This month has been absolutely bonkers. It's big one gigantic blur. I mean, one big gigantic blur. See what I mean? I would have undone that dyslexic typo, except then I thought, no, that's a perfect example of what this month's been like.
It actually started at the end of last month when we we dropped everything to say our goodbyes to James' grandmother as she prepared to meet Jesus. I stayed with the girls most of our time there, during which time Paloma managed to get us kicked out of the hospice on account of her being REALLY LOUD. That was fun.
We drove back the evening after the funeral and hit the ground running. Isabella had unexpectedly missed a day of school, which meant we fell behind on papers and folders and papers in folders, and now it's all just one mess. Yesterday I discovered one of said papers that was in her folder and remembered that she has a project due in a week. A project we haven't started that requires soil and daily analyzing and an egg an carton, and well, that will have to be late. I feel like I'm the one in school again, scared to draft the e-mail to her sweet teacher that, oh that project that's due, yeah, the one that was in the folder at the beginning of the month, well I just found it and well, I dropped the ball on that also. Sorry. Again.
My poor child.
So anyway, then it was Easter and of course I hadn't made the girls an Easter basket, and then Easter weekend was full, then it was last week and that was crazy catching up with all the housework and meal prepping I missed running around trying to clean up from the trip and preparing the Easter baskets and doing laundry I hadn't done from trying to dye eggs. I'm not sure if any of that makes sense. This weekend it was my good friend's baby shower which took up our whole day, which was kind of nice because the kids were entertained, I could take it easy at the shower and James got the day to play 18 holes.
On our walk to the grocery store Sunday we ran into a co-worker on the elevator who was visiting our neighbor at the pool, and of course immediately afterward Isabella started begging us to take her to the pool because now she knew all the young girls were out there. So after our trip to the grocery store I took her down. A whole group of neighbors had gathered in a neighbor's poolside unit where they were enjoying the day and drinks. After about an hour our neighbor/co-worker/occasional babysitter went in to refill her beverage and Isabella asked to hop over the barrier to say hi.
When she rejoined me in the hot tub she says, "Wow, Mr. Ryan's house is reeeeeally CLEAN!"
That's what she said. Part of me was at a loss for words from the mind-numbing flabbergastededness her sweet ignorant words placed me in, and the other part of me wanted to rant off exactly WHY our unit wasn't as polished as the one that belonged to the young bachelor and his roommate, outlining everything I just did above and then add, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU KIDS DRIVE ME BONKERS AND I CAN'T SEEM TO CATCH UP! I'M EXHAUSTED!
But I didn't, because I'm not five, and it isn't her fault. It's life as a mom with two kids and a dog and ADD. Last week I couldn't find the pasta I had prepared the night before, and so I gave up thinking I may have thrown it out. Then the following afternoon I went to grab a container to store the guacamole I made and there, top-on and neatly put away with the clean containers, was the pasta I put away, just not in the refrigerator where it belonged.
So to come full circle here, let me get back to the point. This morning I was reading the Pioneer Woman's post on why she homeschools and found myself laughing out loud, mainly from just relief. Relief from knowing that, despite what you read, and aside from those two moms you know that are weird and totally organized because their minds follow one steady stream of thought and focus, moms can't keep a house clean all the time. Sometimes, we just don't want to even when we have the time because we'd rather just catch our breath (or, blog about it).
But, I found that we do all clean as a family when James and I have a date and the babysitter is coming over. It's mainly to save face since our babysitters all work in James' office and we don't want them to be all, wow, their house is a wreck. I mean, we know it is most the time, except for when months and weeks aren't totally bonkers and I'm constantly falling behind on everything because my energy level is abnormally low. So our date nights are actually a good incentive to give our place a deep clean, so I think I shall vote to have more of them.
