Living with boys

Every morning I leave my living area - kitchen, living room and bathroom clean and tidy and every afternoon when I get home - the house looks like a bomb hit it. I clear the counters and wash a few things that I need to prepare supper. Supper is usually a meal that can stretch to 3 hungry boys. After feeding boys and cats and having worked a full day, I'm feeling kind of tired. I may try to watch a programme on television but if the boys put on wrestling, that's my cue to head straight for bed. I then try to read a few pages in my library book. Maybe two pages in my eyes start closing. I switch off the light and that's me for the day.

I've been waking early recently and there are a few reasons for that. Dael's friend S who is staying with us permanently now and often works the evening shift at the restaurant seems to be coming in at about 2.30 in the morning. I'm sure the restaurant is not closing them but maybe he's hanging out with friends. The dogs, Piglet and Pup, who sleep next to my bed do not like people coming in the house at that time of the morning. It makes them very nervous especially Pup who is a bit of a coward anyway. He starts to bark sharply and no amount of shushing from S will make him calm down. Only a cross "Stop it Pup" from me will calm him down. So if the sound of the key in the lock didn't wake me, the dogs certainly would. If I manage to get back to sleep after that, my 1 year old 'kitten' Lovey, who is one of Kittykie's first litter, a little girl, makes sure I don't go back to sleep for long. At about 3.30 or 4.00am she meows outside my door. She's feeling the need for love. The boys close my door when I'm sleeping to keep the noise down. But early in the morning it gets like a railway station. The cats inside want out the vice versa. I prefer my door to stay closed because if the kitty litter box (which I line with newspaper) gets too wet, they like nothing better than to jump on me and use my bedlinens as a toilet. If I happen to be lying there at the time, that's my problem.

It happened yesterday. I had just woken up with a noise when I felt that the duvet was wet..and so was I, right down to the mattress. So generally the baby kittens are banned from my room at night. Anyway if I'm awake at 4.00am I get up because sleep time is over and I just start thinking about (read: worrying about) my finances, my car, the kids, etc. So I get up and as I swing into my regular morning routine which also includes going outside and looking at the beautiful sunrise, I regain my usual positivity and mentally prepare for the day. I have tried listening to music in the morning but I find this disturbs my mental preparations for the day. I enjoy the quiet. Well, that the quiet of the morning other than the meowing of the felines until they get their meal. There's something really steadying about greeting the day with a routine that cant be beaten in terms of settling the equilibrium. If I leave the house in a mess, I feel very unsettled so I am definitely an early bird rather than a night owl. That's the only time of the day that I'm guaranteed to have the house to myself as none of the other human inhabitants would dream of getting up then.

When things are getting busy, problems are cropping up, my routine helps me to stabilise my thoughts. It calms me to repeat actions that can be carried out automatically while my thoughts drift like clouds in a Summer sky.

So its no use complaining about doing all the housework because I need that work and that routine to keep on keeping on.