I took Monday and Tuesday off to recover from my half and planned to run on Wednesday. But..I golfed instead. I hit the gym on Thursday since I didn't have a baby sitter and got in a great workout. I had some steam to blow off and the gym helped.
So, the dreaded phone call. Usually when I get a call from the school in the middle of the day, it's b/c Chloe broke her arm again (sadly, this used to be true, knock on wood!), but this call was the bad behavior call. Chloe sometimes gets in trouble for small things (talking, getting up when she isn't supposed to, etc) but never anything major. Bg has been really struggling with behavior at home, but I didn't realize it was happening at school. It turns out Bg has been throwing fits if she doesn't get her way, getting hysterical if the teacher has to leave and (hanging my mom head in shame), hitting other kids. My sweet baby is actually a bully. I was horrified and embarrassed. I was a bit speechless when talking to the teacher and hung up and shed a few tears (which I NEVER EVER cry). I texted the mom of the girl she hit (she is a good friend) to apologize and that mom called me (she has 4 girls) to let me know it was all right, we all go through this, etc etc and it really made me cry. I had to hide in my office for quite some time waiting for ugly cry face to go away. I then texted Bg's teacher to see how Bg was being punished at school and to ask for daily behavior reports and ideas for punishments at home. Her teacher has 5 adult sons so she has a lot of experience. She was so sweet in her reply.
It's good to know that Bg hasn't been a horrible monster all year- just the past few weeks.
So, Bg's at home punishment involved writing apology letters to her teachers and the kid she hit:
She also lost electronics until I get good daily reports and her bedtime has been moved up a half hour.
I decided at last minute to have a garage sale on Saturday. I knew my sister was having one but I just haven't had time to put stuff together. But when I saw my pile of garage sale boxes in the basement, I took Friday off and put everything together. I left the house with around 9 tubs of stuff and came home with just 2.5 tubs. Such a weight off my shoulders!! And I made enough money to pay for my annual greenhouse trip!
So, my Mother's Day started off nice. I slept in a bit, the girls made me beautiful cards and got useful gifts. However, it started going downhill after that. The girls lolly gagged, we fought over breakfast, had meltdowns over getting dressed for church and were flat out rude and whiny all morning. We left for church and they were just so hateful. That combined with Bg's school call had me feeling VERY down on myself as a mother. I don't wallow in self pity too often but I was questioning my job as a parent and wondering where I went wrong. Luckily we had about 2 hours apart at church and I was in the nursery cuddling sweet, non talking babies, so that helped my mood.
My friend Kelly invited the 4 of us to join them for lunch and golf at the Country Club. The girls were so excited and on their best behavior. The day was looking up. It started raining while we were eating, so we were delayed on heading out to the course for a bit but took a good photo op:
But the day went downhill from there. Chloe was getting mad that she wasn't doing good, Bg was loud and wouldn't quite down when we told her to, Chloe was demanding about driving the cart and we were all getting upset with each other.
Then disaster almost struck. It was misting so the grass was wet. We were letting Chloe drive the cart and Jeff had hopped on the back (which I am sure is against rules). We were going down a grassy hill when I felt the cart start to fishtail. I was trying to hold onto Bg and grab the steering wheel. Chloe was screaming and we started spinning. I felt that we were going to flip for sure. We somehow righted ourselves and started sliding backwards downhill. I could see Jeff was no longer on the cart but didn't know where he was. We finally stopped, the girls are hysterical and Jeff is on the ground. He jumped off and injured his shoulder so he was mad. The girls wouldn't stop screaming and he started in on them. We were done. Our friends didn't see our near crash and we just drove by them saying we were done. We were all mad and shaken up and some words were exchanged. We got off the course just in time for a downpour, which canceled my run which I desperately needed. TO make matters worse, somehow the keys got locked in my car when we got home and my only spares happened to be in the car.
But things settled down when we got home. I cleaned closets, cooked supper, the girls had baths and we worked on a chore chart and a behavior expectation rule list. The girls were wonderful, they went to bed early and my Mothers Day ended on a much better note.
I almost didn't post this b/c it exposes a lot of my weaknesses that I like to hide: crying, self doubt, parenting fails, etc. But it's life. We all go through these trials. I have had a lot of prayer time questioning myself and am thankful the Lord provides peace!
Oh, I did get a finish line photo- it looks like I am happily skipping in.
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