Tuesday, February 14, 2006

the witching hour

Every day between 4 and 5 my day seems to fall apart. my wee boy usually poops (again) around that time and it's usually a big stinky messy one that stinks up the house and while at noon Pedar peeing AND pooping in his high chair seemed amusing if not a big make-work project, nothing seems funny during this witching hour. the floor is always a big mess by this time of day, with my barefeet sucking up all the crumbs and mis-fired staples and sticky spots of baby-boy drool. despite my constant picking-up throughout the day as well as the inter-mingled "clean-up time" calls being happily cooperated with, my children have too many small toys and they are spread alllll over our too-big house. by this time, the day's laundry is washed and dried and a big hamper full is waiting to be folded. the kids and i are all weary from the day and hungry and while a small healthy snack makes a little difference, it's an early supper they're wanting. but daddy's arrival home is still at least an hour or two away.
my perspective on my life starts to get cranky and the easy smile and lightness to my step has evaporated into dread about what to make for supper. it feels, at this time of day, that i've done well to make it this far with all the adventures of growing, curious, emotional, demanding children and it seems beyond my emotional reach to now be responsible for the nutritional needs of my family as well.
the waiting game begins for my relief to come and the closer it gets to 6, the more it seems impossible for me to be the cheerful, encouraging, welcoming, loving wife i've easily managed to be all day.
What I need (?) / want (?) is a hot bath, a delicious dinner cooked by someone else and a lovely sensual massage. But my reality is cooking dinner for 3 people with different desires/tastes, dishes, bath-time, bed-time, clean-up, and flopping into bed desperate for enough uninterrupted sleep to wake up ready for another amazing day of motherhood at its finest...
aaah, the witching hour. is it just the stay-at-home mother that experiences this? or is it the same no matter your occupation?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That time of day has always challenged me also, now I work fulltime and life is much easier than it was when I was at home with my two toddlers, yet the tiredness of the day paired with 'what to cook for dinner?' is regularly overwhelming.
It can suck the life out of an evening...

GreenishLady said...

It's a long time since I was there, but I have been there, and yes, that combination was awful, and no matter how much I told myself that it would help to decide about dinner in advance, (in the morning, while I still had thinking-energy), somehow, I still found myself throwing the easiest thing together YET AGAIN because I couldn't find the energy to think about any alternative. I have no answers, except that I know this time passes, and it will become a distant memory, only called up when someone, such as you, reminds you.(? Something grammatical off there?)

Meantime, breathe in and breathe out, breathe in and breathe out. I would love to have the perfect thing to say here to give you comfort.

GreenishLady said...

Hi, Maristar, You came to my blog to ask what is AW... It's short for The Artist's Way - creativity-development program based on the book by Julia Cameron. There's an online group blogging our progress (or lack thereof!) through the 12-week program. Link to the group co-ordinator's page is http://katspaws.blogs.com/kats_paws/
Hope life is becoming less frazzled these days.