SNAPPED, a post-holiday "story" from the "comfort" of my home.

Yeah - so total rant alert right now.... And, I do realize how I've been pontificating on how things have been going so well lately - sunshine, flowers, sushi and Christmas cheer, right? Well.... check this:

I have been awakened for... um... three? four? nights in a row now - Last night, it peaked at 9!!!!! times. 9. 9 times. And how? why? I'm sure you are riveted, right? Just waiting for my reply. Well ... here it is.... and it is NO surprise.... My kids. They wake me aaaaallllll night long.

Last night, my boys' requests ranged from some milk to getting rid of a scary noise to replacing the covers, which had - gasp!!!! - fallen off their legs. These requests came at midnight - at approximately 1 am and around 3 am-ish. They were awake and ready to go by around 5:20 am, requesting movies, yelling for me to bring them breakfast and / or fighting and wanting me to break it all up. Wait.... or was that 4:20 am? Can't remember; all my days and nights are beginning to blend together. Within all this craziness (and, if I ignore them, btw, they begin to yell - scream even - top of their lungs, wide awake, in the middle of the night - 5 and 6 years old! WTF?), my 3 year old wakes and calls out in her sleep, sometimes cries and cries for nearly 15 min, wailing, slapping at me, half-asleep, and I have to soothe her or risk the entire house waking or even just her waking fully, which would leave me with a cranky little one in the am, and one who wants to nap for 4 hours midday at that (and then, of course, would not go to bed until midnight). I am, apparently, the only one who hears all this (and, again, last night, I counted - I was up doing something for someone 9X!!!), so... I do not sleep - or I might get a full hour here and there only to stay awake tense and stressed for another hour or more, waiting for the next summons up the stairs. Usually, as soon as I fall asleep, I am awakened almost right away.

When 6:15 am comes, and it is time to wake the teen, who actually woke me at 11 pm last night (I was so tired, I was actually nauseous and had to lay down around 9pm, leaving a sinkfull of dishes that are still there as I speak - or type, rather - as is the giant load of laundry that I put in yesterday evening and the basket I was in the process of folding - good times ;-) to say that she was finally going to bed after her piles of homework, I am, once again, the only one ready to move the day forward (those teens ;-), a heavy burden when one is sleep-deprived and not feeling well. So ... although the teen did sleep soundly through the night, she is, apparently, not lucid enough to tell me what she wants for breakfast, and so I stand at the door, having all my food suggestions shot down as my boys yell (read: scream) for me from the third floor. Frustrated, I decide to move on to something else - locating her lunch money. Hubby said he had some for her last night. Cannot find cash. He sleepily tells me from the warm bed that he does not have any - was going to give her some quarters (and, in his defense, he was ALSO up during the night dealing with wee ones and their demands). Quarters. A hot lunch plus extras is $5 or more and she is supposed to put like $10 in change in her already heavy back pack. Embarrassing, to say the least. So... I pull on my UGGs, bundle up in my puffy jacket and go 'round the corner to the cash machine. It is not even 6:30 am, and I still have lunches to make, ALL the beds to make, laundry to finish, the dishes to finish..... I could cry. In fact, I did. I also yelled.... at the teen - at hubby - at the boys - at the three year old.... And I swear. A lot. In the middle of the night as I change wet pull-ups and bring milk and water to ranting little ones AND in the morning as I pull everyone's sh** together while my "important" tasks go unfinished and sit with the promise of tormenting me into the late evening hours again. On top of all this, I have discovered that my poltergeist (does anyone else have a stealth 3 year old out there?) has dismantled a couple of family games and has lost a scratchy distorted Barney tape that I remember my oldest listening to with my beloved late father. No one could have stopped my tears mid-morning today.

So ... I guess I could ask for suggestions, but... I suspect the return to our pre-holiday routine will restore order in a few days. I also know that I need to enlist help from my able-bodied support system in the way of dishes, etc (and hubby does help - as does "the teen", so.... just need to get more organized, I suppose). And, it is important to note here that I did, somehow, manage to organize my bedroom and fill a large number of Good Will bags yesterday AND make a taco / quesadilla dinner while talking to a friend in need who has recently moved to California and is struggling a bit - DESPITE all this chaos. Sigh. Sigh - sigh - sigh.

Thanks for the vent. Anyone have any other crazy stories that will force me to count my blessings and / or refocus my narcissistic view of the world right now? Anyway.... take care. I really do need a break :-).