Hops & Pads

Okay, m’peeps.

Confession time.

I have so not been on my A game, parenting-wise.

We’ve been in the house for a full three weeks, and we’ve managed one measly craft project.

And if that doesn’t say everything about the chaotic state of our life these days, nothing does! (Well, except for maybe the absence of a kitchen sink...and oven and microwave and dishwasher and faucet). ;)

But, hey, at least it was a cute one measly project.

With cute kiddos enthusastically assembling said cute measly project. ;)

And, look—first craft stuck on our new playroom windows! :)

So...one project in three weeks. Pretty lousy track record. Boooooo.

And worse, yet. There has been far too much screen time around our house.

And by far, I mean FAR.

Like, a galaxy far, far away kind of FAR.

Like, take the amount of iPad time they are typically allowed, and quadruple it by ten thousand. 

And then add another hundred thousand or so. :(

PARENTING FAIL.

I mean, I can feel my mothering soul shriveling as I look at these pics (even though my crazy trio is so darn cute and loungy and snuggly when they’re plugged in and zoned out, ha).



I mean, I’ve spent soooooo much time worrying about my throw-in-the-towel parenting of the past week or two to see where I’ve gone wrong. And the answer is everywhere, with everything. Oye.

If our move had been a little more traditional (you know, just moving houses, no massive renovation that wasn’t completed, or timeline that went bust), I might have just called in a grandparent—or three!—to entertain the kiddos and really live it up while the hubby and I hunkered down for a few days and just got stuff done.

But.

That just hasn’t been in the cards for us.

First—because of the ongoing renovations, our unpacking has been in stops and starts and fits and, well, more fits. It’s just been rough.

And impossible to unpack two dozen boxes of, say, kitchen items, when you don’t have a completed kitchen. Same goes for bathrooms, guest room, master bath, and on and on and on. And don’t even get me started about having to rip out all the new carpet upstairs and re-install (read: condense and move every stinking thing out of every room again. Oye.)

I mean, I was just happy when carpet was back in and all bathroom faucets worked, so I couldn’t exactly get all complainy about the boxes stacking up. Properties, peeps! Priorities. And running water in all places you want running water has been one of them!

Add to that the fact that we had strep throat leaving Dallas, and then again last week—followed by several days of my poor Chica being down and out with a really tough response to her antibiotics, and we’ve all just sort of given up on life, ha. 

I mean, my poor girl has missed three days in just two weeks at her new school! We can’t win for losing with these GERMS!

Oh, and let’s not forget about the insane hours my poor hubby is working, leaving pretty much 99% of all this moving heinousness and unpacking to me—plus the hilarious assortment of contractors we’ve had in our house on any given day, and there’s just no hope of being overly ambitious on the entertaining kiddos/being a good parent front.

So...to summarize my rant:

Move from hell (sure, a tad dramatic, but kinda true)

Plus

Sick kiddos and Mama

Plus

Ongoing renovations

Equals

Give-Up Parenting





BUT.

I have very, very, VERY high hopes that this will be the last week of the worst of it, and then we can slowly dig ourselves out of the moving trenches and back to the land of the fully living. Where we can embrace Spring before Summer is upon us, and really start to enjoy all things (not just electronics) again!

Until then, I’m just going to try to be kind and not beat myself up too much over a temporary situation. Too much iPad time for a couple of weeks? We’ll power through. And get back on track soon. I know it.

More as time allows, peeps.

Over and out.