Surviving Summer

We are on our toes around here.  Being accountable for 4 restless short people all the day long, with class 4 nights a week, swimming lessons 4 mornings a week, and plenty of homework thrown in, it's not dull.



It is, however, exhausting, and as my first term of the summer wraps up I find myself alarmingly sleep-deprived. All told I'm functioning on about 8% most days, and it shows.



So, my house is a constant turnstile of unacceptable messes, I get those crazy-eyes when any of my kids start to whine. (Especially our Gentleman.  What is it with 3-year-olds and the inability to speak in a non-whiney voice?)  And I find I am bouncing around putting out fires, and unable to do much prophylactically. Nobody has clean underwear?  I guess I'll do laundry today.  We're completely out of peanut butter?  Someone will make a grocery run.  All the kids are coated in mud and grass clippings?  Time for a bath.  Someone dumped salt on the carpet?  Today is the day I vacuum.



Project due in two days?  I guess I will edit instead of sleep until then.

You know the drill.


So, while I'm missing the break in my stewardship over some of my more phenomenally creative mess-makers, I'm staying too busy to think about it much.  I'm determined to not have them remember this as  the summer mom was in school so we didn't do anything.  So we make it to the library every week and I fill up Fridays (when there is no school and no swimming lessons) with things that will hopefully become memories.



And I forgive myself for all the failing parts, because dwelling on them doesn't help.

And that's how summer is going so far.