Why Do I Do This To Myself?

So a couple months ago I let #1 & #2 sign up for Soccer, it was a good experience and really helped out with #1's self esteem issues, which helped his anxiety and depression, not so much with the possible ADHD, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Soccer got over and life went back to normal... kinda. Except a week or so later, I started college, and EVERYONE in the house got sick, the last month has been SO crazy around here!

Last night we had parent teacher conferences... they went well over all, so that was good, minor issues, but each teacher came prepared with a plan for tackling or at least learning to cope with each one (Tourette's Tics especially!), which was nice. I like having other people suggest things instead of telling me "We have this, this and this problem with your kid, and we need you to do something about it."... nope, I like hearing "... but, I came up with a plan today and I'm going to try it out and I'll let you know how it goes!" - LOVE a good proactive teacher! Of course, she was #1's teacher last year so I think she was prepared with how to deal with us, hehe.

After conferences we walked around the school and checked out the Literacy fair they had going on, it was really cool to see some of the information about reading that they had available, and made me want to encourage the kids to read every night even more than I already did.

In the Gym they had Basketball sign-ups. #1 really wanted to do it, and it's free, so why not, right? RIGHT?!?!

Except I've already got a lot on my plate...
For example:

1. I work full time, and I work for myself, so I can't just take time off (See This Post For More On That)
2. I'm a full time college student. Yes, it's online college, but still, You have NO idea the workload associated with that unless you've done it, and let's just say thank GOD I have an understanding hubby!
3. I have 4 kids... two of which have strict sleep schedules and we get to live through HELL when those schedules are disrupted.
4. My husband doesn't drive... Long story behind that, but he doesn't. So I am the taxi driver of the family, which means from 4:30-5:30 Monday - Thursday, I'm occupied, no rescheduling of that.
5. I have special needs children that see multiple specialists of different types... that takes up a LOT of time!
6. As good as my husband is about helping around the house with cooking and cleaning... HE needs help with it all sometimes, so me being this busy is NOT good for his sanity!
7. #1 did sign up for Basketball... *Sigh*

Looking back over this list, it's easy to see why I have no sex life as of late!

13 Things That Have Pissed Me Off Today:

1. It's Hot
2. It's Muggy
3. The kids wont listen
4. The phone wont stop ringing
5. My bank account is overdrawn
6. One of my customers can't pay for her order
7. There's practically no food in the house
8. It's raining
9. My shop is a disaster
10. Kids wont stay out of stuff
11. Kids wont get along
12. No matter how much I clean, my house is a mess
13. I know when my husband gets home from work, he's gonna be in a pissy mood too.
    

11 Hours Of Home Improvements

Yesterday was a VERY busy day in our household, Sunday's are my ONE day off from my job, I know, my boss is such a bitch making me work 6 whole days a week, for 6, sometimes more hours a day - What a Slave Driver!

Instead of taking the "day off" like you would expect, my husband and I decided that we needed to put forth some brute force to clean and de-clutter our house. #1 is currently away from home, #'s 2&3 were able to help some, and well #4 was nice enough to not scream and want to eat all day, so between nursings I was able to help hubby clean.

Things we managed to do:

• Dishes
• 4 or 5 Loads of Laundry
• Cleaned #2's Bedroom (Complete with sorting his clothes, refolding and organizing his dresser and weeding out clothes that no longer fit - note to self, he needs more pants, hes down to 2 pairs)
• Cleaned #1's Bedroom completely out, so that we could cover the walls and floor with white primer (to prepare for actual painting, and finally completing the project started nearly a year ago of building him his own room)
• Cleaned the room shared by #'s 3&4 - Washing bedding, washing down #3's mattress (shes potty training), sorting clothes, and organizing dressers, weeding out clothes that no longer fit (#3's hand me downs were put into a tote for #4 to grow into and #3's hand me downs were put into a bag to give to my cousin as I absolutely need NO girls clothes for store inventory at this point in time!)
• 2 Trips to the transfer station (Recycling center/Dump) With about 4 more bags prepared for a trip next weekend plus whatever we will come up with through-out the week
• Cleaned OUR room & our TINY little closet that seems to wind up storing EVERYTHING except our clothing (Trying to figure that one out still!)
• Cleaned the Hallway (that had been storing bags and boxes up the Wah-Zoo of who knows what for months

After sorting through all of these places and things and going to the transfer station we managed to organize things somewhat. Got some of the Christmas & Halloween decorations that had been in storage totes in the hall way up into the closet on the 3rd floor that HAD been housing some of the husband's tools for work. We went through all the blankets in the Mini Closet the two of us are expected to share, got some ready for Freecycle (Note To Self: Post those on Freecycle after posting blog), weeded those down to one spare blanket for each bed in the house with an extra blanket and pillow for company, plus special blankets like the ones my mother made and the Quilt my Great-Grandmother made for me, put those all into a large tote in the third floor closet with the Holiday decorations. I finally went through my Trunk and 3 boxes of BOOKS, I even found some I HAVEN'T READ YET (Hallelujah, there are BOOKS to be read!) I loaded up the trunk with books to put in the store (things I've already read and have no desire to save or things I have no desire to read) and saved out one large overflowing box full of books that I must NEVER part with (Ahhh, Love me some Stephen King, James Patterson and V.C. Andrews!), after I read those unread ones that caught my eye I will decide if they are to become Inventory or Collection.

2 Bags included in our trip to the Transfer Station were FULL of clothes from the donation I received to the store last week... I love free stuff, especially when I can make money off it, but there were about 4 boxes of clothes, that all smell musty and old... A few very old dresses, like from the 60's and 70's maybe that I will be donating to the local theater for costumes, but 90% of the clothes that came in are so old and outdated that I doubt I'd ever be able to sell them, and these people probably knew that which is why they were planning to just take them to Goodwill and happened to think of my store first, which is great, but seriously, now I get stuck with the job of disposing of their trash LOL! At least I got some cool knick-nacks and stuff that I'm pretty sure I'll be able to sell at some point, and some nice stuff I'm keeping for the family as well!

Now, off to make phone calls to doctors to schedule checkups.

Things That Help Me Think....

1. Driving
2. Arguing
3. Sex
4. Reading
5. Trying to fall asleep
6. Watching TV
7. Taking Pictures
8. Driving
9. Sex