Last night, I tried to go to Wal-Mart. I hadn’t been out of the house for several days, except to take Bee to and from school, and I wanted to do some research for my price book, without having to listen to my children argue and complain.
When I left the house, all was quiet on the weather front. I was happily puttering up and down the aisles, but I kept overhearing little snippets of conversation like, “Man, it’s nasty out!” and “Do you think school will be canceled tomorrow?” Alarmed, I called my husband, who was working in his basement office (he’s been extremely busy lately because of the low interest rates and rush to refinance).
I asked him if the weather had gotten bad since I left home. He went upstairs and looked out the kitchen window, to find that about 4 inches of snow had fallen in the mere 90 minutes since I left. He turned on the TV, and the weatherman was in the process of advising people to stay home and not travel because of dangerous wind chill factor, and poor visibility. I had been in a blissfully oblivious state inside the world of Wal-Mart, and had no idea that all this was going on.
I decided that I’d better head home, so I ventured out into the bitter cold (-5 degrees), and cleaned an entire snow mountain off my car. I drove home at a snail’s pace (25 mph) and could see only a few feet in front of me. It took me 45 minutes to make the 15-mile trip. By the time I pulled into the garage, I was so tense that my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth, and I was clutching the steering wheel in an iron grip. I was very thankful that God brought me home safely.
This morning, we woke up to giant snow drifts, and a thermometer reading of 2 degrees.
On the radio, I heard the dreaded “no school” announcement. Doom. DOOM!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind having my children at home all day…as long as they get along. The problem is – they don’t. For the last couple of months, they’ve been fighting like cats and dogs. Now that Cakesie is in the habit of asserting her two-year-old, er…independence, she feels free to let Bee know when she’s not happy, usually by screaming. Bee, being bigger and stronger, just physically overpowers Cakes to get what she wants.
Yesterday, school was 2 hours late because of the snowstorm we had Sunday night (yes, it snows pretty much every day here), and this is just a small sampling of what I heard between 7:30 AM and 10:00 AM:
“Sissie no! That’s MY Teletubby!”
“MOM! Cakesie took my Barbie and she won’t give it back!”
“Mommy, Cakesie hit Pumpkin! Make her say sorry!”
“Mommy, Sissie pull my hair!
“Sissie I want it! It’s MINE!”
“Mama, Sissie stole my dress-up drips!” (she means dress-up dress)
“MOOOOMMM! Tell Cakes to get out of my room! I don’t want her in there!”
and my personal favorite, which came from Cakesie,
“Mommy, Sissie won’t freakin’ stop it!“
(I’m not proud of it, but I’m pretty sure she got that from me. I try to never swear in front of my children, so I sometimes resort to watered-down versions).
If they fought that much in a mere 2 1/2 hours, can you imagine what my entire day will be like today?
I’ll be freakin’ crazy by bedtime.
