Top Ten Annoyances in the Past Week

I’ve been making a concerted effort to see the positive side of things, but I still have plenty of negatives/annoyances I can (and will) happily share… I’ll try to limit myself to the past week – because boiling down ALL annoyances into a top ten list could be nearly impossible…
1. I have a sinus infection (self-diagnosed) but don’t want to go to the doctor as I have an annual checkup appointment scheduled for next week… but the sinus pressure is driving me crazy and my handy nasal rinses seem to be not helping at all (in fact, I think they’re making things worse). I called the doctor and inquired about them calling in a prescription but alas, no call back… what’s a girl to do when all she wants to do is breathe freely? [UPDATE: The doctor called in a zpac for me – hopefully this thing will turn a corner!]

2. I confess we do not bathe our kids every day (or every other day), but summer time seems to be perpetuating a new trend – between sunscreen, sweating and general dirtiness, baths are becoming a daily routine. (Yes, I realize I’m sort of complaining about having to clean my children. Wah, wah.)

3. We have central air (happy day) but an old house and cannot find a happy medium… when the air is running, the house feels “too cold” but when it is between cycles the house almost immediately feels “too warm.” (such problems, I know)

4. Construction… we always joke that Michigan has two seasons, winter and construction, but it’s mostly true and we’re in the height of construction season when random roads will be closed and alternate routes will also be fettered with construction.

5. We’re waiting to find out of Liam will get in on the lottery for another local school district, once we find out, then we will have to decide for sure on which school he’ll be going to next year – a nearby charter school or a neighboring public school district. Both have excellent track records, teachers and testing scores – this is the part of parenting that no one prepares you for, making education decisions and hoping you make the best/right choice for your kid.

6. The housing market in Michigan is not stellar (an understatement if there ever was one). We have a house we’d love to sell but we’d also love to not pay someone money to buy it. So we stay put, stuck in a bad school district in a house that was great for the single me but not so ideal for the parent me.

7. Ice cream, tortillas and cheese not being fat-free or low-calorie food options.

8. Jack’s fascination with sticking his hand down the back of his diaper. Once last week Simon asked me what food I had given Jack because it was a mess all over his hands. Sorry, honey, no food, but he did have a poopy diaper (you are welcome for that). And then this weekend, Jack came up to me saying “owwie” and holding out his hand with a white mark on it. I thought he had scraped his thumb but after kissing it, realized the white mark was not a scrape but diaper cream. From inside his diaper. Just, ewww.

9. We’ve had to reinstate the use of the sticker chart to encourage Liam to be nice to his brother, to not throw fits when he gets in trouble and to stop being sassy when we ask him to do something. This has helped with his general behavior but I don’t like that we’ve had to revert back to old tactics to retrain behaviors he used to be better at, but I have to remind myself that he’s not yet five and also going through some big changes with daycare switches and preschool ending. [Though, sticker chart or not, last night was the worst in recent history for bedtimes with him – neither one of us maintained our “cool” the entire time though thanks to a whole lotta praying on my part, we survived and he went to sleep.]

10. My neighbors who love to randomly set off fireworks. This makes my dog go crazy with uncontrollable barking and it makes me just go crazy. They have done this every year from May through October. They are much like the construction industry in Michigan; warm weather = time to make some noise!

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.