I can't say I'm crazy

about this "New Normal" we've got going on here.

I'm not digging it at all. Everything is so backwards and upside down that's it's got me a little off track lately. It's not so much that New Normal is horrible....it's just well.....NEW.....and taking some getting used to.

In Old Normal, Al was the morning person in this house & I was the night person. My happy zone was 2am when everyone was asleep and the house was quiet and I could putter or be creative or just sit and watch tv without interuption. I would sleep through any alarm and wake only when the noise from the chaos of kids scrambling to get ready for the bus would jolt me from my sleep. Coffee would be ready and my entire responsibility was to intervene and difuse sibling tension and supervise last minute efforts to get out the door by 8:10 for the bus.

In New Normal, with Al working 4-midnight (or 2am on weekends) things have changed. After sleeping in at least 4 times in the last couple weeks and missing the school bus, my brain has clued into the fact that it's now up to "us" to hear that alarm and get up.

At 7am. Ack!

Suddenly I'm in charge of making lunches, making sure (almost) everyone eats breakfast, brushes their teeth and keeping the siblings from lashing out at each other and.......I have to make my own coffee. For the most part, mornings have been fairly calm and they haven't been late for school in two whole days but that doesn't mean I'm digging this new morning routine....especially since I'm still not going to bed till almost 1am at which point I'm so darn exhausted I'm asleep before I hit the pillow.

It's also taking some getting used to the New Normal where most evenings I'm on my own with the kids. Not that it's a terrible thing but there is no 3rd party to provide assistance when the siblings are being siblings or someone needs to be taken to/picked up from afterschool activities or to provide backup when my demands to help with dishes/take a shower/go to bed are being ignored......and I have to make my own coffee! This also goes the other way too because while I'm solo with the kids alot, their dad doesn't see them as much as he would like. For a couple days at a time he's at work when the kids get home from school, they are asleep when he gets home from work and still sleeping when they leave for school the next morning.

My days are also all backwards and upside down because I'm NEVER alone! Ever. Al's home during the day when I'm used to having at least a couple days of having the house to myself during the week. I work best when I'm alone with my own thoughts and I can do what I need to do without interuption. In Old Normal, even when he wasn't 'at work' there were still small jobs or errands he'd be out doing during the day. Not in New Normal. I need to find him a hobby. Do you think I could convince him he likes playing golf ? and by golf I mean real golf.....not Tiger Woods on PS2 golf.

On the upside of him being home during the day he was able to attend our son's choral speaking performance at the Festival of the Arts this week and he has plans to go to watch our daughter's orff performance tomorrow......and I'm sending him to the school assembly this afternoon where our son will receive a certificate for being kind and generous at school. These are things he's always missed out on in Old Normal so New Normal does have it's good points. Plus.......when he's home during the day I don't have to make my own coffee.


~K