I love my kids.
I do.
My daughter is sweet, funny, talented, caring, and going to be a sarcastic ball of fun as an adult. My son is also sweet, funny, caring, and talented, but all he likes to do is play video games or watch YouTube videos of OTHERS playing video games.
All three of us have ADD.
This means I can barely stand to be in the same room with them for more than a few minutes some days. This is also why I love school and cringe at the thought of evenings, weekends, and holiday/PD Day that means the kids are home.
You see, Monday to Friday I am kid-free from 8 am until 2:45 pm. During this time I can enjoy complete silence, if I want, or I can blare my music and not worry about song lyric appropriateness, I can read a whole book, I can hang out online blogging or perusing others’ blogs, I can sit down and eat a whole bag of chips (but I am REALLY trying to curb this), or I can simply sleep the day away; this is, of course, on top of doing the things that need to be done, like drinking buckets of coffee (snicker). Monday to Friday is MOMMY TIME, at least until 2:45 pm.
At 2:30 pm I can feel my muscles start to tighten and my palms begin to moisten from anxiety. By 2:40 pm I normally have a full-blown headache. But at 2:45 pm I plaster a huge smile on my face and offer a, “how was your day?” as the children come barreling through the door.
I try to be the dutiful Mom and listen intently, while feeling my head pulsing (my Tylenol or coffee, depending on which route of relief I choose that day, has not kicked it at this point) in protest. By 3 pm I have told the kids what they can have for a snack, found out what they have for homework, and assigned chores, before sending them either up to their rooms or outside to play. Anywhere but in the house where I have to hear Chloe talk non-stop, as she does (thank you, ADD), or where I have to listen to the two of them argue about everything and nothing at all.
Time to breathe for a minute.
If we have a good day, the kids will get their homework and chores done with little trouble and I won’t actually struggle with having them underfoot. But if we (Gavin & I) have a bad day, I will likely end up in tears by the end of it.
I think you get the idea, so I won’t bore you with more details…
My point is, most days I want to strangle my kids (not literally, of course, and if you’re a parent yourself you’ve been there, so don’t deny it). My ADD symptoms include not being able to handle noise of any kind unless I choose to. For example, if Gavin is playing video games, the volume has to be almost nil, but I can blast music so loud it can be heard two streets over and it doesn’t bother me.
As a result, I don’t spend much time in the same room with my kids.
I am getting better, though, and this means we are doing more things together.
Yesterday, for example, I got up in the morning and was feeling pretty good so I decided it would be a great day to spend doing things with the kids instead of kicking them outside. I sat down and enjoyed my coffee while I planned out our day.
First we went shopping for new shoes because Chloe destroyed not only her Winter boots this week, but also a pair of sneakers. As you can see from the photos above, they love their new kicks.
Then we came home and started baking. We all love to cook/bake and they are always super excited when I get them involved, too. We made two different kinds of muffins and two different kinds of cookies. I have to admit, though, this was all from a mix. I usually bake from scratch, but Gavin had seen the mixes at the grocery store and requested them.
Both kids took turns pouring ingredients and they loved it when I let them use the mixer. FYI, in the big photo of the above collage, I had asked the kids to smile and got the goofy face from Chloe. She loves to make faces in pictures…lol.
Chloe licked off the beaters, but Gavin wasn’t interested, for some reason. More for Chloe!
In between batches, we play Uno. Chloe kept making Gavin pick up handfuls of cards. He wasn’t very happy about it.
I promise you that the cookies and muffins are not burnt. That’s just how they looked. I can tell you they are super tasty!
After the cookies and muffins were done, we made mini corn-dog muffins. These are delicious and perfect for a little snack, especially for after school. We had them with some tomato soup before heading into the living room to play some Mario Kart (I do play video games once in awhile).
Overall, the day was excellent! We had so much fun! We baked, cooked, played cards, joked around, and played video games. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better day and I hope we have more like it.
I don’t like it when I’m a bad Mom.
Blessings,
C.
Scrambled Brains & Coffee 