Discouraging

Today was a discouraging and disappointing day (I feel better due to that nice alliteration).  First, Miriam was a having a hard time coping with . . . everything.  After five minutes of trying to get her to practice her piano I decided to settle for sanity and made her take a nap.  I don't know if she slept or not but after an hour on her bed she emerged in a better frame of mind and practiced for an hour and then did her French and Spanish without complaint.

But still--for the first few hours of the day she, and every other child in her breathing space, ended up in tears near continuously.  Then Emeline, my most even-keeled child, had a near fatal heart attack when I told her she needed to do two language arts worksheets to meet the charter school requirements.  Remember that one-day a week school the kids attend?  Well, we attend so Cowen can have speech services and to get a little extra homeschool funding, but the downside is that we have requirements (eye roll) and the kids have to take their end-of-levels.  *much muttering and quasi-bad language*  Point is that I needed her to do two simple, pointless worksheets and she sobbed her way through both.  Contractions are painful, but not usually those involving apostrophes.

The realtor called this morning and said that none of the four showings we had over the weekend ended in an offer.  Two people said the kitchen is too small.  Yep.  Can't argue with that--and no matter how much I clean or paint, the kitchen won't magically grow.

I was supposed to have three showings today.  Two between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm and then one between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm.  Terrible times!  My realtor called right before 4:00 and said one of the 4:00 pm showings had cancelled.  Fine.  I had a meal put together in a crockpot so I timed everything beautifully and had the kids out the door by 4:10 pm (I was being sarcastic about timing everything perfectly).  Then I drove around the corner and watched my house for the next two hours while my kids went nuts in the van or played outside around the van.  It was really cold today (it snowed) so we didn't go to a park and I am plain tired of taking the kids to the library and fighting their tendency to want to check out forty bazillion books and the hysterics when I limit them to six each.

So I watched the house and read (a book from a camel's perspective--not a fan) and got mad at the kids and hoped the people would come earlier rather than later so we could go home.  They didn't show.  Seriously--I had to stay away from my house for two hours and they didn't show!!!  We've had so many no-shows and it is starting to make me a little crazy.  So much stress and work for nothing.

At 6:00 pm we went home, I fed the kids corned beef (it is St. Paddy's day, after all) and then cleaned up like a madwoman while making the kids sit on the couch so they didn't mess up the rest of the house.  That's not true--Cowen and Miriam are awesome at helping me get the house ready so they dried the dishes and did little jobs like taking the plastic sheeting off the table and folding it up, while I scrubbed out the sink and swept.  Then Timothy came home at about 6:45, took one look at me and took all the kids out to the van while I finished cleaning the kitchen and checking on the rest of the house.

Then, at 7:15 pm, I went out to the van.  See, this is what is so painful about the whole process.  You have to have the house ready early enough to be gone, but not so early that the kids can wreck it before you walk out the door.  I end up a shrieking crazy woman every. single. time.

When I got in the van Timothy said, "Where are we going?"  And I said, "To Kent's because I need some serious stress-relief." Then Timothy grinned and said, "I love it when you give me that look."  What look???  Why does he grin at me when I'm a basket-case??  Okay--that was the best part of my day.  The second best part was when I purchased a bag of rolo minis and ate the whole bag.

The people who were supposed to come between 7:30 and 8:30 came at 8:00 (bless them) and we were parked around the corner watching the house so as soon as they left we went home and put the kids to bed.  Then I looked at home furnishings online for an hour as additional stress relief.

I really, really, really need to sell this house so I can return to slothfulness and normalcy.

PS Read The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  I loved it.  It is not the camel book.  Yes, I am still doing too much escapist reading.  Seriously, I haven't been this stressed since Timothy lost his job and I was one month shy of delivering Eli and we were finishing the basement.  Keeping my house clean is that stressful.