DISCOURAGED

I am not sure if the headline really gets across how I am feeling about this at the moment. I tried to get the kids to earn ice cream but they whined and lamented about 7 min blocks of cleanup being too long and that 5 would be all they can handle. I did what every evil mom would do. I got some work out of them and then decided that if any of them really want to go, they need to show some initiative. None of them did.

James is suffering severely from allergies and the week was just simply too much for both of us. We both crashed more than once and it feels like one of us was always napping. James made the kids work some more so they all have a little more than half an hour under their belt but no reward. Ella seemed to be the only one genuinely sad about it. I think I will support her in earning it a little more next week as she wasn't complaining.

I felt like crying tonight but gritted my teeth. Now that the day is up I will be honest. We got a lot more done then I thought at first. We even finally got my zucchini, tomato and  pepper plants planted. The cucumber doesn't look like it will make it, but we will see.

I have laundry to keep me busy for the rest of the night. It is such a struggle to keep going at the moment and it has been for weeks, but I refuse to give up. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Maybe I just need to take a step back and find out how to be more efficient. Maybe things just have to stop going wrong. Leaking dishwasher, emergency pick ups and stuff like that really doesn't help. Tomorrow is Sunday. I'll take it easy.