I have five kids. Five. Kids. And we are mandated (with good reason) to remain at home or in our yard for a minimum of six weeks. I know many, many people have been dealt a tough hand as a result of the Corona Virus. In no way is this blog meant to diminish the REAL struggles many are facing. It is meant to entertain and add humor to what is a challenging situation for every single human being right now. Because at the end of the day, that's what we all must do - find humor and laugh.
We are on day seven of social distancing. Things were going swimmingly until yesterday when it rained all day and the intensity of the circumstances surrounding us finally caught up. It was easy, at first, to welcome the opportunity for our family to spend some quality time together with no excuses to interrupt that time. We got out the puzzles, arts and crafts, and board games. We stocked up on baking supplies with grandiose plans to bake our way through the pandemic. We vowed to go on walks, pick up litter on the beaches, and write letters to nursing home residents. And we did, and are still doing, many of these things.
But I've noticed in the last 24 hours, a distinct shift in all of our abilities to refrain from snapping. I, for one, have had two meltdowns, both of which would be mortifying to watch had someone had the foresight to video. There have been way more "I'm bored's" and sudden shifts from playing nicely to, "I quit. I'm never playing with you ever again." I've found myself muttering under (and sometimes over) my breath a lot, cursing the kids out for leaving dirty socks EVERYWHERE, not bringing dishes to the sink, and leaving trails of Legos (have you ever stepped on one of those suckers?), crayons, did I mention socks?, for me to either pick up, trip over, or ignore and for me, ignoring a mess only fuels the insanity. Oh, and the blankets. They're everywhere. Bedspreads are stripped off beds and brought to the couch to make comfortable vegging vessels from which to binge watch Royalty Family on YouTube (don't judge - it entertains them). And then they drag them to another room to make forts. I hate forts. They always collapse and on the rare occasion they stay up, they want to sleep in them. And that's just not happening.
Hold up. I'd like to interrupt this stream of thought to bring you a live example of the point I was just attempting to make:
Eleanor comes storming inside crying after jumping happily on the trampoline with Kaleb and Cynthia for a solid five minutes. She was scared of a dog barking and then Kaleb called her a big fat quitter and now she's sulking on the couch demanding strawberry yogurt mixed with vanilla yogurt.
Which leads me to my next point....the food. They are always eating. Always. The three younger ones are chomping at the bit for breakfast the moment I wake up and just when I think I'm done, it's on to shift two for the older two. And then the cleanup. And then.....oh wait....other two just raced inside screaming. Doesn't seem to be an emergency. They have this irrational fear of dogs barking all of a sudden which doesn't bode well for outdoor playing which is really my only opportunity for reprieve.
I've lost my train of thought. One of the many reasons I rarely write anymore, but I think you get my point. It's chaos here and I need to vent. So, I'll write what I can - it may or may not make sense. And as I've repeated about 9,000 times in the last week, you get what you get and you don't get upset.
Postscripts:
1. I haven't seen Abigail all day. I hope she hasn't jumped ship.
2. The fight was short lived. They went back out to jump on the trampoline but then someone stepped on Eleanor's foot and she is now standing by my side asking for something fun to do. Um....
3. I've been doing a lot of wash lately - like four loads a day instead of the usual three. I washed one of Cynthia's stuffed animals and IT'S NOT AS FLUFFY ANYMORE. The aftermath of this particular episode solidified my decision to throw away any stuffies with possible contamination. I simply cannot relive the repercussions of the not-fluffy-anymore-fur.
4. Paige cleaned all the bathrooms today, voluntarily....so there's that.
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