The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

My days almost always contain all three things.  In general, that's the life of the stay-at-home parent.  Moments of awesome punctuated with extended periods of not so awesome.

Here's today as an example.

The Good:

Being at home with the kids all the time means that if I decide I want to bake chocolate chip muffins as a mid-morning snack, I can do that.

If those muffins are in the shape of dinosaurs, so much the better, right?  It's little things like this that make it fun to be home with the kids.  I'd never have time on a random Monday to do that kind of thing otherwise.

The Bad:

Jamie has another (or perhaps the same) cold.  He's not sleeping well, he's cranky, he's got green snot pouring out his nose, and I'd bet a large sum of money that he has another ear infection, too.  I'm doing my best to keep him happy but there really isn't a lot I can do for him aside from try to keep him as comfortable as possible.  His check-up is tomorrow so we're holding out until then to see the doctor.  None of this is something I've never dealt with before but I am positively weary of dealing with it this winter.  I feel like I'm suffocating under a load of snotty tissues, snotty attitudes, and snotty/chapped cheeks.

The Ugly:

We've been fighting an on-going battle with Liam over his attitude.  I feel like I'm living with a three year old in a 6 year old's body.  He's nasty, he's rude, he defiant, he throws tantrums.  He's driven both and Scot and me to the very edge multiple times.  We're trying very hard to help him work through this and survive him in the meantime but I'm really exasperated with my kid right now.  Every single request, however minor, is met with resistance.  So, today, when I asked him to leave the room so I could get dressed, he turned on the attitude with me because I didn't kick his brother out, too.  I kind of lost it with him.  It was a minor thing but, coming on top of what the last several weeks have been like, I yelled at him.

(An aside:  I asked Liam to leave because I'm beginning to find it uncomfortable having my 6 year old boy around when I'm naked.  Call me a prude, but there is an age where it becomes inappropriate and I'd rather listen to what my instincts are telling me than have him be 11 and walking in on me in the shower.  Also, frankly, Mommy just needs some personal space every now and then and I can trust Liam not to destroy everything in sight in the 5 minutes it takes me to get dressed.  The same cannot be said for his brother.)

I'm looking forward to reaching a point in time where there are more Good moments than Bad or Ugly moments in my day.  Those of you with older children, don't shatter my illusions about the idea that those days will exist in the future.