photo courtesy of Someecards http://www.someecards.com/
Today, I tried to have a nap. Why did I do that? With 5 kids you would think I had accepted the fact that those days are behind me. But in my everlasting state of exhaustion, I missed my Sunday nap so bad today I couldn’t resist the call of sweet sweet slumber. So I fed all the kids, got them watching a show, and poof! dreamland. It was epic, for the whole 10 minutes that it lasted. I was just breaking the surface of complete and total oblivion when “mom” collided with crying, collided with “NO!” at my door. With a sleeping night shift zombie beside me and a napping baby next door, I bounded out of bed in a giant leap to deal with the crisis at hand. After settling the drama, I forced myself to close the door to my room with a sense of finality accompanying the click and trudged to the kitchen.
photo courtesy of Someecards http://www.someecards.com/
Sunday Nap For Moms… Debunked
Here I sit, popping potty-treat jelly beans like an addict to try to propel my lethargy to a general plateau of human existence. I don’t even like these things! But it’s sugar or a giant pot of coffee, and I’m sure the caffeine will not be appreciated in about 7 hours. The only thing that keeps resounding in my head is “WHY DID I DO THAT?!?!?!?!” Do I feel any better? NO! I feel worse, so so much worse. Tired beyond repair, frustrated, foggy, and just generally grumpy. The wrong side of the bed… I live over here right now. Who came up with that anyways? “Did you wake up one the wrong side of the bed???” Seriously, what is the RIGHT side? Because I can’t seem to find it. Every side I manage to clamber out of leaves me feeling incomplete, unrested, NOT READY to face the day. Deep breaths.
Grumpy Cat Photo by http://www.grumpycats.com/memes/
It’s Sunday, the day of rest. Ha! My sour sense of humour mocks me with the reminder that with young children, it’s really quite the opposite. Instead of a nice breakfast, a relaxing service and a restful afternoon nap, our day is GO from the minute we get up. We have to wake up early, get everyone ready to go, pack up the van, show up late to church, and try to keep everyone from becoming wild monkeys at the sight of other children to romp around with. We arrive home with a bus (literally, we drive a bus) full of desperate, hungry, whiny, tired children… you can imagine our afternoon is not very restful. No, Sunday is more like crazy day. I have tried to impose quiet time, put everyone downstairs, talk about how they need to stay down there. But when you put 4 kids in the same room, aged 2-7… who am I kidding?
My optimistic side reminds me that I went to church, listened to a nice sermon, I should be spiritually renewed and ready to face another week… I accomplished something! But the OTHER me, Rebecca the Realist, reminds me that for the foreseeable future, Sunday’s will be a flurry of chaos and gathering and herding and trying desperately not to lose my mind.
Until then, buckle up your bootstraps, stop eating candy for pete’s sake, and get going! Life doesn’t stop for nothing around here, my biggest mistake was hoping for it.
From a jaded realist… I truly hope that your Sunday has been more restful than mine. And if you have young children and your hubby is busy today: for heavens sake…. DON’T TRY TO HAVE A SUNDAY NAP!!!! 😉
