one of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to tape your children's mouths shut and lock them in seperate rooms? If not, you must have only one child who is still precious and quiet. I, on the other hand, have 3 children who find no geater delight than to torment one another, causing my day to be filled with squeeling and screaming and crying and the occasional full body tackle when the aggravating has gotten too intense. Seth and Lilah are currently chasing each other aroun the house, screaming at the top of their lungs because Lilah is playing with the toy vacuum and had the nerve to say "mine." Seth is devastated that she might think the vacuum belongs just to her and is crying like a tiny little baby and screeching for mommy to "tell Lilah it's not hers!!!!" Like it matters. You may be wondering why I am typing on the computer during this interaction rather than intervening. I will tell you why. I am tired. My children have lost several toys today, have each spent time on the "time out spot" more times than I can count, and I have spent entirely too much time attempting to talk them through conflict in a calm and patient manner. I am no longer capable of doing this and I know that if I attempt to intervene in this current fight, I will lose it and will scream and yell and will probably throw the toy vaccum out of the window, which the neighbors might frown upon. I still want people to think I have maintained my sanity, whether it is true or not. It does not help today that even when the kids aren't at each other's throats, Seth has been in an especially talkative mood. He seriously DOES NOT STOP TALKING and asking questions... all day... every day... he has also recently taken to calling people names, usually made up nonsensical names, but names nonetheless. This is not allowed, whether he is joking or not. Seth does not understand the seriousness of this issue, however, and so he continues to do it. Consequently, my days have largely consisted of putting him in time out and explaining why name calling (even funny joking name calling) is completely unacceptable. All I want is some peace and quiet and a couple hours of not having to discipline my children. Thank God I get to go to my spouse group meeting tonight for a few hours. It is much needed today. And to top it all off, I found out my brother and his family will be moving to New York in July, which is not at all close to Detroit and so I'm very sad to be far from them and for the kids to not get as much time with their cousins. We will just have to make frequent trips to visit. But I was hoping to have Sarah and the kids close by in Michigan to help me preserve my slipping sanity...