Crying Uncle.

Dear Life,

I'm crying "uncle".

Love, Sarah


This past week has been rough. Nothing that is really bad in and of itself but just one thing after another. Soccer team fiascos, scheduling fiascos, a cat with an unexpected huge vet bill plus more in the future, stalled house projects, financial issues, ants on the counter, and Miss E. Wonderful, strong-willed Miss E. I'm not sure what has happened but she seems to have figured out that we have no actual power to say, stop her from yelling for an hour straight or make her go to summer camp. Complaining about EVERY SINGLE THING and nothing being right - temperature, food, activity - it's all WRONG and she has been vocally letting us know it. Of course the real problem is that when she's "on", she's awesome - helpful, kind, smart, silly and cooperative.  It makes the "off" times so much harder to take.

It's hard to describe what's been going on but it has made me go through a period of feeling woefully and wholly inadequate and unprepared for this whole parenting thing. The hard thing is that Peter and I approach this so differently. He's super concerned with how to punish her. I am more worried about what the heck is going on. This ends up with us fighting with each other. Which makes nothing better. I think it has something to do with too much unstructured time, the transition to school and the accompanying change in schedule. Who knows though. Blaming things for school kids on transitions is kind of like blaming teething for baby's fussiness. It's always there. LIFE is a transition. Things are always changing for better or worse.

As for the maritial fighting thing? Well, that's just how it goes with us. It starts with me calling him to tell how much the vet is and lamenting about this insane extra expense. Then he starts going off on me about how crazy it is that the vet is so expensive (like I set the prices...) blah blah blah... I get mad that he's pissed at me about something out of my control......etc. etc. etc. Apply same reaction to all stressful life circumstances. Let's just say that "teamwork" has never been our strong point. Maybe we'll learn it some year.  At least it keeps things fresh right? Like we still, after 9 (plus a million) years have something to work on and change?

On the plus side, Miss E is frying her own eggs every morning and reading all kinds of books to Mr. T. So there's that.