Craziness, ETC.

A good rain last night, and everything feels better in the morning. I imagine the trees are supremely happy, as are the children, who (except for B, who is supposed to be napping but is rattling her crib joints) are outside under a tent Merry constructed out of blue tarp and chairs.

I realized anew that a little creativity on my part goes a long way, so instead of continuing to layer threats on Elspeth, who had come in AGAIN asking to watch a video (which is not scheduled until 11:30), I packed her a picnic to eat on their camp-out. I mean, what is wrong with me? Have I lost all my joie de vivre? Why couldn't I think of doing something nice for a change instead of mounting to frustrated-parent hysteria: "I TOLD you to blah, blah, blah." At one point Elspeth retreated to the sun room and I suddenly had a revelation: Hello! I am not very fun to be around at the moment!

No award to me for Ms. Congeniality lately. Perhaps, in my defense, I could list all the delights that have sent my blood pressure soaring: Elspeth going missing (turns out she was just smearing her face with my mascara and lipstick);

Elspeth smearing defecation on the floor and not telling me until it was crusty;


Beatrix climbing on every possible table and chair and open dishwasher (including perching on the TV table, holding onto the edge of the TV);

Elspeth emptying clothes from hampers and freshly folded baskets;

me losing my keys and credit card, etc., which blew off our roof on a busy road;

me running down the car battery to dead so now I have no car for a couple days;

Merry making sure her life is fair;

Elspeth spilling grape juice all over a friend's white carpet and then the next night dumping huge quantities of fish food in another friend's aquarium AND dumping salt on the chocolate cake;




and many other small things that go uncounted, like Elspeth drawing on our blue Subaru with a rock, Elspeth pushing the baby; Merry insisting her life-sized baby doll sit at the breakfast table to the squishing of her mother; Beatrix with a cold teething; children calling me at every turn; Merry tattling on her sister; Elspeth disobeying generally and suffering gut-wrenching time-outs where she screams;

let me end with a great, big ETC.

You know, just dumping all this on all of you out there in space makes me feel better, or more desperate, or at least gives me the strength to leave the computer NOW. . .and retrieve sad baby.