If I Declare My House a Federal Disaster Area, Will I Get a Relief Check?

Finally, I can take a breath and just slump for a moment!

What a week this has been. My manic energy hasn't exactly deserted me; instead, it just hasn't quite been enough for me to handle everything. Ah, Happy Mother's Day week, Heidi!

First off, K has been sick (again.) He ran a fever and has a nasty cough. For the most part, it hasn't been too bad, except that his sleeping schedule is all out of whack. So I've been functioning on just a tad too little sleep. Also, his doctor has me giving him asthma medicine using a nebulizer, which is no walk in the park. I have to try to hold a mask or a pacifier tube in K's face for 30 minutes several times a day, hoping he will inhale the meds in mist form. Let me tell you, K does NOT like this. So I get to spend half an hour trying to keep a tube somewhat near the nose of a thrashing infant. Fun.

Second, my kids have been on a run of destruction this week. I have a new bright red Crystal Light stain on the living room carpet, about the size of a large pizza. My nice calligraphy pen set, stickers, and special adhesive tape from my scrapbooking days got scattered all over the girls' room. I keep finding little bits and pieces all over. A sticker stuck to a toy, a lid to a pen in the corner, a new drawing with calligraphy pen on the wall. The worst was waking up in the morning to find that somehow a bunch of the adhesive had ended up in my bed and was stuck all over my legs. Ewwww. And it didn't want to come off either.

B poured out the gas can all over the grass. (The only good thing about this was that apparently even gasoline can't kill Bermuda grass.) J climbed on Terence's clothing stand in the closet and broke it into pieces. B chewed up her second set of ipod ear buds and broke the glass top of the coffee table by jumping on it.

The crown jewel of my catalog of destruction for the week was so generously organized by M for me on Mother's Day itself. I had foolishly decided to take a short nap. While I was zonked out, the kids filled up cup after cup after cup of water from the bathroom and poured it on the carpet in the hallway and in J's room. It took every single one of my freshly washed towels, plus every clean blanket in the house to sop up the mess. Then we put fans out to try and dry it, but it still took days.

Wednesday one of the swim teachers at the gym was telling me all about how frustrated she is with other people's wild children, how their parents obviously don't discipline them at all. She then went on to describe a friend's daughter, and how this little girl is so out of control that she refuses to ever babysit her. The funny thing was, nothing she described was at all out of the ordinary for my own kids. Ah, well, she wouldn't be the first to think I'm too lenient with my kids. I even had a friend once casually comment that she didn't think I could ever be a teacher because obviously discipline is not my strong point, judging by my kids' behavior.

Fortunately, I have learned to laugh about most of this. For all you moms who have tame children who actually obey you, just count your blessings. For those of you who have kids more like mine, let me share one encouraging tidbit. When James E. Faust (a former apostle in the LDS church) was a young boy, he and his three brothers used to terrorize the neighborhood. In fact, he and his brothers once flooded the inside of the neighbor's house with a hose. His mother was often at her wits' end. Yet he grew up to be an amazing, kind, hard-working man.

There is hope after all.