This morning began for me at 6:30 am when I had to discipline the “brothers” for all their yelling upstairs while the baby was still sleeping. They had already succeeded in waking me up, and I can’t take an upset baby before I have had my caffeine of choice for the day. My day seemed to get better quickly. I was able to go back to sleep for awhile and this time I was pleasantly awaken by my children presenting homemade books of thanks and love to me. The hugs and kisses were the icing. I began my day with a Monster drink and Tae Bo while the boys ate breakfast and began their home-school.

I should have got had my hopes up. I know that I generally don’t like Mondays. I know that I don’t bounce back easily when woken up before 7am. I had set GOALS for myself. It was too good to be true.

The boys were not focusing, they struggled with their attitudes a little, but we made it. Now for my fourth and final goal since I had already worked out, cleaned the kitchen, and did school. I was finally going to fold and put away the three baskets of laundry that had been sprawled out across my bedroom floor for the past two weeks. I figured I had no choice since, my laundry room is now piled high with laundry in need of washing. Laundry, for me, feels like a prison, actually more like slavery. I am stuck doing it, without pay and only a small glimmer of hope that one day everyone will do their own and I can finally be free. Someday, maybe my family will appreciate me as a person and not just as a wife and mother who has nothing better in life to do, but pick up after them. So call me a dreamer!

I thought I got my big break when the boys were playing so nicely together on the couch. They must have sensed it. The brothers decided that in order to continue their nice play, they were going to need the Rescue Hero toys from outside, the ones that had been out their since before all the rain had turned our backyard into a mud pit infested with flies and mosquitos. Being the loving mom that I am I sprayed on the bug spray, untangled the hose and set out to clean these nasty toys so that they could be brought into my home and touched by my precious children. The little police car cleaned off fast, the mid size Rescue boat…..impossible, the large ship took quite awhile, but after the hose didn’t take the slime off, I got the Clorox wipes out and fine detailed it. When I brought everything in the boys explained to me that the boat that was still outside was the most important toy that they needed. I said that they would have to share the large boat because the other one will NEVER be allowed in my house. It was then that they informed me that they did not like the other boat anymore, the one I had spent most of my time on.

I was now filthy, and wet and could not put off taking a shower as a reward for completing my daily goals.

Feeling motivated again after my shower, I got started right away. I began to get frustrated again when a couple of items looked like they had been worn. I decided to sniff a pair of my husbands underwear to see if my suspicions were warranted. Why I breathed in so deeply I do not know, but I still have the stench of BUTT in my nostrils. I guess I need to post a sign on the baskets since no one hears me telling them that the clothes in the basket are CLEAN!

I was nearly finished and thinking I just may even get to the pile in the laundry room too. I was fantasizing about how happy my hubby would feel when he came home and of spending the rest of the evening painting my toe nails or doing something just for me, when Isaac ran in declaring an emergency. The toilet was overflowing. Maybe I didn’t really believe him, maybe I was in shock, but I did not get up immediately and run to the bathroom in question. I kept telling myself that I needed to hurry, but I felt like I was moving in slow motion. When I got there, I found myself in about an inch and a half of poop water. I had to step into it in order to shut the water off. These are the kind of things I use to call out “MOM!!!!”But now I am that person. The next thing I found when looking for towels was that they were all, except three, already wet in the washer. This was going to drag on my dealings with this disgust. I would now have to come in and finish the job later. If I had to find a bright side to this part of my story it would be that tonight I get to buy all new towels.

Tuesdays are usually better. Maybe I will finish my goals tomorrow.