I have one beautiful son, Dubs, from my previous marriage who just turned 7. (Break. My. Heart). He's amazing and brilliant and adorable and some days - a total a**hole. Cause ya know, sometimes kids are just a**holes, right? Aren't we all?
We live-in-happiness with my boyfriend, Todd, and his two boys, Coco and GMan. Coco is 11 and GMan is 8. They're funny and kind and talented and some days - total a**holes.
We have all three boys 50% each week, and on the same schedule. So we have this crazy ebb and flow of quiet days that are just the two of us, to the next day, a full-blown-circus. I will admit, I love both sides of that dichotomy. My relationship with Todd is pretty rock solid - and in big part to the fact that we have lots of time to focus on being a couple, which, trust me, I know is a luxury that most parents do not have. We also have the blessing of being SUPER excited to be with our kids. We almost never get babysitters and get pretty psyched when its our full weekend and try to do some cool fun stuff as a family (and this isn't any kind of self-righteous standpoint - we just don't get to have them as often as traditional families so we want to take advantage of the shorter times we have with the boys). But, even with this perhaps "nouveau-normal" lifestyle, we're still normal. I'm still a normal working mom who gets frustrated and overworked and stressed and doesn't always win the Mom-Of-the Year Award. A good example of that...is the morning time routine (or lack-thereof)....
I work full time, and I have a "chaotic" personality. I am a chronic over-sleeper and am a disorganized-but-creative, ADD-struggling, over-commit-er.
In the mornings - all of that above, sometimes creates the perfect storm for me to eventually, well, explode. Dubs seems to have a touch of my ADD because "Yes mommy, I'll put my shoes on" is usually very quickly "I know she said something about something I should be doing something about but I've been distracted by this toy in just 12 seconds...OH LOOK A SQUIRREL". We have a divide and conquer approach in the mornings - Todd gets his boys off to their two schools and I get Dubs off to his (yes. three different schools. very convenient). Most days that means I'm pretty much just responsible for getting the one small person ready and out the door each day. That one small person who also is an over-sleeper, distracted, fun-loving, responsibility-shirking, 7 year old....and I'm not always the most understanding of that.
Fast forward to this week. Oversleeping occurs. Morning instructions ignored. Mom-screaming ensues. Everyone pretends not to notice the freak-out happening in front of them and scurries to line up out the door. That's typical. What wasn't typical was the one funny remark that kind of became a slap in the face for me. GMan says: "I know what Tarisa's going as for Halloween. A stressed-out angry lady."
Ouch.
They all laughed. I laughed. It was funny. But I don't want 7, 8, 11 year olds viewing me as a "stressed out angry lady". I don't want Todd viewing me as a "stressed out angry lady". I don't want to BE a "stressed out angry lady". (Besides, anger=wrinkles!!)
SO. Fast forward again. This weekend is Halloween. Well, today is Halloween. We're going to trick or treat tonight, and the forecast is a fabulous high of 32 degrees. (God Bless Wisconsin). My goal is to make this whole weekend full of family fun, to laugh at myself and help us all laugh at each other.
I've been scouring Pinterest for some fun at-home activities, so my plan is for a family fun night on Saturday. I'm thinking some costumed-up Minute to Win It games (for Coco competitive streak), Silly Spaghetti Dinner (for GMan's favorite meal) or else one of their favorites, a DIY Buffet, and some Glow-Stick Wii "Just Dance" (Dubs has been begging to play for.ev.er).
For breakfast Saturday morning, I'm going to have them help me make healthy homemade apple pie pop tarts. They've been asking for pop tarts and EW. JUST. EW. Not doing it. But then I saw some recipes for homemade pop tarts and that got me thinking. We also just came into a GIANT bag of organic Honey Crisp apples and I've been thinking about what to do with them and I think this is a match made in heaven.
Here are a few links I found that I'll be incorporating into our Family Fall Fest for the weekend. I think it'll be fun and a good break that I need from being the "stressed out angry lady". I can't wait to report back with how it all goes!! I think this will be our little blended family's equivalent of a spa-day....sorta...
Silly Spaghetti Dinner: http://thechaosandtheclutter.com/archives/family-fun-night-just-for-laughs/
Minute to Win It: http://thechaosandtheclutter.com/archives/family-fun-night-minute-to-win-it/
Glow Games: http://www.notconsumed.com/2014/01/14/family-fun-night-glow-stick-game-thon
Apple Pie Pop Tarts: http://waitarethosecookies.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/confessions-of-a-hippy-granola-child/ (I think I like this crust recipe the best that I've seen, I'll let you know what I end up using and share what I find for the filling).
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