Monday. It is always hard to get back into our routine every Monday morning. Since there was no school today it wasn't hard to let the kids play more this morning. Oh, did they have fun! As the fighting began I started to including them in my cleaning. We started a chore chart combined with an allowance about a couple of weeks ago. Marisa has caught on quickly. She has not missed a Friday "payday". Though she is really good at keeping me on task once she starts helping. She runs down her list and asks for more to do. I know this enthusiasm won't last long so I am enjoying it. I make sure she does take some play breaks often. I got a lot done considering the craziness of the day.
No school days can be fun. Even though I cleaned the kids played around me with lots of laughs and giggles. They lined up the dinning room chairs as a train while I swept and washed the floor. All of them helped with switching the laundry, or so I thought. I hear "my turn, my turn" from Brayden so I thought I would peek in and see what was going on. He was pushing his older sister into the washer wanting his turn next. I had to explain to them not to climb into the washer or dryer. As I folded clothes the kids did gymnastics on our pillows or "helped" fold clothes. Bridget just had fun rolling in my nice piles of clothes or carrying the clothes throughout the house and dropping them randomly for me to find.
Nap time was the usual struggle. I finally gave in to Brayden and cuddled with him for nap time. I expected to sneak out once he fell asleep but instead the two of us slept until Bridget woke up. He was so cute giving me a kiss to go to sleep and snuggling in. Then when he heard Bridget he kissed me again and snuggled as he talked to me. Tonight when he went to bed he wanted me not dad (which is rare) to put him to bed. We normally don't cuddle or rock him, but I fought him for an hour and was tired of disciplining him. The two older girls did not nap which showed tonight
The highlight of the kids day was web caming with my parents today. It was so cute! They all fight over who gets to talk/read to Nanny and Wello. Then Marisa proudly made a list of words she would like to know in spanish. So she asked me to call Wello, "he knows better than the computer." It was so cute watching her call. She was very proud to study the words most of the day.
Once the kids realized that Dad was working late they began to go wild. I quickly sent them to the basement (where they can run and have all their toys at hand) to get some energy out so they were not at my feet. That worked for 5min as they began to fight. So back upstairs in corners then to cleaning and cooking for all! I give them plenty of chances to play, but if they fight it's to work they go. Most don't like it but I don't like all the fighting.
I am typing this while watching the news and listening to our neighbor's loud music. I hate not owning our own home. I know it will be a long time before that could ever happen again, but I still long for our peace again. The kids still talk about our "other house" so it can be hard to explain the grown-up version of why we are here. We explain it the best in their terms as we can and keep honest with them as we can. We have been honest and true through the whole experience and we don't plan on changing that.
So, off I go to wrap up the night for a new day.
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