Ericka Scott


Family Friday — or much ado about food
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Filed under Uncategorized

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know. Set a goal, break a goal. But, to be honest, this week has been rather calm and uneventful. Amazingly so. Everyone went to school, came home, did their homework, and I didn’t have to referee too many squabbles.

So, what’s up with that?

As for me…I’m exhausted. The school district, in their questionable wisdom, gave the kids 1/2 day off on Wednesday. Not sure why. Teacher angst, perhaps? Then, they gave the kids two full Wednesdays off in the following week, on the 14th and the 21st. So, we’ll have two Mondays for every week (and two Fridays, but still…). I’ll survive. One of the days will most certainly be a movie day. We’ll pick something at the $1.50 theater and spend a few blissful hours staring at some ludicrous cartoon. Good thing they serve popcorn at the theaters.

Speaking of eating, I’ve realized that I have a problem with food. Actually, the problem is lack of sleep. I’m up at 5:30 most mornings and on the go until 11 pm at night, most nights. At nine o’clock in the morning, I want to crawl back into bed. But I can’t…I need to write, do laundry, pick up the house, etc. So, I eat to stay awake. Right after lunch, I’m again, deathly tired, but if I lay down then, I risk not waking up in time to pick the boys up from the bus. And if I set an alarm, I simply wake up every five to ten minutes anticipating that it’s about to go off. So, I find myself snacking on bits of stuff…cashews, granola bars, cookies.

Here I know people will chime in that if we didn’t buy it, I wouldn’t eat it. True. But that’s when I find I can get very inventive. did you know that mixing brown sugar and butter together tastes great (you can even mix in cinnamon…it’s like a roll without the bread. Or, butter a piece of bread and sprinkle sugar on it…tastes wonderful.)

Once the boys have been picked up, sleep is out of the question. Their incessant squabbling and neediness ensure that I have a raging headache (from being so darned tired) and am irritable and, yes, I’ll say it, BITCHY all afternoon. So, by now, I’m once again scrounging in the cupboards looking for a sugary pick me up to get me through the afternoon until dinner.

After dinner, my husband usually takes the boys and I collapse in a chair. I can’t sleep…they all make too much noise for that, besides, if I got to sleep now, I won’t sleep tonight.

By 11, I fall into bed nearly crying with exhaustion. Only to close my eyes briefly before the alarm goes off, harkening in another day of exhaustion and eating.

On the weekends, I always have hopes of breaking the cycle. However, hubby snuck off to the bedroom for a 3-hour nap, leaving me, yet again, exhausted and eating…

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