St. Patrick’s Day kicked this week off – usually one of my favorite days of the year. This year it was kind of a disaster, which is why I didn’t end up writing my usual Sunday post. I did manage to get everyone ready and wearing their limited amount of green clothing so we could go to the local Catholic school’s pancake breakfast. They cooperated for that. And then nothing else. The rest of the day was just a huge whopping disappointment. Greg was supposed to go to D&D, but it got cancelled. He was at the start of a bad cold that doesn’t seem to be any better a week later, so also – not in a very good mood. I had plans to take the boys for a late lunch at Bel Air Cantina. We were last there on my birthday and they both said it was the best restaurant they’d ever been to. Of course when I told them the plan they both immediately started arguing against it. After having such a terrible week already, I just gave up. I was so angry at them for NEVER EVER cooperating with something really special I had planned. Even as kids, their agenda is always going to be better with no room for compromise. I’m so sick of fighting it. Forcing them to do something they don’t want to do just makes everyone even more miserable. I was so upset the entire day and before they went to bed I tried to explain how much it hurts me when they do this and it just went over their heads. Between me not wanting to be near them and Greg being sick, they got to just play games all day – best day ever, right? Anyway, it’s done and over with now, but it sucked, big time.
After feeling so emotionally distraught the week before, this week I was all about making a cleaner and healthier space in my head, while also working on cleaning out my physical spaces. Monday was my usual errand running day and then I started working on cleaning most of my shelving units. I had planned to finally organize the family room – giving up on Greg ever getting around to it, despite how badly he wanted a room to do up himself. But of course after he saw that I bought bins to fix things on my own, he slowly started taking over. I don’t think that room will ever be the way I want it to be – not when it has to serve so many purposes. We get in the house through that door, all our outdoor gear and backpacks and dog stuff are piled around it, we eat in that room, do homework in there, we watch tv in that room, we play video games in that room, we charge all electronics in there, Annie’s kennel and toys and food are in there. It’s basically impossible for it to ever be clean and tidy and bright and happy, the way that I long for. I’d settle for something just a lot less clutter-filled. Probably won’t happen for 11 more years once kids are out of the house.
I wasn’t being especially efficient about it, but I spent most of the week just trying to declutter my own areas. I rearranged my bookshelves to make space for all the books I had piled around the living room. I filled up three boxes of books for a future garage sale. I’d like to eventually do a full out sewing room clean up, but that was way too overwhelming to take on this week. I also cleaned every single piece of bedding in the house, which took a solid day. And I gave myself some grace to just rest and read and take a few naps. Between Shepard having mysterious coughing fits all night and Greg blowing his nose all night, not a lot of sleep is being had this week.
Not to drag on with all of the sucky parts of life for another long weekend post, but it’s also been an extra hard week with the boys and their behaviors. I was listening to a podcast last night about the assumptions you make about people and one of the things that instantly jumped to my mind – I assume other people never have the kinds of temper fueled fights with their children the way that we do. I try not to write about it much anymore since my kids are old enough to find my blog if they wanted to and I should try to respect their privacy in areas like that. But…it’s been a really bad week, with both of them. Caden’s reverted back to behaviors we haven’t seen since last summer and years past. It’s so discouraging and I just don’t know what to do about it. The older, the bigger, the stronger he gets… I have no control.
Anyway. Let’s just say I was very excited to go to yoga on Wednesday night to get out of the house. The teacher said she was going a bit easier on us again, but this was the first class where I kept glancing at the clock because we seemed to be practicing forever. My ankles were already sore when I got to class, and so many of the poses were really irritating it. But I survived. My mom and I went out to a late dinner afterward, which was super delish.
One of the most exciting things that happened this week – IT WARMED UP! Just about all of the snow and ice are gone too! We walked to school every morning this week and it was amazing! We also went on evening walks a couple of times. Shepard’s new favorite thing is playing soccer or basketball at the middle school. So we’ve been walking over to watch. Annie loves it!
Another exciting thing that happened this week – we planned our anniversary vacation! I wasn’t sure if it would happen this year between busy life in general and our upcoming air conditioner purchase. But we decided to prioritize it and make it happen. And even though it’s not super ideal for our pet and child caretakers, we’re actually going in the beginning of May instead of putting it off until late July when it next made sense to go. We’re going to Colorado! Neither of us have ever been, or even know much about it, other than it’s really pretty! We’re spending five nights around Denver. It should be really fun! And it’s coming up so fast!
On Friday I forced myself to get back to work. After working all day I finished up four more Easter dolls. And came to the conclusion after three batches of mostly unsold dolls (after almost immediately selling out of all other batches this year), my customers don’t actually want Easter dolls. So that might have been my last, unfortunately. It could just be that I’m not promoting myself very well either. I’ve been in just a weird place with everything lately. I know I should try SO much harder to sell myself. It just doesn’t always feel like a priority.
Today is Annie’s 4th birthday! Technically, we have no idea when her birthday is, or how old she is. But two years ago today is the day she was found as a stray, so it’s the date on her paperwork. Technically also, the paperwork says she’s 5. But the two different vets who saw her gave the ages of 3 and 1, so we went with 2, making her 4 now. 🙂 It’s also Caden’s 10.5 birthday. We usually try to make half birthdays kind of special, but Caden ended up getting invited over to a friend’s house for a good chunk of the day. We might still go out to dinner, but I’m too nervous to break the news to them when they’re outside playing with their friends. It won’t be well received, treat or not.
We gave Annie a bunch of new toys and then Shepard, Willow, and I took her to the dog park for an hour. We haven’t been there all week because of the extra walks. It was the first time there in months with no snow or ice and Annie was in heaven! It was solid mud, but we went early enough in the morning that it was still frozen over from the night.
And that’s about it! Greg and I just finalized our car rental for our trip, so we’re officially set on everything except the details on what to do while we’re there. Any suggestions?! I have of course already looked up at least ten different restaurants. Always the highest priority!
