Hello Routine, It's so Good to See You Again

Without school and lessons to go to during the past few weeks, and the cold weather keeping us mostly inside, we all got a little loopy and off kilter. 

Andi has been busy.

She gave her doll a bath in the toilet last week.
Ate Dave's deodorant.
Then put a two-inch long magneat-o toy in the garbage disposal causing a call to the plumber who happily charged me $104 to pull the magnets out in less than 15 minutes and go on his merry way.  If this parent coaching thing doesn't work out, I'm going to get myself some low rise pants and call myself a plumber and gouge people, too. 

Sophia has been needy highly social which prompted the following Mother-of-the-Year comment,
"I spent 30 minutes one-on-one with her so that I could then get something done, but instead she craved my attention even more."  Good gosh, you'd think "the child could have left me alone for the other 23-1/2 hours of the day."  

Sophia will hopefully cool it a bit now that she is back in school with her friends again.  And she was moved into the 5-6 year old ballet class,  which she thinks is great to be with the "older" girls.  I think it's great because the class time is longer and I can breathe a sigh of relief that I am guaranteed 45 minutes of not hearing, "I'm thirsty. Come sit with me. Will you do my nails? I have an owie and I need a band-aid." And so on and so forth.  As an introvert, I am thoroughly exhausted having to deal with her lately.  Horrible, I know.

Ella has been Ella...cruising along, doing her thing.  She started her new gymnastics class and seems to love it.  She is moved up a level with the older girls and has her favorite teacher.  The owner of the club asked Ella to join the pre-team girls to challenge her skills more, but that was two days a week of practice and a huge tuition jump.  Good gosh.  The budget said no, as did my sanity. Little Miss Mary Lou Retton will have to wait a year or so before she can start two days a week of practice. It's hard to keep Andi corralled for two hours while her sister gets to jump, swing, and flip to her heart's content.

Now if only Daddy's schedule could really be an actual schedule.  It turns out he isn't getting home all that early with the new job.  And with less pay, crappier benefits, and the fact that he missed his end of year bonus by 1-1/2 months when he left his last position (me bitter about this? no.....), I'm feeling disenchanted with his new position as far as how it affects ME- and afterall, isn't everything about me?  Though he likes it.  A lot.  And, I suppose, that counts for something.  And they apparently like him, "You go home and tell your wife how very glad we are that you are here," the new boss told him a couple weeks ago. 

I don't know who Chuck Close is, but I am like minded with him when it comes to routine...

Having a routine, knowing what to do, gives me a sense of freedom and keeps me from going crazy. It’s calming. ~ Chuck Close