Time to Myself?

As I sit, trying hard to type without looking at the keys on the keyboard, I have to fight Curly for the right to my computer. Hubby is on the phone, walking away as the kids start to fuss. How come I can't do that?

I just would like a few minutes to call my own. Where I'm not going to work, or errands, or anything like that. Hubby gets a Saturday, why don't I? I'm not saying that I want the whole world to go away, I just want a few hours where I don't have to be anywhere, don't have to watch anyone, don't have to pick up anything...you know, time to myself.

I don't get it while Hubby is at work because when one child is sleeping, the other is awake. Just as Curly is going down for his nap, it seems the Princess is finally deciding to get out of bed. Me, get a nap when I have the usual Jersey cold? Not happening.

I hate kvetching. That's exactly what I'm doing here. Please don't get me wrong, I do love being a mom and wife, but we all need a break, don't we?

Bad Blogger, Semi-Bad Mom?

I don't know if you're supposed to blog everyday or not. I'm new to this, so I don't know the rules, or if there even are any. I guess that it's just as things go.

I just finished reading my friend's blog. She writes everyday. Sometimes multiple times! How she does that with three kids, I don't know. I try to have five minutes on my computer, alone, and Princess comes and tries to sit on my lap and Curly tries to re-boot my computer without even knowing it. Pretty soon, we're all crying and screaming so we go upstairs to have a snack and some milk and I have my cigarette (outside the house, within sight of my kids).

So, I wonder: does this craziness make me a bad mom or a bad blogger?

Princess and Curly are upstairs with their dad right now. Dad's watching eBay on my cell phone and I'm watching in another window as I write this. I've got three minutes to go on a laptop. This should be interesting...If you see blogs that make entirely no sense, you can be sure that the Princess is trying her hand at writing.

My silence is broken! Curly has invaded! He came right over to my keyboard and turned the caps on. Of course, I turned them right off...I've done enough messaging to know that's the ultimate form of screaming on the computer.

I won! I won! I finally got a laptop!

Is it bad to ignore our kids a little bit to get five minutes of quietness to ourselves? I feel so rotten when I do it. Or when I shush them while on the phone. I realize that they're only 3 and 2 and they need to learn, so why do I get impatient?

The silence is totally broken. Princess is down here now completely having a 3-year-old moment. Tell me, how do you tell a 3-year-old that Mommies and Daddies have to get some sleep? Especially when mommy's been sleeping since daddy got home due to a sore throat. I think I'll sign off now only to come again when I've got that spare moment (truely, what mom has any spare moments?).....

eBay Addiction

I think I can honestly say that Hubby and I are completely addicted to eBay.



See, it all started when he bought a toy train for our kids for Christmas. We thought it'd be so neat to have the train going and whistles blaring for our 3-year-old Princess and not quite 2-year-old Curly. Yeah, then the train bug hit.



First, we just got a couple of cars. Okay, no big deal, we'll make the track a little longer, add a couple more bends. Soon, this train that was supposed to go around the Christmas tree took up the whole living room! I swear we bought 10 cars for it off eBay within a week! Of course, I panicked...we were supposed to have dinner at our house Christmas Eve. We were having company. We were opening presents. How could we do this with a monsterous train taking up our whole living room and dining area? Hubby has a light bulb go off over his head (I swear I saw it). "Let's put the train in the basement in the kids' toyroom!"



Brilliant.



Next trip was not to the hobby store, but the orange box store. He came home with plywood and 2x4's. He was now going to build a table for this train that was supposed to go around the Christmas tree. And, of course, it's not a regular size table; we took down walls and opened up into another section of our basement. The kids now play under the table. I'm thinking curtains around the table and they've got the biggest tent/fort ever!



Back to the eBay...Hubby now comes home from work, gives his perfunctory kiss and heads to the basement to the computer. He keeps telling me he needs to get away from the thing. He keeps finding things to add to our ever growing watch list. He'll tell me he's just watching it to see where the price goes. Next thing I know, we're buying it.



Now, don't get me wrong, I'm having fun, too. My thing is not the eBay, it's building little houses and trees and shrubs and mountains and rivers. He thinks I've gone over the edge with that. Well, I just want the over-size, 'round the Christmas tree train to have a nice view while it goes perpectually around in a circle.

How do you know you are addicted? When you keep tabs of your watch list on your cell phone. When you purchase about 10 items a day that you didn't really need. I think it's fun to watch Hubby as he clicks "refresh" a million times in one minute to make sure we'll win the item.

It's amazing to think that one small, simple thing could bring back childhood memories. Hubby had a train set while he was growing up and I used to pick wild blueberries and raspberries by the tracks behind my house. Are we really trying to recreate that for our precious ones, or are we trying to bring back something from our own memories?