A family of 5, Super Mom, USMC Dad, & three boys ages 5, 7, & 9. This is glimpse into the daily life of raising 3 American boys while living in Bangkok, Thailand.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Wednesday April 21, 2010

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out. ~Anton Chekhov

Nothing to exciting today. The boys were good. Arcadian was a little clingy but that isn't anything new. He ALWAYS wants to be with me. If I am sitting at the table he climbs onto me (or the table). If I walk into the bathroom, he will immediately climb through the cat door into the laundry room knowing that I will very quickly come to his rescue. The moment I sit down (which isn't very often) he climbs up right next to me. If I am standing in a room he doesn't want to be in he will grab my hand and drag me to his room of choice. He's cute, but sometimes I wish he would sit and play by himself for a few minutes. Arcadian is the reason why it is nearly impossible to get anything done during the day. I can't load the dishwasher because he tries to climb in it, or remove the dirty dishes, I can't do laundry because if he comes into the laundry room he puts the cat food into the cat water. Folding clothes is unheard of with any of the boys, unless my intention is to see how many times I can fold the exact same thing. My saving grace is that Arcadian still takes naps. I usually am guaranteed two hours to either clean, workout, work, or do homework. None of those are options that I really want to do, but I do. No rest for me. The older boys do quiet time, which means a movie in the family room, out of my sight.

Even with the obstacles that my children present me with on a daily basis I feel I have made it work as best as I can. Yes, they have days that they play to many video games, and watch to much tv, but they also have days where they don't play games at all and spend the day playing with Lego's or chasing each other around the house. Life became a lot less stressful when I admitted to myself that I will not be able to get everything done during the day that I would like to. When the boys go to bed at night, there is a scramble to accomplish the tasks that I have neglected so that I can say to myself, "I spent quality time with the boys today and I enjoyed it." Life for me didn't use to be that way. I spent way to much time frustrated with them because I was trying to accomplish tasks that didn't put them as a priority. I have come to realize that I can get things done a lot faster if I wait until they are in bed!

Speaking of bed, the older two are still up and need to go to sleep. I am experimenting with bedtimes....

JP

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