The Witching Hour

From the minute I woke up yesterday I was busy. And, to top it off, I had 4 additional children at my house throughout the day.

I woke up with one of those dang caffeine-withdrawal induced headaches. I felt like I was dragging...like I needed a jump start. Well, since we have no diet Coke in the house, this jump start had to come from somewhere else. Around 10am, the jumpstart came. I remembered that my visiting teachers were headed over in about 30 minutes and I had a hot flash as I looked in the front room and saw a HUGE mess and a big 16 year old boy asleep on the couch. This got my blood pumping. I kicked Mark out and proceeded to clean in a crazed hurry.

My visiting teachers are 2 sweet old ladies with wisdom seeping from their pores. One of them always brings me some sort of treat,too. We visited for about 30 minutes. I love talking to women who have been-there, done-that. One of the sisters had 8 children and her husband had passed away when her youngest was very small. She also never re-married and raised some pretty good kids on her own. One of her daughters is a friend of mine and is a wonderful example to me. Their visit was a great start to my day, I felt enriched and cared for. But now it was nearing lunch time, and I was still in my pjs. (Yes, don't judge me).

The rest of my day was full of driving kids here and there, working on yard sale preparation, laundry, sandwich-making, breaking up fights, doing more laundry and not taking a shower. (Yes, please don't judge me). Then the witching hour began...otherwise known as between 5-6pm.

If you ever want to see a crazy lady in action, please stop by unannounced at my house around this time. But, I'm warning you, I won't ever talk to you again. (Hee Hee). NO, seriously, I won't. I was trying to make dinner. I was in the kitchen alone and everyone was preoccupied with something else. While I was browning some beef on the stove, I decided to make a very important phone call. If you happened to read my blog a few days ago, or if you're a mom you'll know that when you're on the phone your kids suddenly need you immediately! I kid you not. I instantly had a 1 year old hanging on my leg whining; my oldest son and his friend decided this would be a good time to ring the door bells (both of them, we have one in front and one in back) at the same time and then run around the house; two of my boys came in the kitchen (probably because they smelled food cooking) and demanded to know what was for dinner and how long it was going to take; all while I was trying to have a grown-up, mature, important conversation on the phone.

I definitely got a good arm workout yesterday as I waved my hands and arms madly in the air in an attempt to get everyone to please leave me alone! All while trying to maintain a calm, sweet, mature voice on the phone. I'm telling you, I must look just ridiculous to my kids, because they never take the arm-waving seriously. I finally had to lock myself in the bathroom (while dinner burned). And yes, I had knocks on the door, but I plopped myself in the bathtub so I could be as far from the door as possible. *sigh*

Thankfully, dinner didn't burn too bad and I did get an important issue squared away on the phone. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful and then I crashed in bed and slept like a baby. But, I learned that maybe I should not try to do anything other than make dinner during the witching hour. I really should have planned better. Oh well...