Not enough hours in the day

I am a mean mother that forces my children to read every day - even in the summer. Devin is particularly bothered by the fact that he must read fiction for his 30 minutes a day. Nonfiction (which is his preference) is on his own time. Reading and chore time comes before the fun stuff and if we have a busy day planned I am forced to multitask the schedule.

Reading and allergy shots probably puts me in the mean mommy category for the day but I am sure the kids will survive. As the kids get older I have raised my expectations in many areas and that has helped lessen the load on me but it still seems like there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. Which may explain why I am pondering this so late at night. I tend to be the most productive after the kids go to bed because I can just get things done without have to answer endless questions, hear new football stats from Devin, or watch any one of them display a new skill. And sometimes when I am finished doing whatever, I stay up just a little later to unwind and enjoy the silence.

Don't misunderstand - I use my kids as unpaid slave labor and they help a lot around the house so I am not some martyred maternal cinderella. Today Devin cleaned up the back yard, vacuumed the couches, and scrubbed one of the bathrooms. Caitlin finished cleaning up her room, went through all her clothes and gave Hannah everything that didn't fit, she also wiped down all the appliances and dusted. Hannah also went through her clothes and bagged up what didn't fit for charity, cleaned under her bed (a scary proposition), and cleaned all the barstools. And I was doing the endless laundry and scrubbing floors. But we were listening to music and all working together. And when we were done we hit the pool for a couple of hours with some friends.

One of the hardest initial adjustments for me staying home was that the work is truly never done. I am never finished with the laundry, or done cooking meals, or done cleaning house and sometimes I stay up too late - not because I have to but because I want to just finish something before everyone wakes up tomorrow and messes it up.