Some Days I Feel More Like an Ogre Than a Princess

Recently my adorable son has been on a Shrek kick. All he wants to watch is Shrek movies. It could be worse, if I have to watch Elmo in Grouchland one more time I may have to claw my own eyes out. So we watch the Shrek movies happily.

The newest one Shrek Ever After (yes #4) is actually the best Shrek movie, in my opinion. I can relate to many different parts and it has a great message - you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Well I guess it could be more like appreciating where your life has taken you and letting go of the past, blah blah blah...whatever. The point is that its sweeter (in that Shrek way) and a much more sincere movie than the other three were.

My son even understands the sweet moments. He will pull my face to his and say awwww when Shrek finally realizes what he has and hugs his wife and kids at the end. Now how cute is that, huh? A two year old recognizing sincere loving moments, even if it through Shrek, is adorable!

I myself have had many days where I feel very much like Shrek in the beginning of the movie. (since this is a kids movie and has been out a while I am not too worried about spoiling it for anyone, but if I do, I am sorry) Where days start to feel the same and frustrations boil. You begin to feel trapped and a bit crazy. Every day exactly the same...wake up, wake up the kids, morning rituals, getting the kids out of the house to the bus stop on time, house work, meal planning, cooking, more house work, kids home from school, afternoon rituals, cooking, more house work, bed time routine, and then falling into bed only to wake up the next morning for it to all start again. You don't have to be an ogre for this to drive you a bit batty.

I even have those times when there is chaos all around me, every little thing, every little noise, every request, every demand, and everything that goes wrong makes me yell at the top of my lungs, (or roar if your an ogre 'do the roar')  feeling  like I may explode if I don't get out of the room immediately. Well, we do have 5 kids, 4 of which are girls, 3 of those girls are teens, and the bickering and attitudes never end.

 I love being a stay at home mom for my children and husband. I really do. However, there are days, weeks even , that I feel so smothered in the same thing day after day that I sometimes worry I may turn into a blob of a couch potato burried in garbage and dishes. Those days that the sink full of dishes, the toys strewn everywhere, the clean and dirty laundry is piling up into mountains (seperated by rooms), the garbage can overflowing (because no one but me can tell when enough is enough), and there are piles of everyone's stuff in every room - push me to the couch and drive me to dream of escaping it all.

It is not easy doing the same meanial chores every day, day after day. And although my husband is very sweet and on these days never says a word about the piles, I don't think the children even notice. Which quite frankly concerne me. I don't think they would give it any second thought if it weren't for having to wash their own bowl and spoon,  freak because their favorite jeans are still in the washer, or the times they swear someone took their stuff only to realize its where they left it in the front hall two days ago. Every time a child is told to clean their room, they swear its 'fine' the way it is. They always say, 'Mom, I can find everything just fine, its my room, and it's clean to me'. Are you kidding me? Let me get a little side tracked here...

Many years ago I used to let my car get very messy. We are talking total grossness (well to me)- mail, backpacks, jackets, bottles, sippy cups, toys, empty wrappers, empty soda cans...come on we have all either had a mess of our own like that or know someone who lets their car get that bad. One day I had a thought (you know those crazy mom thoughts that hopefully would never happen but we worry anyway?), what if we got in an accident? What if the car flipped over and my kids (at that time I had three girls and they were 2, 2, and 4 years old all still in car seats) were in the car? I wasn't concerned about being embarrassed, no the thought that struck me was, what if the paramedics and firemen had to dig through all that mess just to get to my babies to rescue them? Oh My God! It was one thought, one fleeting moment. But that was all it took for me to literally clean up my act. It scared the hell out of me that the mess in my car could hinder the rescue of my children. No one talked to me about it or put this idea in my head, it was all crazy little me. So I keep my car clean (and clean it out a lot).

So, back to the kids rooms, what if the house was on fire and a fireman had to rescue one of my messy teens? What if they burst into the room and tripped and fell over all the piles of clothes or books on the floor? What if they stepped and slipped on a bottle of hairspray? And why do my kids roll their eyes at me when I ask them questions like this? Am I that crazy to worry about their safety? Ok, I am a little crazy. Why? Because its not like an episode of hoarders or anything. You can walk thru their rooms, you can see the floor, and it only takes them 30 minutes or so to clean their rooms up when forced. So I guess I am a little crazy.

Ok, sidetrack complete. Shrek. Ever After is a movie that reminds me that everyone has times where they feel trapped by the monotony of it all. It helps me feel normal (even though I am currently comparing my life to that of the life of ogre's). What I haven't been able to do is find a way to get motivated to get my ass off of the couch on days like these...not even 5 cups of coffee can get me up and going (well other than to the powder room that is)! I realized that this must be why there are those suburban neighborhoods where mothers are doing speed and abusing prescription drugs...not that I am in any way interested in doing that...but its understandable how they get trapped in such horrible situations. All because they were probably turning into a blob of a couch potato, buried in dishes and garbage!

I found a great app for my iphone called Paperless, it is a list manager. I started using it yesterday and I am hoping and working on getting things done and my ass off the couch. What do you use for your motivation and management when times like these strike? I would love to hear from everyone who has gotten this far in this post. Come on, you put this much time into it, why not just a bit more?

If nothing else, watching Shrek, Ever After with my son makes me sappy and happy because my son gets all cuddley, touches his cheek to mine, and says awww at the same part of the movie everytime! The problem is then I just want to start the movie over and watch it with him again so I can have another awww moment. Its addicting like crack, without the side affects of lots of energy.