What is Wednesday?

What do Wednesday’s mean? It’s “Humpday”, the middle of the week. It means after today, the weekend is closer. (I remember when the weekends would start on Thursday.) What Wednesday means in the Kraus House is, I have to remember that we need to eat dinner earlier than the early bird special starts.

Wednesday is hockey night for Teddy. (He also goes on Sunday morning at the ridiculous hour of 8am, but I’m not getting up and getting everyone ready at that ungodly hour.) The girls want to go and watch him skate, which means we need to eat dinner at 4pm; so he can eat, then get ready to be on the ice at 6pm. It does sound excessively early, but getting these three ready can be quite the challenge.

Stella likes to yell and cheer for him, even though he’s just learning to skate. She also likes the social aspect of the rink. I sit in the stands and Ted stands by the glass. Stella likes to split her time between us and has gotten the courage to venture between us on her own (she walks around like she owns the joint).

Maizie gets annoyed with the buzzer; and believe me; she does not like me yelling to Teddy at all. (I warned her that if Teddy plays in high school, NOT to sit next to me.) She wants to venture over to Ted, but hasn’t worked up the courage to go “all the way over there” yet; although last week she did take Stella to the bathroom on her own.

Let’s not forget the concession stand. The sports complexes in the city make a mint off the Kraus family alone. The girls NEED to have some candy every time we go and Teddy is so famished when he is done he has to have something to eat.

The good thing about Wednesday is, when we get home its 7:30pm. The only thing left to do is put on pajamas, brush teeth and go to bed. That’s good, because I’m off at 8pm.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Someone looks like they got a little captain in them

linked to Wordless Wednesday

Polar Opposites

Maizie and Teddy are so completely different when it comes to school; I’m surprised they live in the same house sometimes.  Teddy absolutely, positively loves school. Maizie HATES it with every fabric of her being (at least while she’s getting ready).

Once Maizie gets to school, she’s fine. She has a great time. It’s not like we send her to some sort of torture camp for six hours a day.

When there is a day off, Maizie is thrilled; Teddy, on the other hand, is very disappointed. (You would think he was never going back) Maizie will gladly take a sick day, personal day, doctor’s appointment, you name it. Teddy had to be convinced to stay home from school when his nose was dripping with goo. He kept insisting, “He could make it,” and “The class has tissues.”

Then there’s lunch, Teddy could eat anything; Maizie will eat next to nothing. At the beginning of the year I packed her elaborate lunches, hoping she’d eat some of it. I would pick her up from school and she would have everything still in her lunch bag except for her juice box. Teddy asked me to pack an extra snack (he only goes half day). Much to my surprise, Maizie decided one day to get school lunch; from then on, she gets a salad every day. Teddy now gets half a sandwich, a snack and a juice box.

Homework. Today was Teddy’s first day of homework. He took the paper out of his folder, held it by the corner and said, “What is this paper all about?” Ted and I, through laughter, told him it was his homework. He promptly sat at the desk, demanded a pencil and went to work. Maizie denied she had homework. When I showed her she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She did tonight’s homework with a lot less drama than last week. Although she did huff and puff through the whole thing.

I can’t say I blame Maizie; I hated school when I was a kid. When I say that, it often surprises people, since I did end up becoming a teacher.

You Know What They Say About Idle Hands...

The Kraus House doesn’t seem to handle days off very well. I guess they (okay me too) need that structure. Weekends are fine, but give them an extra day and they don't know what to do with themselves. I at least got to sleep late; I didn’t get up until 9:30AM. When I came downstairs the fights had already begun and showed no signs of letting up.

Maizie and Teddy have a habit of going at each other until fists (and legs and sometimes teeth) are flying. Maizie has issues with impulse control, so we do cut her a little slack, but Teddy has really taken the little brother role to a new level. He has been caught egging her on, then trying to get her in trouble which just sends me straight into orbit, and then everyone suffers.

Today they were separated and it wasn’t too bad. It was quiet, so I decided to try to get some things done. What was I thinking? The only one who has the ability to get things done with the three of them in the house is Ted. When I try, well, just read on…

I took some laundry upstairs to put away. Teddy was in the living room and the girls were watching TV in another room. It was quiet, too quiet; I should have known better (shame on me). I had heard water running, and yelled for it to be turned off; it was. I thought that was the end of it. You think that’s it? Nope.

Usually after I have left a room that means my kids think it’s now time for them to destroy it. They could have just witnessed me cleaning it; and believe me, I HATE cleaning, but that doesn’t stop them. It’s like a sickness. I prepared for the worst.

I came downstairs and everything seemed fine. No messes, I was surprised considering it was so quiet. So I started to make myself something to eat. I threw something in the garbage, and I saw it. It didn’t register at first; then I had a “Dory moment” it all came together.

The glass of green liquid in the sink,

the very clean and full bottle of Dawn on the window sill 

and the empty bottle of Dawn in the garbage can,

add the running water and there you have it. I figured out what they were up to. The entire bottle of Dawn squeezed into the sink, when I cleaned it up, the bubble factor was epic! (Maizie actually covered her tracks, so she does have some of my traits.)

Whatever, they wasted an entire bottle of Dawn (I had just opened the other bottle two days ago), I used coupons. But that’s not all the lovely Kraus Ladies did. 

I went into the room they were watching TV in to pick up all the dirty laundry (Stella for some reason will not put her dirty clothes in the hamper). I stepped and my foot got wet. I look at the carpet and there are wet spots everywhere. So I marched myself into the living room with my hands on my hips and demanded to know what happened in there.

Allegedly, Stella bumped into Maizie when she was trying to drink her “Gatorade” and she spilled it. Now, I have logged several hours of CSI type viewing and judging from the trajectory of the spill, I say “Bullsh*t!” And to top it off, I don’t even know where the “Gatorade” came from.

That’s not even the worst part of this; the worst part is they got “mystery liquid” on clean laundry!! I have a real issue with laundry. I was so furious; I couldn’t even leave the room. All this happened by 3PM, still four and a half hours until bedtime.