Tired from Nothing

Wow am I beat! Today has been a full day and tomorrow doesn't look any more relaxing. I don't know why I continue to do everything I do when all of it goes unnoticed. Although depending on who you ask... I do nothing all day.

My day of nothing started with getting the kids some breakfast. I made waffles from scratch, a pitcher of milk (we don't drink cow's milk) and some juice. After getting the kids some breakfast I cleaned up the breakfast mess and rifled through the nearly empty freezer looking for something that would be suitable for lunch, dinner, and an evening snack. I make a mental note that I have GOT to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I decided waffles would have to do for lunch as well, ground meat for dinner as something edible, and grabbed a bag of frozen shredded zucchini for evening snack. Then I ate breakfast and cleaned up my dishes and cleaned up the stove and sink again. I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed for the school room. By now an hour and a half of my day is gone.

I poked around on line for a bit drinking my coffee and going over today's lesson plans. Half an hour later it was time to get my 10 year old started with school work. By now two hours of my day is gone.

After three and a half hours with the 10 year old she managed to complete a worksheet on compound sentences, one on compound predicates, a handwriting assignment, a math worksheet, three reading activities, study spelling words for her test Friday, and practice her math facts. That wraps up math, reading, spelling, and writing for the week. Science and social studies as well as a spelling test is left - this will be a good week for her. It is now time to think about lunch for the kids. Five and a half hours of my day is gone.

After an hour break for lunch and cleanup, I'm now ready to work with my next oldest, one of the teen boys. He needs to get an english assignment done that involves a slide show presentation, a science assignment that involves lots of reading, taking notes and using his brain (oops, Houston we're gonna have a problem!) and a media assignment that involves creating a podcast. Nearly 7 hours of my day is gone, this will take at least two to three hours, and I realize I haven't even peed yet today except for when I first woke up! And the oldest boy, the 18 year old who "is an adult now", still hasn't made it out of his room. Probably still sleeping.

I work with the the other boy on his slide show and show him how to make it look nice and stuff. He had all the information that he needed but the slides were plain and not "presentation" material. So fixing that up with him only took a little over an hour. Eight hours of my day gone.

Next I open up iTunes and download some podcasts for him to listen to. This will give him an idea what he is to do for the media project. He can choose any subject. I suggest something to do with music as he plays the guitar. That idea strikes his fancy and he will do a podcast about how to tune your guitar, get the sound you want out of your pedal, and what to look for in an amp. Yippee! That was quick! Eight and a half hours of my day gone.

Now we move on to the science assignment. I pull up the website he is to use and show him how to copy and past the assignment questions into a blank word document. Then I tell him as he reads the material on the website, and as something pertains to the questions, copy and paste that into the word document under the appropriate question. When he is done he will have his "notes". Now all he will need to do is choose what is or isn't relevant, delete what is not, and then use the rest to answer the questions making sure to interpret into his own words. Sounds easy right? Not for this one. He HATES to read. He wants to skim. He wants to use CTRL+F to find the key words and answer the questions as quickly as possible without reading the material.

Maybe that is why he is so insistent that the "information needed to answer the questions is just not there mom!"... okay then why did I find it? Go and READ the damn material!! Two hours later he has a rough draft and I have a phone call. I talk for a half hour or so and then realize the time! OMG I have to start dinner. 11 hours of my day is gone.

Dinner is elbow macaroni with ground meat and spaghetti sauce. After dinner I decide I'm going to catch up on my email and other stuff I need to do online. Two hours later I head back downstairs to make evening snack and prepare for tomorrow. The oldest boy is finally out of his room and I scream and threaten him to get upstairs and get his schoolwork done. I make 24 zucchini muffins and whip up another bowl of waffle batter. I put that in the fridge for tomorrow and make some more milk. The muffins are done and I put half away for tomorrow. Clean up the kitchen again and go grab a cup of coffee. I grab a muffin and head upstairs with my coffee to work on tomorrow's lesson plans. After an hour I am falling asleep at my desk. Fourteen hours of my day is gone. The oldest one is not at his computer doing his work. Apparently he believes he is done. Hmm... I'm just guessing but perhaps that's why he's 18 and still in 11th grade.

I still need to get a shower, straighten up the laundry room which I noticed is a mess, shave my legs, scoop two litter boxes, clean up my bathroom, straighten up my desk, and write out instructions for the two "functioning" kids for tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment for another cortisone injection into my foot so I won't be here to get them started on their schoolwork.

By the time I am done with all of that roughly 17 hours of my day will be gone. I'll lay awake thinking I forgot something for at least an hour. If I'm lucky I'll get 5-6 hours of sleep and wake up still exhausted for another day of nothing.