Sailing the Stormy Seas

It finally dawned on me yesterday what might have contributed to my complete inability to function this last weekend. I am suffering from some serious PMS. (Seriously.) Yesterday I was a complete hormonal wreck. Terence had his first day of general instructor school and didn't make it home until 7:30. He walked in to find me barely managing to read scriptures with two of the kids, only my tears were making it kind of difficult. Not the "I'm feeling the Spirit" kind of tears, either. After family prayer, J pleaded with me to read Holes with him only I was too busy sobbing with my face into the couch. Fortunately, my husband gently sent B and J off to bed and then managed to talk me back into some semblance of calm. It lasted long enough for me to get backpacks and lunches packed, and then I crawled off to bed.

This morning, having figured out that this is not my rational time of the month, I decided to skip the iPod on my bike ride this morning and instead do some pondering on how I could better handle the kids today without totally losing it. By the end of my bike ride, I had come up with some inspired strategies (believe me, the Lord knew I needed some help!) and also some mental pep talks to remind myself that kids are going to be kids. They are not going to jump to attention like soldiers when I ask them to do something. I am going to have to repeat myself, and it is likely that they will fight with each other or do other stuff that grates on my nerves.

So, feeling energized and ready to tackle the day and stay on a much more even keel, I plunged into the before school routine only to find that I hadn't quite prepped myself for everything. In all my pep talks, I had continuously reminded myself that the kids weren't going to be enthusiastic about waking up, I was going to have to be pleasant and persistent and keep nudging them to get their clothes on. I had anticipated that nobody would want to eat what I made for breakfast. I had expected some resistance when it came time to get into the car.

Of course, I did experience all of these things between 6 and 7 am.

But I had not mentally prepared myself to find that my almost five-year-old had decided to pee on a toy bin "just because."

Dang it, there went my completely even keel morning. That one took me by surprise.