Normalcy??

Can it be? Is this what life is like in most households? After last night, I'm beginning to see how most families are able to maintain some level of sanity and keep their houses in some sort of order. Let me begin with some background. :)

Our house is full of chaos... we are TERRIBLE at being scheduled and orderly! On a normal day, Ella wakes me up about about 6:30 or 7:00 am and we start our morning. Some days I take a little morning nap (unless it's an office day, in which case I gotta hit the ground running.) I go wake Owen up after Ella eats and get him some breakfast and clothes and we take him to school. Many days, he arrives after 10! We're working on that.... Then I either go to the office while Ella stays with my mom (at least 2 days a week) or work at home. Then we pick brother up from school in the evening between 5:30 and 6:30 and then the fun begins. I scramble to find something for Owen to eat, usually nothing terribly healthy since i'm scrambling, and while he's eating, I feed Ella a little something. Then I try to find something for me and Dadda to eat. If I'm having a good day, we all eat together.. but that doesnt happen very often. Then I kinda half-way pick up the kitchen and throw everything in the sink (if I get that far) and get the kids a bath, let them play for a few minutes and then nurse Ella and put her in bed. Most nights she does pretty good about going to bed between 8 and 9. She's our good sleeper. :) Owen, on the other hand, frequently stays up until 10, 11, 12.... sometimes even later! So I spend a good part of the evening and night keeping him out of stuff, fighting with him (he's very onery when he's tired) and laying in bed with him for the last 30 mins or hour coaxing him to sleep. It's so exhausting! Most nights I end up falling sleep before him so I dont get to finish cleaning the kitchen or pick up the house or anything... Everything just gets left in chaos until the next day which repeats. By Saturday things are such a mess, I spend most of the day cleaning up (assuming we dont have family events or the like). Needless to say, the average week is pretty tiring for me... but... there is hope!

Last night was AWESOME, despite an aweful drive home from work (I left my mom's at 4:45 after picking Ella up and I got to Owen's school at 6:25! Talk about a LONG 25-30 mile drive!!) and Dadda being quarantined in our room because he's sick. We finally got home later than anticipated but thankfully had some frozen meals I had purchased for lunches... at least there was food! Owen didnt' eat much, but I haven't been pushing that with him lately and have just been letting him eat as much or little as he wants and not allowing him to have treats and snacks. Hopefully it'll teach him some good lessons on eating dinner in order to get rewarded with desert or snacks. Anyways, so we ate dinner and then I gave the kids a bath and then a miracle happened! I let the kids play for a little bit in the living room and then decided to just let Owen watch his Choo-choo movie with his pillow in the living room (we couldnt lay down on mama's bed which he usually does because Dadda was in there). I just laid Ella in her bed and gave her her little blanket and she grunted for a minute and then went right to sleep! Then I went back to the living room and Owen was still laying in the living room watching his movie. I laid with him for a minute, but then got up and started cleaning up the kitchen and doing some laundry. Within half an hour he was asleep! It was 9:30 and both of my children were sleeping!!! I was able to do a couple loads of laundry, clean my kitchen, get stuff ready for tonight's dinner and pick up all the toys in the living room before I went to bed. Then I picked Owen up and we went and slept in his bed in his room! He slept all night and we all woke up at about 6:30 this morning happy and well-rested! I was so happy and relaxed! It was wonderful! I so hope that I can be disciplined enough to keep the kids on a schedule like this going forward. Someone always gets sick when I say that, but I just gotta stick with it anyways! It's so much better for me, the kids, Dadda, everyone and it makes me a much more positive person to be around. Thank you for answered prayers! (even if for just 1 night so far...) :)