busy, busy, busy

It is funny how I start every week thinking, this week is going to be a quiet one. Then I got a call from a vendor and my week has gone downhill from there! Sure, it is nice to have stuff to do, but a Momma's got to have sometime to connect with her kids and clean the house (some time). We sure miss that 3rd set of hands that kept everything clean. I still wonder how I have the disconnect in my brain. I like my house to be clean, I function better when it is, but don't always take the time to clean it. Sure it takes time, but some of the things I need to do would only take a minute or 2 to maintain. I guess it is the maintenance I have a problem with. I can clean with the best of them and damn the house will be clean, it is the little pieces of crap that get left everywhere that are the problem. Once it gets terrible, where do you start? Along with the busy, busy, busy, I've been thinking about the tone and attitude of my children. Sure on the surface they are sweet and great, but every once in a while that snot will come out. And although I am glad it is mostly at home, I wish that I could get that attitude out of them. Sometimes the girl has a spiteful streak in her that I just want to start yelling at her "holy crap stop being a B@#$ to your brother!" Fortunately for everyone I have yet to break it down that way for her, but I am thinking at a weak moment it is going to come out. Then I am going to have a larger problem to deal with. I have to figure out how to get through to her. Today one of her little friends said "bye my best friend" and she said "I'm not your best friend". AHHH! I was so ticked. I considered pulling her out by her ear! She used to have issue with having more than 1 friend to play with, she can only tolerate 1 person at a time, but I thought that problem was dealt with and corrected in school. I don't know, these are the problems that make it difficult to parent. How do you make them understand something abstract, or make something real to them? How do you correct without belittling? These are the things that I need the most help with, because as I become stressed or tired I don't deal with well. I can sit and read 100 books, I can listen to them squeal and yell around the house, I can even tolerate fighting (since it doesn't come to blows) but give me some attitude and abstract problems, I'm a goner. Sure these aren't my only problems as a Mother, I am getting a better hold on my strengths and weaknesses these days. But in some aspects that really bites, because really this parenting gig is never the same thing, everything changes every instant of every day and as soon as you get a handle on it, it changes. I guess that is what keeps us coming back. I can sure say that if I can't figure out the abstract and the correcting the teenage years are going to be a real problem! (which I already know they are based on history repeating itself and what not!)