So much for doing what I'm *supposed* to do...

Hannah went to another birthday party/sleepover last night (for the second Friday in a row) and so had post-party letdown today. Its quiet in here, and Jordan is not playing with her, and she only "sort of" wants to play with me. So after much picking and bickering, I decided to add another child to the fun. I called my friend Cindi (who has been the kids' daycare provider for several years) and asked if her 7yo daughter would like to come and play for a couple of hours. The kids and I went to pick her up, and Cindi mentioned that it was too bad there was no place to go with the kids since she was convinced that the three of them would wake up sleeping David if we went back to our house. The kids were in orbit by this time, on seeing Cindi's daughter, so the talk wandered around to Jungle Java in Canton. For those who have never seen one of these, it is a huge indoor play structure with a coffee/snack bar. http://www.junglejavaplay.com/map.htm

Two and a half hours later we drug our exhausted kids out to the car for the trip home. My two were in bed by 9pm, after snacks, etc, but I will pay for the late bedtime tomorrow...lol They normally go to bed at 7:30pm, *every* night. They have no concept of "sleeping in". If they sleep until 7:30am I will be ecstatic.

From where I sit I am still staring at the "stuff" that has to be re-located to put up a Christmas tree. The kids were anti-help today in getting anything useful done, although I did get about 4 and a half loads of laundry done (who wears all these clothes, anyway???), and played with each kid for a significant period. Playing with my kids is very high on my list, but with Christmas severely compressing my timeline, I do feel guilty about not getting stuff done in that direction. Of course, I should give myself a little slack. David slept pretty much from the time he got home from work today until I got the kids in bed tonight. He helped me move a table into his shop downstairs which is now Santa's workshop until after Christmas, and he is now in the shower and will leave for work in about 15 minutes. Did I mention that I *hate* the shift he works?

Grump, growl, grrrrrr... I'm going to go stick my face in a book for 20 minutes...if I can stay awake that long. Maybe if I get some actual sleep tonight I can be civil *and* useful tomorrow. Ya think?

Let it snow...and other ramblings...

We had 5" of snow last Friday, and another five today. That's a lot for even Michigan in December! The kids think this is just terrific! Momma just wishes she had a self-cleaning driveway .

Life has been such a roller coaster since the kids started school. Both are doing well, but Jordan is having a terrible time letting me go to work after I drop them off at school in the morning. Class doesn't start until 8:15am, but since I have to be to work by 8, I can drop them off in the building and they sit in a nice warm, dry, carpeted hallway with other kids until 8 when they can go to class. This is apparently too much for him. He has been having grand mal hissies, screaming, clutching my leg, crying, the whole thing. I have to try to peel him off, but he just runs after me and gets louder. No amount of reassurance, bribery, or anything help in the slightest. And, once he has melted down, his teacher takes him to the classroom where he lays in the library corner in the fetal position for an hour before he can recover enough to join the class.

Please note this all sounds much worse than it is...he is not being abused in any way, but there are facts of life and one of them is that mom has to go to work. Period. He is being left in a quiet, warm, safe environment, with his older sister and kids he knows and likes, and a teacher or the principal is present. And its not that he doesn't like school! His teacher has been having me drop the kids off outside in the morning this week to see if that helps. She literally comes out and takes them out of the van. Jordan is delighted with this arrangement since he loves his teacher and really does want to go to class. Anyone have any suggestions? I can't ask his teacher to continue this much longer. She has morning prep to do in that 15 minutes, and I know that time is precious to her. If there is school tomorrow (and not a snow day), I'll talk to the teacher, special ed coordinator, and school social worker to see what we can do long term. Have I mentioned that this is a truly awesome school?

On a lighter note, Hannah has discovered puns. She popped off with a comment the other day while doing her homework, stopped (and you could see the lightbulb in her head come on!), and said "Momma, get it?" and laughed. Her comment was "There's no point to using a dull pencil." (and for those of you not getting it -- dull pencil...no point -- nevermind...).

Hold on a sec while I try to pry David off the couch to get ready for work. He is currently a coma...

Speaking of comas, I need to go become one very shortly. I promised myself more than 6 hours of sleep tonight and I have to get ready for morning (before I go to bed - why is that so warped?).

Solstice is coming in 6 days, am I ready? NO! Christmas is coming in 10 days, am I ready? NO! Boy am I in trouble...sigh...