Silence in my house

With an almost five year old, a three year old and a one year old, silence is pretty much a foreign concept in our house.  Even at night someone is getting up to go potty, or having a bad dream, or talking in their sleep, or (in Middle-Bug's case) just making noises in their sleep.

Today was one of those days when life just gives me a headache.  It wasn't a particularly bad day, just an obnoxious one.  It started out fine, with a few snuggles from Middle-Bug and a breakfast of cheerios, bananas and peppermint tea with all three of my boys.  When Hubby got back from his spinning class at the gym, we switched into "get ready mode" and shortly after, headed to the DMV.  I was fully prepared to sit all afternoon in the DMV office.  Hubby kept the boys in the car and we packed a bag with bag lunches and diapers for the kids. Surprisingly, I was in and out in less than an hour - even WITH one trip back out to the car for Hubby's signature when I was informed I am not even on the title of my car....hmmm. Next we popped over to best buy in an attempt to resolve some on-going computer issues (that's a story for another day) and then finally back home. It was a lot of car-time and waiting for the kids, they did pretty well considering. 

Unfortunately, Hubby had a work commitment this afternoon - the kids were pretty bummed.  I think they hate it when he has to go in on his day off more than I do!  Today he had to attend a meeting with the corporate office to go over something they call a "dealer round table."  Supposedly it is a meeting for franchise-owners only, but somehow it landed in Hubby's lap.  He never seems to mind, but I always feel like she should be receiving the benefits of being the owner if he is going to take on the owner's responsibilities!!

By dinner time this evening I had a nagging headache, but I was doing my best to stay positive for the kids sake.  As always, they were FULL of chatter...screeching...and bickering...and fork-poking...and cup tossing...and just general chaos!!  I had a steady internal dialogue all evening that sounded something like this "only two more hours until bed time, you can make it! Hubby could walk in any minute, you can make it!  Just keep smiling for two more hours, you can make it!  Don't worry about your paper (which is due tonight) until the kids are in bed, you can make it!"  I had pretty much convinced myself it would be loud and crazy and busy until 8pm and then I would have time to sit down, close my eyes, feel sorry for myself a little and hopefully get this headache to go away so I could finish my paper on Ethics in Resource Management.  My internal pep-talk was so effective in fact, I felt calm enough to volunteer to whip up a little dessert for the boys.  I diced an apple, filled some ramekins, topped them with some cinnamon, oats and brown sugar and tossed them in the oven to bake.  While I waited I broke up a few fork-sword-fights, stopped a couple of rice in my brother's ear/eye attempts, retrieved a sippy cup a dozen times, caught a glass of milk and listened to a very long (very long) imaginative story about a honey bee.  Finally, I pulled the ramekins from the oven, served the baked apples and.......SILENCE!  For a good five minutes, there was not a sound in the house.  Just the slight scraping of spoons on porcelain and the quiet smacking of preschooler lips.  Who knew it was so easy to buy sanity with a little dessert.