Just counting down the days.

I had the day off yesterday because I'm still feeling pretty much like crapola, but I'm back to a semi-full house today and I have to be totally honest with you and admit that I'm dreading it.
Dreading it with a capital D !!

It's been a very hectic round of school holiday's (summer vacation) this year and I'm so thankful that it's beginning to wind down. I only have 4 more days to get though and like the little engine that could says: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
I've come to the conclusion that I like children just fine, but I wish some of my parents had practised birth control a little more rigorously.

I'm beaded out, because I've beaded until my eyes cross.
I've colored/coloured in until my hands cramp.
I've glued sh** on paper, cardboard, card-stock and toilet paper rolls and then covered it with glitter. Enough glitter to make the entire house look like it's a fairy garden and you know that stuff doesn't vacuum up at all.
I have shoveled enough sand to make a 10 story high sand castle and have the blisters to prove it.
I have grass stains on my knees from attempting to run 3 legged races or from playing kickball with extremely short and uncoordinated little folks.
I've got scrapes on my legs from being plowed down by tricycles
and I've had my toes run over by training wheels.
We've cooked and baked in the oven, done bake-less biscuits. (cookies)
Sliced enough fruit for fruit salad to feed the populations of small countries
and the children even had a go at making butter with paddles.
(note to self : Don't EVER do this again!)

We've bird watched.
Identified plants around the garden.
Planted seeds and cuttings and have weeded the children's garden so well, that there's barely anything left but bare dirt.
Just dirt.
No worms.
The worms have all been carted away in pockets or used to scare little girls at the lunch table.
Some may even have been eaten.

And that's not even getting into the normal ,daily, day to day stuff.
Puzzles, drawing, counting, threading, reading, story telling, free play, structured play and bribing/coaxing irritable little ones into having a nap so that I can have a bit of a breather.

The problem with school hol's is that even when the littlies go down for a sleep... IF they go down for a sleep, you still have the older kids to contend with... and they refuse to go down for a nap at ALL. And "quiet time"? You're joking... right?
Even bribery doesn't work on 8-11 year olds. Unless maybe I had a Wii. But I'm not cool enough to have a Wii, so the little darlin's are just out of luck and are stuck forevermore with the Nintendo 64.
Deal with it, sweetheart.

The older kids tend to look at the time while the little ones are down, as their time and they just want to party hearty. And talk about whining ! An 8 year old can whine louder, longer, more consistently and more constructively than even a 3 year old can. And they know how to get your goat... every single day.

And they're doing all this, when I still feel like I've been run over with a Mack truck and I'm still barking and sweating like a demented seal with menopausal hot flashes?
WHY? Don't they care that I feel sick?

Hey, I can understand fully, why some species eat their young.


Thanks to Barb at A Cowboys Wife, I've found that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
I'll remember this for next time !