Bedtime...at last!

As I double checked the locks on the doors and turned the lights off, I thought about how happy I was that the kids were FINALLY tucked into bed with the lights dimmed, but not all the way off...that they'd bathed and brushed their teeth (I asked them to do this, anyway -- but I didn't check to see if their toothbrushes were wet) and that their laundry was all in the washing machine, and I had actually done the dishes (well, the dishwasher is doing most of them; I just did the ones that wouldn't fit). Even the dog had a bath.

It reminded me of a parenting humor book I read called 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime -- the title itself says so much. Who among us hasn't counted the hours until bedtime?

Today felt like the longest day, and then tonight we had my oldest's chess club meeting. Usually I drop him off, since no one else in the family plays (though next year at least one of his brothers will), but it was the grand finale where they gave out trophies and had a beautiful cake shaped like a chess board, complete with white and dark chocolate chess pieces. It was a good time, but I probably would have fared better at home with my feet up.

My older two were picking on their younger brother. This is one of their behaviors that I absolutely have no patience for. My oldest is "six years older, you should know better! Set a good example for your brother, would you!?" and my middle son, "weighs easily more than three times as much as he does; you're far too big to rough house with him like that." The worst is their psychological torture, which basically is increasingly sophisticated ways of calling him a baby and otherwise attempting to make him feel inadequate. My youngest was in tears more than once and I growled at my older two like a mad mama bear.

In all fairness to my kids, they were helpful at the supermarket tonight.

So, here I am with precious time to myself and it's almost 11:30 p.m. and there are so many things I could do, like finish moving the winter clothes into storage (since the boxes are in abeyance in my room), editing my manuscript, working (I did send a few emails), catching up on reading anything in the stack of books and magazines I've got set aside...but what will I do? Probably nothing. Maybe channel surf. Likely fall asleep.

I told all of my kids, "Don't get up early! We don't have to go anywhere right away tomorrow -- let's sleep in." We'll see. (I hope I didn't jinx myself by saying that. This morning they were up before it was light out.)