Ok, we all have to compromise in some aspect our lives and I’ve sometimes wondered if I’ve compromised too much. The simple fact that the thing that I like the most (blogging/radio show hosting) are the things that I seem to be doing the least nowadays is well unacceptable and it won’t be tolerated much longer. See, my goals for parenting, for family have been reduced to one single word: peace. Yup. Before I have the house, the salary, the readers, the media coverage…sistah has got to get some peace. I didn’t think that peace was difficult to come by. I mean, you sit in the tub with the candles blazing and the lights down or you go out on the porch or to the coffee shop with your favorite book or you take a ride down the parkway blasting your favorite CD (for me it’s going to be vintage Anita Baker, Chaka or some John Legend) and you’re appreciating God’s incredible creation. Sounds so simple, right? NOT!

I have identified my key peace stealers and they are: clothing and paper clutter (you guys knew I was going to go there), a toddler with awful sleeping habits (we had enough guts to kick him out of our room, but what does that really mean when he can climb out of the crib, walk down the hall, open the door and climb in our bed…I have to get a lock on that dayum door) and of course, I’m saying it, the awful job I’m doing at being consistent with my children’s schedule. Ooops, I should probably add my extreme, intense fear of rodents…that’s definitely jacked me up in more ways than one. How do I deal?
Well, I promised you all a two week review and this is kinda the 2.5 week review, but here’s the deal:

• They are in bed every night by 9 p.m. (even though the goal is 8 p.m.) and I have to do stuff like make sure folks brush their teeth for two minutes (we’ve had some issues with the boys not properly cleaning their bottom permanent teeth…come to find out they are rushing through the process so that they could get more play time at night). The little baby (it is such a trip to me that he is about to be three years old/is getting his own water from the fridge and is saying things like “No, mommy. I do myself.” I’m trying to come out of denial) I mean BBB, is not going to sleep if he knows that someone else is awake in the house. He’s the worse sleeper in the Spence clan history and DH and I are paying the price (gotta try Vitamin Water…the energy one…it’s now our morning drink of choice and we’re doing the revive one by the evening just so we don’t fall on our face by 6:30 p.m.)
• The uniform policy is a Godsend. I don’t know what I would do if I had to deal with my picky oldest son who only wears certain things or my younger son who wants to wear the SAME thing every day. I love how crisp they look on the way to school, even if they hate it.
• Packing lunches is the more stressful than working my usual short-order cook shift. I know I’m making it more complicated than it has to be by giving them some variety in their lunches, but I’m telling you…I need a grip. Is it going to kill them if they have turkey every day? Do I have to mix it up and go with a turkey wrap or bring in a little chicken or a chicken taco that I make the night before? I got issues people. Counting calories, making sure everything is balanced (fruit/vegetable, starch, afternoon snack). Will it ever end? (I know when I stop being an obsessive, compulsive perfectionist…an Alpha mom…well that ain’t happening any time soon, so I gotta deal, I guess).
• To our surprise, our younger son Kiserian is having the hardest time adjusting.He’s extremely sensitive and the fact that there are fights daily and that children are being disrespectful to authority…he asked to eat lunch with the teacher instead of in the cafeteria, (“It’s too noisy in there. I just can’t think straight.”) and when she asked if he wanted to go to recess, he said “No. Too many fights. It’s not fun. No one knows how to just play.” His reaction is eating away at me. All he wanted to do was go to PE, have recess and meet new friends. Instead, he’s spent the last two days crying and tell me that he never asked to go to public school, so why does he have to go? I’m handling it better than you might think, but it is hurting me. I don’t want them to change who they are because of what other people are. Is that unrealistic? Am I being too overprotective?

I don’t have that much time left to write, so I need to explain how I lost self respect, $25 and cool points with my kids. It all starts with the Spawn of Mickey (the nickname my gurlfriend gave to mice). I had never seen mice outside of Mickey and Jerry, especially inside of a house, until I moved to Baltimore. No, I don’t have any really gross stories, but I found out that I was extremely fearful of them and that they are pretty common in old house with lots of openings like my house. I’ve shared with you my deal with the fox urine (I think I have anyway) and I have been poisoning myself with high quantities of ammonia in my mop water and using it as bombs (put cotton balls in a plastic water bottle, fill it with ammonia and then poke holes in the bottle) in the places where I’ve seen them. Needless to say, I was maybe seeing one or two every couple of days, but I was sick of it, scared to go to the bathroom at night (only saw one on the second floor once, but that was enough for me) and unable to sleep because every little noise I heard made me jump up and start spraying the ammonia and water blend all along the baseboards…Dayum, it’s crazy writing this, just imagine living it. Anywho…I told DH that if I saw one more, I was going to get a cat. Well, he went out of town, I saw one and I went to be humane society and got me a cat for $50. (They were having a sale that week…how convenient.) What happened when I brought Max the Cat home is going to crack you all up…

Until next time, keep reading, keep sharing, keep showing the love because a sistah needs all the love she can get.

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