Recipe For Exhaustion (Now Don't THAT Sound Good?)

I am one of those people who has to have sleep. Unlike my sister, I cannot stay up all night, resume my normal activities the next day, and then casually, while in the grocery store, mention to someone that yes, those cantaloupes do look delicious, and by the way I read a FASCINATING article on cantaloupe farming the previous night when I didn't sleep at all but had MORE. FUN. reading magazines and rearranging my living room.

Because when I don't sleep? It ain't pretty, people.

Last night Alex screamed out in his sleep pretty consistently until about 4 in the morning, and inevitably the screaming occcurred right as I dozed off so that as soon as the noise registered with my brain, I sat straight up in bed, hit the ground running, and flew up the stairs, because clearly - CLEARLY - evil clowns were gnawing at my child's knees.

But then I'd get to his room, rush to his side - and he would be sound asleep.

It was a LOT of fun.

Around 3 in the morning - between my precious husband's snoring and my precious child's screaming - I determined that if a pack of wolves entered my house and said, "We have a completely quiet place for you to rest, but it's in the middle of a snaky swamp, and we can't guarantee that the other wolves won't chomp off one of your arms in the night," I wouldn't have had to think twice about my reply:

"Take me to this place you call paradise. Ay, and quickly."

And I don't know about y'all, but I can't count the number of times I've been visited in the middle of the night by talking wolves. But just run with the whole willing suspension of disbelief thing. I'm a little tired.

I do think the devil loves those moments of mama exhaustion coupled with trying to, say, get dressed and get the car loaded for a church event. Because I snapped at Alex this morning when he was apparently trying to braid my legs together when I was looking furiously for my lime green pants, and all day long I've thought about the mixed message I gave him (it wasn't quite "LEAVE MAMA ALONE! SHE'S TRYING TO SERVE JESUS!" but it was close). Yikes. Needless to say, I called with apologies before I was even five minutes away from the house. Humbled, I was. :-)

The breakfast was great fun, by the way. We're just so grateful for our church staff - and really, plying them with high levels of saturated fats seems so insignificant compared with everything they do for us on a daily basis. We love them. And in case you were wondering, nothing says "We love you" quite like two pounds of Swiss cheese combined with two dozen eggs, whole milk, Pet milk, ham, mushrooms, and crescent rolls.

Anyway, our afternoon has consisted of me looking for places to "rest my eyes" while Alex watches as many DVD's as he wants. Earlier we were upstairs watching a Superman cartoon (and by "we" I mean that Alex was watching while I stretched out on the floor), and I dozed off for a second, only to be awakened by Alex standing on my behind, bouncing up and down, chanting, "BOING! BOING! BOING! BOING!" And I thought, "OKAY, MISSY - when your behind becomes a trampoline of sorts for your child, it might be time to start doing some lunges. Or, you know, to quit eating."

Eventually we settled in for a nice afternoon nap, and I'm feeling almost human again. And I'll post more about this later tonight, but Jules did something that totally made my day. Sometimes a little encouragement goes a long way, you know?

More later - including pictures of Sunday night's smooshy cuteness. Stay tuned.