Sleep or Sanity

As much as I like sleeping in these past few days, I don't think I can take having both these kids home for one more day. We are going to have some quiet reading time after lunch, before I rip their tongues out in frustration.

I just want to curl up in bed, find something good to read and lay there. I don't want to make food or take the dog out or break up fights between the kids. I want to drink hot chocolate until I'm in a coma. I want to take a hot bath. I want to hibernate.

This is yet another gloomy day in a string of many. It's slowly getting colder, and I find myself struggling to keep warm. I light candles, turn on lights and bump the thermostat up a notch. I keep my hands wrapped around a mug of coffee in an effort to keep my fingers from turning blue. I keep drinking coffee to keep the mug and myself warm. I'm cold and tired and grey. Some days just weren't made to be lived.

At least I got some things done yesterday, probably too much. I did a bunch of laundry and went through some of the toys that we confiscated from the kids' rooms when they wouldn't clean them. There are more toys in our basement than in their rooms. That's too many toys. I threw lots of junk (anything from a fast food restaurant), broken toys and toys missing parts away. I loaded up a whole box of toys still in good condition to give away, and there's still more. What's even worse, is I think I get more emotionally attached (Awww. I gave this to him for his second birthday.) to this stuff than the kids do.

I tried to put toys away and rotate them with what they had in their rooms, but that failed miserably. You have to be a bit organized and remember where you put things to do that. The boxes ended up getting stowed away in a storage facility until we moved two years later. So much for toy rotation. It's a great concept that would work really well for my kids, but someone other than me needs to manage it. Since that's not going to be happening any time soon, neither will toy rotation. Nice thought, though.

I figure I just need to get over it and take all the stuff they've forgotten and donate it. I really want to find a place that just gives the stuff to people, but that would probably be too much work for me to ever do. I'll just have to settle for Goodwill. I can believe someone without enough money to shop retail was able to get some good gifts for their kids. It's too bad most of the toys are for boys, or I could just recycle them.

As for the fur children, I'm getting used to this dog business. It doesn't hurt that I'm making the rest of the family take a little more responsibility for her. I'm still the main caretaker, and it's pretty clear she's my dog. She listens to me consistently whereas she listens to J and j only when she feels like it. Even the cats are getting more used to her. In fact, Bitty doesn't stay in the basement 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day anymore. I think she only spends about 23 hours down there now.

I still don't like picking up dog poop. I don't think that's something anyone begins liking. That's the one thing I just can't seem to get anyone else to do either. They conveniently forget. Uh-huh.

Poop aside, dogs stink. Her bedding stinks. The carpet stinks. She stinks. It's just stink, stink, stink. Stink and hair. She's going through her semi-annual shed, and it's miserable. Vacuum every other day miserable. If she didn't give me those sweet doggie hugs all the time, it would drive me nuts.

Today I got rid of:
(not counting dog hair)

Lots and lots of junk toys, broken toys and toy parts