The return of crabby daddy

It's nearing the end of another of my pseudo-single parenthood periods, aka J's busy season at work. I have to say this one hasn't been too bad. It is only recently that there have been intermittent visits from "crabby daddy", my cranky alter ego. Crabby daddy comes out when every little thing his boys do drives him crazy. It wasn't until after a week of spring break togetherness that he appeared this year. He comes about naturally, because after hearing a nagging voice for 24/7 for week (ie, stop that, don't do that, be quiet, get off your brother, put down the knife, for the love of god please be quiet for two minutes), it's easy to tune out that voice. Tuning out the voice and not listening brings out crabby daddy. Maybe it's the boys getting older (or me getting older), or maybe it's that they are back in school again this week, but crabby's visits have been brief and fairly rare.

One other result of this time of year appears to be my complete lack of accountability in keeping up the house. I'll start the dishes, but then not finish, or clean off half the kitchen table. Children's toys are scattered every which way. The place looks like a tornado hit it, but I guess that happens when J is too tired to say anything about it when she gets home. Since she's too busy to do anything about it, I also don't have to feel guilty about her cleaning up. I know I should keep things up, but my conscience alone hasn't been enough to do it. The cleaning lady comes Friday, so I'll have to have it picked up by then, I just hope I can.

This year we are heading straight out on vacation at the end of busy season, no lag time, which means I'll be doing all the prep for the trip. That's fine as long as the boys cooperate and don't get too worked up. Not sure who I'm kidding with that last sentence, it's a trip and children, they'll be bouncing off the walls. We may remember why we usually don't leave immediately... too stressful! It's a trip we've taken before so hopefully that will help, because nobody wants crabby daddy on the trip.