Sunday, November 18, 2012

Weekend Recap: The Good, The Bad, And The (Very) Ugly

The Good:

*Notre Dame's football team is #1 in the country right now!

*Thing One scored a beautiful goal yesterday (on a free kick!) to tie a key soccer match for his team, and earned the captain's badge for today.

*Thing Two played goalie for three quarters of his soccer game today, and did a great job focusing (for a borderline ADHD kid, this was awesome.)  The other team only scored on him twice, and they were totally legitimate goals. I was so proud of him!

*Beautiful clear, sunny weather for all four soccer games of the weekend.

*Himself and I had a lovely dinner out with friends last night (sans kids)--can't remember the last time we managed to synchronize babysitters with another couple, but we need to do it again soon.  And much more often in general.

*Tonight's dinner: roast pork tenderloin with homemade peach chutney, smashed sweet potatoes with rosemary and onion, and green beans with bacon.  Yum.


The Bad:

*Weekend totally overscheduled, as usual, leading to highly crabby parenting.

*Thing Two also played goalie in his game yesterday, and apparently spent the whole game watching his shadow and counting airplanes or picking daisies or something.  Himself about had a heart attack watching (I was with The Girl at her practice and mercifully missed this.)

*In today's game, Thing One was playing center defense when the other team scored four goals in a row.  Not quite sure what happened, but it was painful to watch.

*My right hand is still seriously bruised from taekwondo on Friday night...yet another reminder that technique is far more important than power in board breaking!  Ouch.

*Spent a stressful hour this morning working out the kids' winter after-school schedule--regular soccer being done for the winter, now we are juggling basketball and once-weekly soccer clinics for all three at their respective age and skill levels into the schedule with all the other crap they are already doing.  Came to the conclusion that I will need to clone myself (and my drivers' license) if there's to be a prayer of getting all these kids where they need to be when they need to be there.


The Ugly:

Actually had a crying breakdown this afternoon out of sheer overwhelmedness (if that's a word?) on the way home from the grocery store.  Thing Two didn't mean to throw a carton of eggs into my shopping cart upside down in such a way that every single one broke (he was trying to help me load the cart in the checkout lane, bless his heart, and I didn't notice him picking up the eggs) but that was the absolute last fragile straw at the end of a long day at the end of a long week.   At least I managed to cry rather than yelling at him...a small victory.

My Halloween decorations are still up.  I don't have the heart or energy to take them down, because that means I will then have to think about Christmas and I REALLY don't have the energy for that.  Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, way back before I became the one who has to make the holiday happen for everyone...now, just the thought of all the shopping, baking, wrapping, organizing, decorating and dealing with class parties etc times three is enough to make me want to go to bed now and get up sometime in January!!  The season officially starts this Friday whether I want it to or not, and it will drag me along with the flow whether I like it or not.  The radio stations are already playing carols, and I turn them off every time I hear them.

Bah, humbug.  Maybe a good night's sleep will help...







3 comments:

  1. Yes, a good night's sleep will help,

    But Mama D - slow down, step back, and cut yourself some slack! Not everything is necessary. Scale back. Let other people do things, and let things go undone. Because unless the D stands for Dolly the sheep, you cannot clone yourself, and running yourself ragged isn't in anybody's best interests. The things that your kids will remember are the little things. I know my mother ran herself incredibly ragged trying to make perfect Christmases, but all I remember are the ice-cold mandarin oranges we'd keep in the garage and only get at Christmastime - and her meltdowns.

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  2. I don't think anybody but small children like Christmas. I really have no idea why we do it.

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  3. NOLA...no doubt you're right. I don't want my kids to remember me for holiday meltdowns! Made me feel better to talk to an offline friend this morning and realize that she feels the same way about the holidays.

    And Ms. Moon: I don't know by we have to make such a damned big deal out of it anyway! That way only leads to insanity and the crushing weight of failed expectations (your own, mostly.). This is no longer a holiday, it's a whole season, and who can keep up this level of craziness for a season??? I'm with you on needing a refuge from parties, by the way...I've retreated to my room for recharge-the-batteries time since I was a little girl!

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