Calgon Take Me Away!!!

Today started off ok, I woke up and came out in the living-room with Kathryn. Clara was already up and watching cartoons. I put Kathryn down to play while I was on FB. Then Kylie (my friend and her daughter stayed over), woke up and came out to play. Then Mary, then Kelly. I started my soup that I planned on having for dinner, and started cleaning. My girls drive me insane. They fight constantly, they talk constantly, they ask for stuff constantly, they tell me to do stuff for them constantly, they never listen, they never do what they are asked or even told, they never think for themselves. It's exhausting. I am actually exhausted from just typing it. *sigh* It's never ending. Don't get me wrong, I love them madly. I couldn't imagine life without them. But man, I could so picture a Friday night-in without them. Or a grocery shopping trip. Or a date with my husband, kid free! As things stand, get actual time away from them very, very rarely. And time out with my husband alone is even more rare. As I have sat here typing this, my kids have been in bed for almost two hours, well, that's when I put them to bed. I have been writing this for almost an hour. Yep, this little paragraph has taken me almost an hour to type out. My kids REFUSE to stay in bed once put there. They get up to tattle tell, to ask for food or drinks, to tell me their movie has gone off, just to see what I'm doing, etc...it is HIGHLY annoying, frustrating, and sometimes it makes me scream, yell, beg, and finally cry. I can not get time to myself. I can't finish a thought of my own. I can't read a chapter in a book. I can't write a blog straight through! It is makes for a very upset Mommy to say the least. And yes, I have had people tell me I need to stop complaining, I chose this life. And they are right, I did. And I wouldn't trade it for anything...well maybe for a full day of doing nothing but whatever I wanted to do. I have heard over and over again, "They are just children!" My girls are 6, 7, and 10 months. My 6 and 7 year olds know better than most of the crap they do that causes me stress. Today for example, after waking my husband up at 2:30pm, feeding the girls a snack, finishing dinner, doing the dishes, taking care of the baby, and feeding the dog...my girls proceed to tell me they are bored. My youngest says she's moving out. She's going to live with Grandma and Pawpaw. She packs her stuff and heads for the door. The her older sister takes herself to her room to get dressed, pack and get ready to leave with her baby sister. I tell them goodbye, kiss and hug them and tell them they are not allowed to take anything I bought out of this house, even if I have been allowing them to borrow if all these years, it is still MY stuff-I bought it. So they head out with their blankies that were given to them when they were born, and a few other things. I fully expected them to get to the end of the driveway and stop. Nope. They head into the street. I tell them to look both ways and keep an eye and ear out for cars. They turn left off of our road onto the next road that runs beside our house. I get John and Katie and we get in the car to follow the girls. I expected again that they would walk in front of our car until they got too tired to walk anymore and they would ask to get in with us and go home. They take off running, dropping their things in the middle of the road. I tell them to stop running and they do. I put the car in park, get out and help them with their things. I get their stuff in the car and tell them to proceed. I wanted them to realize how far Grandma's house was. Since they had decided to go in the road, risk their lives and serious trouble, I thought they should see just what it would feel like to walk for a distance. I thought as long as we were behind them, they would be ok. They take off running again. I scream for them to stop, they run faster. John screams at them, they keep running. I put the car in park and another car pulls up behind us. John runs after the girls and is not happy when they continue to run from him. He finally gets them to stop, we get them in the car, he's now mad at me. I drive them to Grandma and Pawpaw's so they can hear it from them that they are NOT going to allow them to live there. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought they would go in the road, run away from us and not listen when told to stop. I think we all learned a lesson in this. I learned that you don't ever give your small kids room to "runaway" and they learned that Mommy will follow them and that their grandparents aren't going to take them in. It has been an exhausting day. And they are still going. And now the baby is crying. So I am done for now...I can't even finish my blog. See what I mean?