Wiped. Out.

This has been a tiring week in many ways. (physically, emotionally, health-wise, relationally, etc.) By 8:54pm on a Friday night I am just. plum. tired. We've just finished our third week of school and the kids still aren't back to their previously easy bedtime routine. (that's what a summer of loosey-goosey will get you!) I can see that starting Sunday night I'll have to get one of the books off of my To Read pile and park my butt in a chair in the hallway outside their bedroom door. Then I can pop them right back into their beds consistently, night after night, until they're back on track. I'll probably get in an hour of good reading time every school night for a week with this method. (and I'm so far behind on my books, that this will work out good for me!)

Days like today make me long for Daylight Savings Time. Once it's dark earlier, it's loads easier to get everyone on the straight-and-narrow for bedtime.

For now, I'll have to settle for the belief that if I have to do so much of this job of parenting alone, the very least I could do for myself is to make myself "Off Duty" come about 8 or 8:30 every night. Obviously, I'll still be here, so I'll not truly be off duty, but at least if I knew that once the magical hour appeared, I'd be able to have some peace and quiet, that would make things easier. Surely easier than this whack-a-mole process I go through for an hour or two every night since school began.

So, I'll be spending my spare brain space trying to psyche myself up for getting the kids back on the straight and narrow. For tonite, they're now all in bed ( knock on wood)(not counting the teenager) and I'm going to watch one of these Netflix movies that has been waiting for my attention for a week or more. I don't even know what it's about or why I added it to my queue.....