The blahs...

I don't know if this is what they refer to as the "dog days" of summer or not but it sure feels "dog". I'm so blah. No energy, no interest in anything...just cranky and hot and bored and tired and...pathetic! I don't even feel nice.

I should be cherishing every moment that I am not dealing with homeschooling (I like teaching my kids, just not fighting them to want to learn or keeping Haley off of the table and the computer desk and everything while we're doing this)

Instead all I can see is how the days stretch on endlessly like a scene out of the movie "Groundhog's Day". Every day it's the same joys over and over. I get up (after a night of interrupted sleep) and begin the routine with the kids' not liking anything we have for breakfast. Tough. Then we get through the morning and get to lunch where, once again, the kids don't like the menu choices ("sandwiches? What else do we have?" as they peer into the refrigerator as if something will miraculously appear other than peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese. They do this until the penguins are knocking at our front door thinking they have found their new home) Then, the afternoon is all about snacks and the coveted tv time. I limit their tv viewing so that they really do appreciate the tv time they are allotted. The shows are on from 4 'til 5:30 at which time (every day w/o fail--I could set my clock by it) Lindsay comes and asks me what we're having for dinner. Sometimes I feel nice and I tell her, most of the time I say "food" or "like it or lump it". Then, when I fix dinner (w/ Haley pulling on my legs and trying to knock me over until I want to scream--and unfortunately sometimes I do) and put it on the table, here is what happens:

Lindsay: "What is this"
Me or dh: "Food, eat it"
Jared: "But does it have onions or mushrooms?"
Me: "Only yours."
Jared: "Do I have to eat it?"
Me: "No, you don't have to eat anything. Breakfast is at 8:30 am"
Jared: "Do we have dessert?"
Dh: "It doesn't matter. Eat your dinner or leave the table."
Lindsay: {gags} "I can't eat this, it gags me."
Dh: "Then don't eat it"
Jared: "Did I eat enough?"
Haley: {climbs out of high chair while signing "all done"}
Me: "SIT DOWN HALEY"
Haley: Rolls her eyes at me and continues standing.
Me: "Haley, sit down"
Haley: "all done" again in sign language.
fine, we let her down at which point she begins to try to mooch food from all of our plates and climb on our chairs which we still occupy.
Jared: "But did I eat enough?"
Dh: "I don't know...did you?"
Jared: "Can I have dessert?"

Then it's time for the bedtime routine. Have you seen Bill Cosby as Himself??? The old comedy routine he has? If you are a parent and haven't seen it, or haven't seen it since becoming a parent, you should get it. Every night for almost 8 1/2 years there is the routine, dinner, clean-up toys,bath, brush teeth, story and bed, right? And yet, every night, they act like this is all new. We have to remind them to do each of these things. In minute detail! It's a joy to behold. Every night. The. Same. Thing. They act as if they have never followed this routine before.

So, I must go. Because my children have forgotten, again tonight, that they need to brush their teeth. And clean their room. But they don't forget the story part.