Am I bald yet? Because I am pulling my hair out...

This was our night last night:

I had a meeting after school last night that went a little late. By the time we left school it was 4:30. Not good for our schedule, that's for sure! We rushed home, I got the toddlers settled with a video, and by 5:00 Evan and I started on eye therapy. It was already 5:40 by the time I was able to start cooking dinner. Which meant that the natives were getting restless. When Charlie and Sam get hungry, they have the intense urge to wrestle each other to the floor and bite each other. Perhaps they are envisioning eating their brother for dinner? I don't know, but it happens every time.

Meanwhile, Evan has now gotten a VERY late start on his regular homework, which GOD BLESS AMERICA! included ALGEBRA. Cue the scary music. I swear to you, I was in 7th grade before a teacher uttered this dreaded word in my presence. It is no joke when you hear a teacher say they are pushing down the curriculum to earlier and earlier grades in order to cram in all the info kids need to have before high school graduation. Needless to say, Evan was not able to do this assignment on his own, and now began begging for help. All the while I am trying to get dinner on the table.

We made it through dinner somehow, but afterwards I managed to dump an entire glass of sticky orange juice on the floor. At the same time Sammy took his own diaper off (which was full of poop) and tried to sit down on his potty chair and got poop everywhere. At the same time Evan was crying through his after supper chores because he had so much homework left to do.

I had to excuse myself for a time out in my bedroom. I worked on finding something to be thankful for while I was in there. IT. WAS. HARD. I tried hard not to cry. It didn't work.

Somehow we got through the rest of our night. The miracle, and not a small one either, was that I was able to still greet my husband with a smile and a hug when he got home, instead of wrathful anger because he was home late again. So at least we didn't top things off with a fight. Instead, Jeff noticed things seemed to be in a bit of disarray, and he cheerfully helped me to restore order. And then we all felt better.

I am REALLY hopeful though that tonight is better. Because tomorrow? My baby turns 3! I can't believe Charlie will be officially leaving toddlerdom behind (I am hoping he leaves the temper tantrums behind too!!) and is becoming a preschooler. But, we are going to welcome this new age in with a big party and a CELEBRATION tomorrow! Charlie and I can't wait!