Crazy week

I know I've been awful keeping up here. This week it's felt like I wake up, turn around, and it's time for bed and I'm so exhausted that I just collapse.

So what exactly has been going on here?

Monday - OT for Jonathan but all speech was canceled due to sick therapist so Nico and I went to the bookstore instead and participated in our scavenger hunt. Then back home for lunch and schoolwork. The contractors showed up and it's amazing how little schoolwork got done while we had people in and under our house getting it leveled. Went to get all the big boys ready for KSW and Matthew couldn't find his uniform. I asked him if it was in his room or the car and he said he'd looked there but couldn't find it. I ended up leaving him home to finish his schoolwork while I dropped the other kids off and headed to the grocery store with Nico. Got home to Crockpot Pineapple Chicken done and the rice ready and Matthew had made the veggies to go with it. I think it would have been better if it hadn't cooked for so long so we'll try it one more time with less cooking time and see if it's worth repeating any more than that.

Tuesday - Schoolwork in the morning then bowling in the afternoon followed by YAW and the 2 soccer practices. Tuesday is canned soup night. I wonder why?

Wednesday - I was really hoping to get caught up on a few things that evening while Mark had the boys at KSW but we ended up scoring those Christopher Paolini tickets so there went that idea. The boys seemed to not understand the whole "I really, really need your help getting your work done these days with your dad gone so much because I'm falling really behind in all the housework and bill paying" lecture. Honestly, I think I need Spiderman to come over to my house and give them that lecture. Maybe they'd listen from him (or at least he could web them up for a few hours so they wouldn't be wrecking the house while my back was turned).

Thursday - The boys spent the entire morning thinking about all the fun things they were going to do with my brother Jack rather than doing their work. What this ends up doing is having me sitting around repeating myself constantly to one while glaring at another to work but in reality nothing is getting done. I obviously need to learn to assign chores when they are like that, set a timer, and go do my own work for a bit and then try again in a little while. We went to go get Jack that afternoon and got home so that the boys could do their work. They did finally get it all done but man, I don't know how to get work ethic through to them. The best thing of the entire day was watching the Shark's home opener. Beautiful win over Anaheim!

Friday - Nico had gymnastics that morning and it was awful. He has really been pushing my buttons with the running off thing and this time there were only two boys in the class so the teacher wasn't keeping as much control going with the "boys need to run and get their energy out". Unfortunately, that translated in Nico's mind to "I can go run off and do whatever I want". After the third (or was it fourth time?) time of his running off and going into the other room where he's not supposed to be, I decided enough was enough and we left. I had warned him and he'd done it again and that was it. He wouldn't put his shoes on so I carried him home while Matthew carried his shoes. That was such a fun tantrum. While he threw his tantrum at home I got dinner in the crockpot (lemon Chicken) since Mark wasn't going to be home as he was at WhiskeyFest and we were about to leave on a field trip.

Then we headed over to Malibu for some mini-golf and video games. Kids cashed in on the tickets for tons of candy (the dentist bills are still dancing in my head) and we left for home around 3:30p. After Nico's dash towards the parking lot on the way out from Malibu, I made him wear his monkey when we stopped at New Leaf for a few groceries. Of course this led to yet another tantrum with cries of "ha, ha, ha" (translates to "I'll hold your hand and be good!"). At least this was a store that hasn't experienced one of these out of him and it wasn't one of his noisier ones so maybe I still have one grocery store left to shop in. It was interesting having 5 boys with me everywhere I will say just because it was like "Hey, what's this dark haired child doing with us?" LOL In all honesty tho, I almost didn't give him back. I'm sure it's only because he was away from home but he was awesome to have around, always helping with stuff like the boys' chores without even being asked and just really mellow which is such a switch after my 4 constantly battling to the death over everything. We finally got home around 4:45p and I finally got ahold of the Chinese place around 5p to order some sides for our dinner since I was really in the mood for their dried sauteed string beans. I'm only kicking myself for not getting honey prawns too but I was afraid that would send the wrong message to the kiddies.

Right after we ate tho, I went to check my email only to find out that one of my refs for Upper Division AYSO was only doing 2 out of the 3 games for Saturday and it was of course the one game where I hadn't been able to line up any ARs. Usually when that happens he brings his kids to help out so I wasn't stressing until he tells me at 6p that he's not going to be there. Then it was panic time. I called a few other refs with one saying maybe he could help but that still left me down 2 ARs. If we don't have all 3 ref slots filled for a game, it's cancelled so now I'm calling my regional commissioner to see what to do next. She wasn't home but gave me some ideas and I spent the next 2hrs on the phone with various people until we finally had everything sorted out. Of course, during this time our CAVA teacher called for our monthly phone conference. Ugh! Things are going well with the middle two except for Matthew's continued motiviational issues. Jonathan's reading is coming along beautifully (he read me a Curious George book on Saturday with very little help) and really I couldn't be happier with his progress. Just to add to the choas of the night my mom called right after everything else so I'm telling the boys to turn off the video games and get ready for bed while I chat and check to make sure we have everything for soccer on Saturday morning. I get off the phone close to 10p and go check on the boys only to find that all of them are under the powerful trance of the monitor and haven't even gotten in their pjs. Needless to say there was some serious evil glaring going on as they were all told to get a serious move on. I got Nico and dosed him then did the dishes waiting for things to take effect. Then it was pjs and collapse time for me.

Saturday - Fun, fun, fun. I left the house at 8:30a and didn't get home until around 3p. First it was off to Jonathan's soccer game at 9a. It was nice to leave Nico at home (he was still sleeping) and get to actually watch the game. They won too which made it even better and Jonathan had some good blocks and kicks. Then we ran home where I let Jonathan out and picked up Christopher (not setting foot in the house lest Nico see me and the fit begin) and I dropped him off at the YAW prep area and headed over to the Farmer's Market to get the fresh produce for the week. I went back to Christopher and asked what help they needed and got asked if I minded dressing up and playing tour guide. Well, let's see, I did drama and plays all through high school and was in RHPS for close to 10yrs so yeah, I think I can handle that. Christopher signed up to be an actor and pretty much wanted to be there the whole weekend (it takes place next weekend at the Pumpkin Festival so come check it out if you feel brave enough to face the crowds) but I limited him to two shifts so he choose both mornings so we'll both be there bright and early. While I'm getting trained on how to be a tour guide my phone keeps ringing. I get outside where I can finally check it and it's Mark telling me he had car problems but finally managed to get the other 4 boys over to Matthew's soccer game but now something has happened at work and he needs to go in. Great. Christopher and I finish up at YAW and head over to Matthew's game. We all chased Nico around the track but in hindsight that was a bad idea since Matthew was out for the Q3 and decided it would be more fun to chase us than sit on the bench waiting to go back in. I kept telling him he needed to be on the bench but had to chase Nico and couldn't keep on Matthew. His coach called later in the day to apologize for only playing him 1/2 the game but mentioned that it was because he couldn't find him for Q4. Yeah, we talked about that too.

So it's now 2p, the kids are hungry but Mark tells me that he wants to make Alton Brown's granola bars and rice crispy treats on Sunday so could I go to the store and pick some stuff up. I head back over to New Leaf to grab the items and then on to home. On the way home I got to listen to a lovely rendition of "Stop poking me, stop poking my seat, stop kicking my seat, get your feet off my head, etc". No, this had nothing to do with Nico amazingly enough. This was Matthew to Christopher!!! I was ready to pull over and make him walk the 5mi home because it was just ridiculous. He finally calmed down but not before everyone in the car was ready to strangle him. We stopped at Pardini's for some fresh brussels sprouts, apples, and oranges and that's when I realized I still hadn't dropped off Miles's book from the signing. *slaps head* Matthew has decided that he wants to walk home from Pardini's (less than 1mi) and I let him but within a block he was trying to chase me down and not paying attention to the car coming straight at him so I pulled over and told him to get back in the car. Dropped off Miles's book and finally got home at 3:30p. Then I got to make lunch and start working on Mt. Laundry (geesh, how many times have I scaled that this year?!). Told the boys that they had all had more than enough video time so they grabbed out the Risk board instead. I can handle that. Rest of the night was spent catching up on laundry and watching hockey. Oh, and ordering the top to my haunted house costume. (I'm waiting to talk to the people at the corset shop to get that ordered tomorrow.)

Sunday - I'm fried. I have no energy but stuff still needs to get done. I finish up the laundry, grading all the papers, entering attendance, filling out PE Logs, doing lesson plans for the week, putting all my new printed out recipes in sleeves and then the binder, getting a bunch of DVDs put into books, menu plan for the week, grocery list, and cutting out the coupons as well as helped Matthew with his composition. Not done was getting the checkbook balanced (hmmm...when was the last time I got that done?), music with Jonathan (oops), and LOTR discussion with Christopher (double oops). Did manage to do some stuff for my board (not that anyone can tell at this point since it's all still in the works but hey, I did work on it). Mike came and got Jack to take him home and then it was time for dinner and more hockey (gotta love hockey season! Go Sharks!). At this point I've been working on this on and off for a couple of hours, it's 9:30p, Nico is playing fetch with me and a tennis ball instead of going to sleep, and I'm ready to collapse. Mark leaves early in the morning for SLC but instead of coming back Tuesday night, it's Wednesday afternoon. I told him that was fine but then asked what he was cooking me for dinner on Wednesday.

At least I'm getting a little break this week in that Jonathan doesn't have soccer practice. Too bad we haven't gotten Christopher taking the bus yet to class tho I'm considering researching the schedule and having him take the bus there. It looks like there is a bus that would pick him up around the corner from us and drop him off right in front of where his acting class is. Hmmmm... Of course, you know things can never actually settle down here so Jonathan and Nico have well-kid check-ups on Thursday afternoon. We're planning on getting together with Mark for lunch beforehand and then I need to stop at Costco for a few items afterwards (maybe I'll do all the Costco shopping then if I can find the cash and make my life easy). So I think that's the last week in brief. My friend, Mel, has done a really awesome "Week in the Life of" on her blog this week and I'm considering trying it in the near future. We'll see if I'm brave enough. LOL