Candy Cane Therapy

We all need a candy cane and a break.

Yesterday we fell apart. This morning we stumbled around. We need rest. Deeply.

We start school very early here. 7am early. Too early for little bodies. Those little bodies are tired.

It's been a trying school year. Constant assessing and testing. Constant pushing to the limit. A school system that's a bit budget-cut chaotic. And these little ones who are overwhelmed and stretched.

We need a candy cane and a break.

Yesterday the youngest threw a full out tantrum because she had no homework. Yes, I did say because she had NO HOMEWORK. She's just irrational and tired. She's so used to getting work that she thought I was wrong and that she would get in trouble. Then she thought she was being left out of the homework fun. So she followed me around telling me so, tears streaming down her face. I told her that she could go and play, have fun with her toys. Instead, she hit her brother in the arm and asked him to give her homework. It was like a mouse hitting a lion. He was sitting at the computer already on edge and near tears over a social studies project. So the lion ate the mouse. He shoved her and called her stupid. Something he knows he shouldn't do and would later cry about. Being a feisty one she scrambled back to her feet and started a full out brawl. Meanwhile the middle one erupts into tears because everyone else is yelling and screaming. Her sensitive heart couldn't take it. And I, in an embarrassing moment of childishness, threw a box of colored pencils and a binder full of paper against the wall. In the movie version of this scene, the pencils would make a great crash and then the screen would go silent as the white papers float back to the ground slowly with the four people staring at it in stunned silence. Then they would all turn on heel and go off silently to separate corners. Oh wait, that's what happens in real life too.

It was not our finest hour. After sitting in silence in our rooms for a little while, I went to each one, apologized, and hugged them. They also apologized to me and to each other. We all cried and hugged and took a deep breathe. We had Chick-Fil-A for dinner.

We're done. We're tired. I've considered homeschooling.

We need a candy cane and a break.