Is It Friday Yet?

Because this has not been my week, or theirs--all those M's I blog about. Probably FOR SURE not theirs because as MaKenna put it first thing Monday morning, "Daddy is nicer." That was in response to me asking her why she would rather have Daddy home instead of me, as we climbed the stairs into Kim's house. According to my boss, I set myself up for that answer. She's right. OK. They are right. I knew what the answer was going to be. But, he had just left Sunday afternoon. And things had not gotten that bad. YET.

I sailed through Monday at work. Came home. And. Whew! Cry. Scream. Ruckus. Fight. Squeak. Squeal. You name it, I heard it. Clever me, put the kids to bed at 7:30. Sound asleep they slept, right until the moment I sought out my shut eye. They were thirsty. One fell off the bed. And into the wee hours we slept like newborns. Catching an hour at most before a wake up.

That's right. I was late to work again Tuesday morning. One of them wouldn't put their coat on. The other their shoes. The next had an accident right as we all finally were ready to walk out the door. All I could do is yell at them. I know my Love and Logic. I have not been using my Love and Logic.

I only can wish that I had a video of Tuesday evening. Although it started off quite nicely. Kim must have noticed my rising stress levels and sent me home, when I picked up the kids, with a super tasty Mexican casserole. Mason had seconds. While the girls stood in the hall for what I don't have a video for. Screaming back and forth. Just making high pitched yelling sounds one after the other. Until they decided to go essentially into an all out brawl. Really? Over a, well to be honest I can't even remember!

When I arrived late my third day in a row at the Court, I shared my struggles of Wednesday morning (a crying for no reason child at 5:30 A when everyone could have used much more sleep) and then my entire week up until that point. As I shared my flood gates opened and my really- bad -really- NOT- Love and Logic- WAY- too -much- yelling- parenting- style- of- the- last- three -days- hit- me. I couldn't stop the crying. I have never felt like such a bad parent!

So, what have I done since my ah-ha moment? I brought Morgann her missing bum-bum (blanket) at nap time. I picked both the kids up, with smiles and in no rush to get back to the office, after school today. We went to Dairy Queen for dinner and ended up really only eating our ice cream! And while the older kids were at Awana's I snuggled with Morgann. Here's the proof!

And despite how bad I felt things were going at home this week, Mason still brought home the Super Bee today! And just because it's a good place, I'd like to add that last week he received all E's again-that's 2 weeks in a row!

I have a little secret up my sleeve for Friday. A surprise trip to the Pendleton Children's Museum. Just me and my M's. Hopefully I'm going to start going back up on their NICE-PARENT-METER! Because being a mean parent isn't fun. Neither is being a single parent.