Crazy morning, deliberate day, crabby night

This morning was crazy. Truly, there's no two ways around it. Dave wasn't home, but I'm used to that. I "slept in" until 6:30, so maybe that was the issue. By the time I got up and got ready, Abby and Max were downstairs. Then Ava got up, and it all goes crazy from there. Breakfast (Nolan asked for hashbrowns... ha!), different breakfast for Max, try to get the dishes put away, Ava breakfast, Max wanting me to sit with him (yeah right!), getting littles dressed, making sure backpacks are packed, Abby's hair. It was all just the same as any other day, and yet, this morning, they just all needed something all at the same time. Maybe it was because Ava was a little crabbier than normal, and if she's crying, it just kind of sends everything else into a spin. And she's developed her own personality, and she WANTS things. How dare she?? And if you take it away from her? Look out!

So Max and I went to a park this morning for a few hours, where I tried really hard to be deliberate. I put Ava in the front carrier, and she was happy, so off we went. First I was the monster, chasing Max around. Then we walked through the woods, this path to the next. Then we watched guys putting on a new roof when we came out in a neighborhood. Then picked dandelions (or, as Max calls them, candylions), played with his mouse (imaginary, luckily), climbed rocks and used stick swords to fight the monsters. We were there about two hours, and it was really fun. And you would think that would have turned into a nice afternoon/evening, but...

Everyone was crabby, including me! Mostly, I get so tired of zero gain in the house. The laundry I started this morning? Still in the washer and dryer. Ava's highchair? Used for breakfast, washed, used for lunch, washed, used for dinner, washed. Other dishes? Unloaded and reloaded in the dishwasher. Toys and bikes and skateboards and pogo sticks and plastic snow shovels (yes, snow shovels) were taken out, used, put away, taken out, used... ad nauseum. I get it, they're kids. They need to play with stuff. But it still makes me crabby sometimes!

Then Abby struggled with homework, Max didn't nap, Nolan was ok though! We headed to Abby's softball practice, and that was good, but ran a little late. Instead of getting done at 7, they were done around 7:20, and Ava had had it. And I forgot her nuk. Ugh! Cry, eat grass, cry, eat wood chips, cry, cry, cry. But, she went to sleep shortly after that, the kids are all in bed, and it's just me in the quiet and (finally!) clean house.