Very Busy....And Very Tired

I'm bushed. Worn out. Plum weary.

We moved both my mom and my grandma into one place this last weekend. That meant moving two households, cleaning my grandma's apartment (VERY thoroughly so she would get all of her damage deposit back), packing my grandma, helping my mom (although much more limited because of all we had to do for grandma - my poor, poor mom). We began loading my grandma at around 4:30 Friday, and finished unloading my mom around 8:30 Friday night. We were able to do it that quickly because the entire family helped (it was almost like a family reunion....). However, we were very disheartened to find the place we moved into disgustingly dirty. As a result, we have a lot more cleaning to do BEFORE we can unpack like we would like to.

Because of how tired we all are, tempers are rather.....high. Even my grandma, who is usually a mild tempered lady and is very easy to be around, is getting rather "bucky". I have had to try to remind myself that she is 89 years old, her usual secure world has been turned upside down, she has had to lose some independence, and she has got to be a whole lot more tired than all of us. However, when she decided she did not want to eat supper tonight at her brand new table and chairs that her family gave her as a birthday gift BECAUSE IT WAS TOO NICE AND SHE DIDN'T WANT TO WRECK IT........well, to be honest, my patience ran out.

And so now I have to repent.

To top it off, my kids are exhausted. They've been cooped up in a confined space among boxes stacked to the ceiling, bored and tired of the whole business. I'm impatient with them (another thing to repent of), other family members have been impatient with them (Seth in particular) because at times they made our work a little more difficult.

Tonight Hannah decided she was tired of EVERYTHING, and with much emotion informed me of this. She is tired of her toys (although she doesn't really have toys), she's tired of her computer, she's tired of bedroom, she's bored, bored, bored. It's a combination of exhaustion, growing up, and resisting the nudge God is trying to give her. She has been more discontent than ever, and our talks about her need for the gift of the Holy Ghost have not been very well received.

And in my exhausted state, I have to try to patiently deal with my emotional daughter.

My son has burst into tears at various times throughout the day. We stopped at the library today on our way to help unpack, and I had to tell him that he was not allowed to take any books into grandma's house. The last thing I will allow is another lost library book fiasco, and believe me, there are many places to lose a library book at grandma's house right now. When we got home tonight, I told him to clean up his legos, and then we would read some of his new library books. I stressed to him - very slowly and carefully - that he had to PICK....UP....THE....BLOCKS....AND....NOT.....BUILD.....ANYTHING. I had him repeat my instructions, which he did. I gave him the choice of playing with his blocks INSTEAD of reading his new library books, or picking up his blocks and reading his new library books. He assured me he would pick up his blocks because he had been waiting all day to read the new books.

After fifteen minutes, I went into his room to check on his progress, only to find a new construction. He had made a brick wall. I told him that he obviously had chosen to play with his blocks instead of reading books, and he informed me that he had NOT built that wall. This went back and forth a few times, each time with him denying that he had built that wall. Finally, with a straight face, he told me that,

"I did NOT build that wall mom! The Brickster did!"

The Brickster is the main character on his Lego Island CD that he plays all the time. And I can tell you that he was very earnest in his explanation. He simply DID NOT do it. Therefore he could not be responsible for the building of that wall.

And so, that's been our day. Our week. Our month. I'm ready for a rest.