been given the gift of energy, and applied correctly, can make us able to enjoy the next low energy day guilt free. 
Guilt free is a good way to go through life.  It's not easy, of course, and it's doesn't come quickly, but you can get there if you catch that wave of the high energy day and ride it all the way to shore.
I have had such a day.  I have had two of them.  I can barely raise my arms above my head, and I'm still a lttle jiggly, but every muscle in my body is tight and I feel like a weight lifter.  I also feel like the Queen of my castle.
It's not a big secret or anything, but this is what I did:  I cleaned my carpets.  The entire upper floor of my house today boasts clean carpets.  It smells wonderful.  The Grand Finale was none too thrilled about it, to say the least, but did the Queen care?  No.  What we have not actually washed down this weekend we have dusted and put away, and put away where it belongs, not stuffed it under a piece of furniture.  I feel ready now, and this is the best part of high energy days.
I felt this surge coming on, you will too if you concentrate on them.  For $25 I rented a steam cleaner from a friend, helping her out with some cold hard cash, and that gave me the weekend.
If you "work out", I say good for you.  I am just wondering who cleans your house, because I am here to tell you that you can get an intensive, free workout at home just about any time.  I spent about 4 hours Friday night and Saturday slowly, slowly moving a heavy machine across the floors of my house.  By Saturday night I felt like I had dug a ditch, or maybe a grave.  I took a very hot, very long bath and went to bed at 7:30 pm.  Today I got up around 8 am and have spent the whole day in my pajama's watching movies.  I did fix breakfast about 11 am and need to go see about fixing another meal now, but the point is I am enjoying a low energy day.  And what muscles I do have left ( I use this term loosely, I don't really think I have any left) all feel toned.  Today I almost went out and started raking leaves and burning those, but the wind was blowing and the urge left me.  Just like that, I knew it was a low energy day, and I smiled and got comfortable on the couch, guilt free.  It rarely gets any better than that. 
Enjoy the ebb and flow of your life, and the simple joys that make it worth living.  Tomorrow is another day and no telling what it will bring.  Be ready to go with the flow.