One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. One of those days that I am glad is almost over. One of the first days that I have really thought, "How am I going to survive as a single mom?"

The morning started off pretty well. We went to a doctor appointment and Value Village. Hezekiah was doing pretty well at both of those. Then we got home and it all went downhill so quickly. I can't remember all that happened but I am certain there were a few time-outs for hitting or kicking his sister and that those time-outs involved a lot of sneeking away, screeming, and fake crying.

Then Hezekiah sat down for lunch. Meal times have been pretty frustrating lately because he loves to throw anything he has on the floor. Today I warned him not to throw his milk on the floor. A minute later I hear, "Look Mommy." This is what I saw:

Yes, that is his highchair tray completely covered with milk. His just-filled cup was almost empty. That was the end of lunch time. So upstairs we went for diaper changes and nap time.  We had only been home a little more than an hour but ahh, how I couldn't wait for the quiet of naptime. The only problem was that Hezekiah didn't want to nap. He had fallen asleep for about 15 minutes on the way home from the store and I guess that had energized him. So my frustration only grew and grew as I tried to get him to calm down and rest. Finally, I was able to buy myself 10 minutes of quiet by giving him some books to read in bed. Between "nap time" and going to class there was more frustration and I was very thankful to be dropping the kids off at a friends house. Spanish was a much needed break.

After returning home this evening, things quickly went downhill once again.  Within 15 minutes of returning home Hezekiah had been in time-out for doing something to Annaliese, Annaliese had scooted over and started dumping out the cat food, and Hezekiah had gotten ahold of Grandma's tiny reed diffuser air freshener and dumped it on the floor. Of course, all the while I was trying to heat up leftovers for dinner.

Dinner actually went well and so did bath. We are working on potty training so I was a bit annoyed when Hezekiah pottied in the tub right before getting out.  But he is good at going on demand and was still able to sit down on his little potty and go a little bit. Of course, he was also able to then go on the bathroom and bedroom floors. I must say that the very end of his day did end on a good note for me. Since he hadn't really taken a nap, he was asleep before I even left the room. No getting out of bed for him tonight!

I kept praying for patience today. I didn't feel like God blessed me with patience but maybe he is working on the long-term rather than the short-term. I can definetly imagine that all of this drama today will help me to be a more patient in the future.

So, if you think of it, please pray for me to have a bit of extra patience and understanding for Hezekiah. Please pray that I will learn how to do this on my own without feeling overwhelmed. Annaliese and I will be off for a women's retreat this weekend. After today, I can use the break.