More whining...

Are you sick of it yet? I'm sorry to always use this board as my place to vent. But many days I don't have anyone else to vent to. And better to get it out here than let it fester and be mean to my kids!

So, you know those circus performers that try to get a whole bunch of plates spinning at the same time? They get them all going, only to have to run back and start over again. I feel like that. Or like I'm playing a video game where I just have enough defense to live until the time runs out. I'm not hoping to do anything more than survive. I am never done with my work, not even close. And I am now much more sympathetic to people who consider dogs their children. We've had a cat for 4 years, and she requires very, very little work. We change her water and refill her food dish only about twice a week. And that's about it. But holy cow, a dog is a lot more work! I can't just throw her out back for long periods of time or she'll start digging. So she's like a baby in that I only get a break from her when she naps. I don't want to get rid of her, but there are certainly times I wish I hadn't gotten her. Of course, I feel that way about the children sometimes, too...

Oh, and Molly and Katy work together to destroy everything. Katy will find a cupboard left unlocked or a door left open, get into a bunch of things she's not supposed to get into, and leave them all over the floor. Then Molly will come along and chew those things up. Then as I'm trying to clean up from that mess, they go and make a new one. Then, when I finally get a break, like right now (Katy & Molly are napping, David & Ryan are downstairs watching TV), I just feel like resting up for the next disaster rather than getting ahead. It's always something around here. And when it's not, I feel like I should relax while I can!

So the latest drama with David - last night Ryan was trying to hit Molly with a big clear plastic bin that is supposed to hold sandbox toys. I saw him and told him to put it down, which to him meant "throw it at your brother." I don't think he meant to hit David, but it got him pretty good. Poor guy started getting a lump under his eye right away. Today the lump is smaller, but the eye is really bruised. He cried for a little while, but once I started taking care of him (had him lay down, got some ice, etc) he calmed down.

Then today we went for a walk. I decided to walk the same route I run so I could focus more on David and find out why he was struggling so much. He made it to the halfway point just fine! He stopped and rested a couple times while I caught up with him, so I was starting to think "Great, he just needs to not go so fast, we've solved the problem!" Then I told Ryan to get down and walk or run. So he started running on the left side of the sidewalk. Then David started riding, also on the left side. As he approached Ryan, Ryan moved to the right to get out of David's way. At the same moment David swerved to the right to avoid Ryan. Crash! They both fell down and got a little scraped up. Ryan got back up, brushed himself off (figuratively...I'm sure he didn't actually brush himself off), and ran the rest of the way home, beating me! David cried and cried and cried. It took lots of nagging to get him to even get off the ground. Then more effort to get him back on his bike. And the whole way home he was either crying or complaining ("I'm never riding to the far church again!"). I was cranky, but I even tried really hard to be upbeat and motivate him and get him out of his slump. Didn't work. And the big, awful owie he cried about for so long? Less than 1/4" in diameter.