Confessions of a SAHM: Makes Me Crazy

Life at home with 2 toddlers is not all tea parties and silly games (new flash, I know!).  Sanity and reasonable behavior hang by a very delicate thread, at times.

Today I spent more than an hour thinking that I was going to lose it, big time.  Yes, there are plenty of rough days when the kids are tired and cranky or whiny.  Days that seem to drag on forever, days that I feel like I never catch a break.  But today, I experienced a very sharp and severe decline that I was sure would end with an audibly loud SNAP!

I'm not sure what set off this crazed behavior.  I consider myself a calm and reasonable person, as a whole.  Regardless, here's how it went down.

This morning I was anxious to get to the grocery store and buy a bunch of canning supplies.  We bought some beautiful, delicious peaches in Chelan and I decided I'd try my hand at canning some.  I got my list of supplies and groceries (and coupons) and even remembered my reusable grocery bags.  I put my keys on my purse and had the kids put on their shoes. I grabbed my purse, we started out the door and I went to grab my keys.  But they were not where I was sure that I had put them...

I went back to where I was putting my list together.  This was the only place that I could possibly fathom that they would actually be.  I searched every inch of counter space.  I went back to where I ate lunch.  I went back to the bathroom.  I went back to my bedroom.  I was starting to get angry.  It was after 11am and the kids usually eat lunch around 11:30 or noon.  I looked in the pantry.  I looked in the diaper bag, just because it was nearby, never mind that I hadn't laid a finger on the bag all morning.  I looked under the fridge.

Did I not put my keys on my purse?  Had I not actually seen or touched them this morning?  Where could they be except for all the places I had looked?  I started to get hot and sweaty.  I thought, if one of the kids took them, it could be weeks, months or years before I ever found them, in this wreck of a house!  Then I thought of the cost of a replacement Volvo smart key (ugh).  I emptied my purse (3 times) and re-searched all the places I had already looked.  I searched more.

I prayed that I would find my keys.

When that didn't work, I cursed (when Kyla was in the bathroom).

I yelled at no particular person about no particular thing.

I threw things around and slammed doors shut.

I wanted to cry, seriously.  (A sure sign of crazy- reacting disproportionately to a given situation.)

I panicked at the thought of being stranded with no car. 

Finally, at almost noon, I said "to hell with it!" (or some version of that).  I gave the kids their lunch and tried to cool down.  The new plan was to put them down for naps after lunch and search the house in (my own private, miserable) solitude.  As I started cleaning up after Maxx, I realized we were out of paper towels, so I went to get some more in the garage.

I opened the door to the garage and there, on the first step, just outside of the little cat door, sat my keys.  Maxx loves tossing stuff out the cat door.  Toys, blocks, garbage, snacks...  car keys.

Signature Maxx move.

Little turkey.