Dashes of Annoyance

-Every spring these determined birds (the same ones? the same... family, but a new generation?) force their way into our overhang and nest under the eaves right outside our den window. This hole in the overhang has been fixed, but they just keep finding the weak spot and shoving their way back in. So whenever we notice it happening, there are already baby birds living in there, chirping sweetly, and we're not going to evict them to their deaths, obviously. So we say, "We'll just fix it really good once they fly out." And then they're gone, and we forget about it or get distracted with some other urgent project (or the project of keeping three small people alive and reasonably cared for) and then before we know it the birds are back for another spring of baby making. I kind of think we should just tear it even further apart and open a Bird Maternity/Nursery wing of our house, with older, motherly birds bustling around in white aprons and wheeling little bassinets back and forth between the nests.

-Addy's dance recital was yesterday- or more accurately, dance RECITALS, since there were two performances, each lasting two hours, and they have to be there an hour early, so altogether six mother loving hours. Plus a dress rehearsal the night before lasting, I kid you not, four and half hours. And today, in an hour, is her preschool program! Whee! So! Many! Special! Moments! Leading to So! Many! Tired! Cranky! Attitudes!

-I was room mother for Addy's class during the last performance, which involved dealing with: Addy leaving her ballet slippers at home between shows; another girl losing her gloves- and we HAD to find her a pair somehow or the whole class had to skip wearing them, and HEAVEN FORBID they not get to wear their preshus white gloves; one little girl trying repeatedly to run away into the enormous backstage labyrinth, insisting angrily that she "knew her way around"; fourteen girls all having to pee at the same time; everyone forgetting to pack their kids snacks and drinks, seriously EVERYONE, and while I had brought enough stuff for a FEW kids in case a FEW showed up without water or snackies, I didn't have enough for everyone. So I was trying to ration stuff out fairly and also trying to dispense three water bottles amongst all these germy kids without just passing the bottle around and letting everyone take swigs from it. They could not understand why I didn't want them all sharing and were getting very upset that they could SEE water right there but weren't allowed to drink it.

-Oh and then one little girl (the same one who kept trying to flee) "accidentally" drew blood from her line buddy twice within five minutes! First they were lined up waiting to go on stage and she stepped on the other girl's pinkie with her tap shoe, then as they were leaving the stage she somehow "bumped" into her hard enough to cut the inside of the girl's lip with her teeth. Gah. It was really hard to comfort the injured girl and restrain myself from yelling at the annoying, roughhousing runaway. And lest you think I'm being mean, this girl has been a brat to the teacher and the other kids pretty much ever since Addy's been taking dance. And you know what? Her mom's kind of wench-y too. There, I said it. (*cleansing breath*)

-Everyone at our house is sick again with some kind of hacking thing. And not a single one of my kids yet knows how to blow their nose. Nor, apparently, do they yet understand the concept of not letting snotty tissues fall wherever they happen to be standing. (Side rant: how do you even begin trying to de-germ things when kids are wiping their noses on the back of their hands and then touching everything in sight? Seriously? I kind of wish we lived in a tent so I could just throw it in the washing machine on SANITIZE in between illnesses.) To make it worse, both my out of town sisters are in town for Addy's various programs and events this weekend, and now everyone feels like crap and yet we need to VISIT with them because we don't get to see them that much! But how do we see them without infecting them?! DILEMMA.

-The house is in utter disarray from all the running around this week, and I find myself filled with a strange inertia about it. It's like, if the house is generally tidy and one room gets a little torn apart, I hurry to put it right so that everything stays nice. But if the whole house is a disaster, I sort of mentally withdraw and just ignore it for awhile. I get that way about my weight too. If I'm doing well with my eating habits and feeling all slender and my pants are fitting well, then I try to keep it going and feel inclined to make good food choices. But if I've been eating on the go (i.e. crappily) all week, and am so bloated from the sodium that my rings aren't even fitting well, then it's like I throw my hands in the air and eat a chocolate rabbit for breakfast. Whoops, did I just admit that?!