Asking for it

Did you ever have those days where you just felt like your children were asking for it? The last two days have been like that for me. But I must back up to Saturday for it all to make sense. Maybe even farther than that. Ever since my pregnancy with Alaina (#2), I have had problems with my back. It's usually my sciatic nerve. Two weeks ago my back went out and it took me about 5 or 6 days until I was feeling pretty much as good as new. Well, last Saturday it went out again! I had just gotten Charlotte out of bed and took her out to the living to play. I was sitting her down when it just went. I had to go down to my knees. Thankfully it wasn't as severe as I have had before where I was reduced to crawling around for a few days. I waited till the pain had subsided, and then stood up and hobbled out to the kitchen where my husband was pouring our coffee. He looked at me and just shook his head, and followed me back to our room where I laid down and just wanted to cry. The pain in the back is bad enough, but when you have three children, four and under, it just makes you want to hide under the covers and never come out. My children are normal, which means they fight over toys, and go to far rooms in the house where I can't see what they are doing, and they get into stuff. With a bad back, it just means my reaction time so much slower, and my patience is quite a bit more thin. Fast forward to yesterday. Mornings are my hardest because I am so stiff from lying down all night. I got up and made my way to the couch where my heating pad is and laid on it till my muscles were warmed up and I could stretch a little. The girls got up and I attempted to make breakfast and get them dressed. I knew the house need a good cleaning because I hadn't gotten much done the week before because of my back, so I called my mother in law and sister in law to come help me out. I poured cleaner in the bathroom sinks and tubs and toilets and then went to lay down again. I realized as I lay down that Charlotte is missing. So I go back the hall and find her up to her elbows in toilet water! I firmly tell her no, wipe her off, and shut the bathroom door. I bring her back out to the living room and lay down again. Ten minutes later I hear commotion back near the bedrooms again. I go back and this time find all three in my bathroom. Charlotte again in the toilet, and Larissa has the toilet brush waving it around and splashing water all over. Charlotte then starts rubbing her eyes and crying because it burns. So I tell the older two to go their room and take Charlotte, clean her up, and put her down for a nap. I discipline the older two because they knew better and hobble out to the sofa....again. My family shows up and I just start crying because I am feeling totally overwhelmed. They take the older two outside and hang out my laundry and clean my house. Which was awesome. But my older two continued to get into trouble. They climbed into our pickup truck and found some gum. Alaina came in the house with a huge wad of gum she was chomping on. And they also got into their grandma's car, which they got in trouble for by grandma. The expression on Alaina's face was priceless. She couldn't believe Grandma would discipline her! Loved that. And then what took the cake was lunchtime. I was putting food on the girls' plates so it would be cooled. I had finished Larissa's and moved around the table to do Alaina's when Charlotte crawled over, stood up, and pulled Larissa's plate down to the floor. Spilling mashed potatoes, corn, sauerkraut and pork all over the place. As quickly as she could, Charlotte stuffed food in her mouth ( I do feed my children, Charlotte just thinks she needs to eat all the time), so I didn't have as much to clean up, but still, it was just the icing on the cake.
So this morning I get up, not feeling quite as bad as yesterday, and we start our morning. The older two go out to play as I finish cleaning up and I see they are in the pickup yet again. So I bring them in, we deal with it, and move on. I put Charlotte down for a nap and come out into the kitchen and see the children's cough medicine I had on the counter is gone and the girls have it outside where they dumped it all over the porch! Now, I am slightly upset. Cough medicine is plenty expensive. So we again have to deal with it. I've read in books that you will have days where it seems like your children are just asking for it all the time. I believe the last few days would fall into that category. The books also assure us worn out parents that this will cease, but days like these make me feel like it will not come soon enough. How hard it is to find the patience to deal with the childishness, deliberate disobedience and curiosity of the age. It makes it even more apparent that the more I try to take on myself, the more I fail. It's only through the Lord's strength and supernatural patience and love that a parent can make it. I don't know any other way.