Eight pounds of peanut butter, check.
10 loads of laundry, check
One pot roast, check.

It’s been a busy, busy kind of day. Yesterday was my day to visit Auntie Mame. Wednesdays are great days, visiting Auntie Mame. Not a lot gets accomplished around the house, though (which is why I missed blogging yesterday). So today I caught up on my admin duties. I am almost all caught up…or at least I am temporarily caught up until tonight when everyone puts their dirty clothes in the laundry hamper and it starts all over again.

Stir crazy…two words that come to mind when I think of Zach and Lucas. They are both going stir crazy. Zach far more so than Lucas. They have begun having “cast wars”. I’m not so sure the orthopedist would approve. Zach chases Lucas around the house, yelling as he goes. It is like have two two year olds all over again.

As a way to refocus them tonight, I asked all of the boys to take the recyclables out to the curb. Lucas comes in to get me and says “Mom, come here! You HAVE to see this!” I walk outside to see Zach sprawled on the ground with one foot in the strap of one of his mountain board, the other foot twisted behind him, his casted arm up over his head with his eyes closed. He is not moving. Panic starts to creep in and I say Zach’s name, fairly sharply. He starts laughing. He thinks it’s funny. I think it’s awful! Messing with the Mama like that is just plain WRONG! I know this is just the beginning of his messing with me. But GEEZ, now?! Broken arm, broken tooth and he tries to go skate boarding?!? This is getting to be a bit more than this Mama can handle.

The thing is, I know we are past the “easy” part of parenting. Parenting babies and toddlers was physically exhausting, to be sure. But parenting teenagers is emotionally draining. When they were babies and toddlers you were responsible for their safety, which was very scary. Now we are supposed to entrust these kids with their own safety, which is downright terrifying! When they were babies and toddlers you KNEW when you tucked them in they were snuggled down for the night. Now they go to bed after we do and we need to trust that they remember the rules we laid down for them. We need to trust that we taught them well. As the kids get older and go out more and more on their own I know we have to trust ourselves and the kids but BOY is it a bitch!

Oh, for the love of……….my children!