A dive for the muscovy duck

I loved my night last night so much that I stayed up way too late enjoying it. I haven't cracked the last book in a four book series that I have been dying to finish in over two weeks, so I read for an hour and of course I woke up so tired. 4 1/2 hours just isn't enough. It was rainy. I packed a lunch and took the kids to the library. We had a picnic in the car. I am so tired of cleaning the house and the kids are like a trainwreck at home. I turn my back and Joren has dumped all his clothes from his dresser on the floor or spilled 20 oz of smoothie and spashed it all over the cupboards or lost my sandles because he won't wear his or turned the nozel on the bathroom sink so that it is running full blast on the floor flooding the bathroom. It's constant. I am picking up, scrubbing, cooking and moving junk around 16 hours a day. The rest of the time I am harrasing the kids or putting them to sleep. So I took them in the car and buckled them in their seats most of the afternoon. I had to contain the mess to contain my sanity. After the library the rain stopped and I took them to the park. It was beautiful. We watched two red cardinals fight over a lady cardinal. We spotted some muscovy ducks, which I think are fascinating. Joren liked them too. He crept up to them and squatted down in the grass watching them for a long time. I stood 30' away watching him wondering what he was going to do. After 3 or 4 minutes he leaped with amazing speed right toward the closest duck and did a home run dive right for him. He landed with a splat on his belly in the mud. He was not deterred but kept on chasing after those ducks with great determination until the finally escaped into the water. Then we all settled into a camp chair to read our library books for an hour or so. When we got cold we went to read in the car for another hour. Eirik was not in a good mood so I arranged for him to go spend some time with his friend Benjamin. When we got to his house to pick Ben up, the other two boys were asleep so Erin let Eirik stay and play and the three of us slept in the car for 2 hours. That was a sneaky mom trick and I'm glad I played it. It was wonderful.
After dinner Paul went to bed with grumpy Eirik and Teig, Joen and I had a wonderful playtime in the basement. The whole week went by without me spending any time playing in the basement with them.. again. They love it so much. We have great toys, but I spend so much time taking care of this house that I don't stop and play enough. Eirik actually asked me, "mom, why do you care about the house so much? Why don't you just take time to play with us?" I know, something has to give. I just can't live in a disaster and it only takes one day of playing for the house to completely fall apart. If I miss one day of sweeping, I can't put Teig on the floor. I am totally exhausted and have to figure out a better plan. I can't keep it up. I do make the boys work, but they really fight me. Eirik said, "I feel like your slave." because I asked him to pick up some books today. What a crybaby. He was so tired today. I used to think that if someone's house was a mess that they must never clean up. I remember thinking how slovenly people lived because there were piles of things everywhere. Now I know how fast those piles can accumulate. I will never judge again. I cannot believe how hard it is to keep things in their places. Is that enough venting?? I hope I am done. I gave myself a pep talk yesterday. I reminded myself to love all my work, to rejoice in all the endless tasks because it means that I get to live in this wonderful, beautiful, big house with so many amenities. Sure we could eat oatmeal for every meal and it would make kitchen chores that much easier. Sure we could have a suburban yard with a lawn service. Sure we could get rid of all the toys and only have enough clothes for one week. Sure we could only keep one pair of shoes out per kid. But, there's so much life in all those glorious choices. So, for that I rejoice. There is work to do because there is abundant life. I choose choices and abundance. I choose my work and my life. I just have to get smarter about how I get it done. Maid service??