Every Day is a Second Chance.....

And I say that almost every freakin' morning. I think to myself, when I get up, that today is going to be better, my first born will finally listen and do what she's told, I am going to get everything done that I planned to, and it will all be rainbows and sparkles.

Yep, not so much.

I had visions of myself as a mom.....the cookie-baking, muffin-making, PTA volunteering, doing crafts with the kids kind of mom that has fresh flowers on the table along with dinner every night.

Yep, not so much.

Clearly, my children and I were never meant to spend any length of time cooped up in an enclosed space together. I hear these moms talk about how they have breakfast on the table every morning, kids dressed and downstairs in plenty of time for school, homework done, hair and teeth brushed, and everyone is smiling and cheery. I'm sorry, but on what planet does this occur? Is this some alternate reality? Because in my house, it's a scream fest before bed and in the mornings. Oh I have tried not yelling, I have tried to be calm. I've tried Love & Logic, focusing on the positive, positive reinforcement, and all of that jazz. I hate it every time I yell, but my first born is so freakin' headstrong (I have NO IDEA where she got it.....) and I swear she is 13 at times instead of 8. This is a work in progress, though, and I refuse to give up.

Just this morning, I woke up thinking this was a new day, a second chance, and I go upstairs to check on my baby (the 3 year old) only to find that the first born isn't even out of bed. Now, she has three alarms.....yes, THREE. The first goes off at 6:30 am, and it's a cute little message that says, "Good morning, Sunshine!" The second one goes off 10 minutes later and it says, "I love you, but you have to get up now." She has a third one that goes off at 7:10 that tells her she needs to be ready to go and downstairs. She also has a list of everything she needs to have done, including brushing her teeth and hair. So this morning I am trying to get her to get her butt in gear, and I am not very nice about it. SHe got to school, lunch in hand, and I went home to feel guilty about the morning we had.

The whole brushing the teeth thing is such a battle. I don't get it. I have warned her about her teeth turning black, I have even showed her pictures on the internet. She's been to the dentist and she does great, but she will flat out lie to me about brushing her teeth. I'm not willing to budge on this particular personal hygiene habit, though, so the battle continues. Any suggestions??

In the meantime, I am so caught up in the craziness of this past week that it is really hard not to just sit and browse through all of the information on any given news station. I have friends in Boston and in Watertown, and I am just so angry that all of this has happened. I hear the mom of these two insane individuals complaining how they were set up, this is all wrong, etc. My first reaction is to think she is completely cuckoo, but then I realize she's their MOM, she's supposed to think that. But also as their mom, you would think she would know them better.

On that subject, I see a reference to the Boston police asking people to stop tweeting their locations and telling people where they (the police) are. I mean, I know it seems cool to say, "Hey! There's an armored truck outside my front door and the tactical squad is surrounding my neighbor's house!" Stupidity runs rampant. Sometimes technology is just not a good thing.

And then the explosion in West happened.....what a week this has been. West is the kolache capital of Texas, and it's right between Dallas and Austin. Nice people, nice town. It's just devastating.

So here I am, trying to appreciate my children more in the wake of all that has happened this week, trying to make every day a second chance, and falling right back into routines that make none of us happy. How do y'all handle you child when they are disrespectful? When they lie? When you just have no patience left? Suggestions are welcome.

I'm hungry.