3-Ring Circus? No, those are ORGANIZED.

HELP! I am being swallowed up by chaos and mayhem. Really.

I was thinking that my home is a regular circus in the mornings as my clowns piled into the car this morning. But, then it occured to me that a circus is actually an organized event. That doesn't seem to apply to our morning 'routine,' if you will. I'm using the world 'routine' very loosely here.

On the mornings that we do actually find an entire pair of shoes in a timely manner (and I'm not even talking about shoes that match the actual outfit the child in question is wearing that day!) and finish our cereal and brush our teeth, the children scatter (and in the wrong directions, mind you) when it's time to walk out the door. None of it makes any sense; 'up' means 'down,' 'right' means 'left,' 'go brush your teeth' means 'go stare in the mirror for five minutes and make funny faces,' and 'get in the car' means 'go play in your room.'

The only perk for me is that David takes both 7YO (yes...she's SEVEN now!) and 13YO to school on his way to work. The three of them whoosh out the door and I am left with only 4YO to argue with for the rest of the school day. And anyone who has three or more children will tell you that only having one to argue with is an EASY DAY.

I'm not even sure why I feel the need to make my coffee before those three have left. There is never any time to drink it anyway, between the making of the lunches, the brushing of the hair and the nagging of the children. Those are all-consuming tasks, you know! I really should wake up earlier, but I'm not ready to give up any of my precious minutes of sleep, nor am I willing to go to bed any sooner. I really need my quiet time late at night when everyone else is asleep.

I really wish I could survive on less sleep. Or be more efficient during my waking hours. Or shoot rainbows out of my butt...wouldnt' that be awesome? Needless to say, those pipe dreams will come to fruition when I get a pet unicorn and a husband who knows how to change the toilet paper roll.

But a girl can dream, can't she?

Even the dogs create their own brand of chaos in my life. I've taken it upon myself to change both the food I feed them and the way I feed it to them. Aly can eat adult food now. Lily started to get a bit pudgy and could really benefit from eating adult food as well. I've never done anything but free-feeding with my pets, so both dogs were destined to eat the same food. Now they eat a new dog food, in measured amounts according to their age and weight, twice a day.

And boy does that confuse them!

I knew they liked the new food when I was measuring their first bowls of it out and one piece of kibble hit the ground. They both went after it and attempted to tear each other to shreds to get it. (Okay, so it only sounds like they are tearing each other to shreds...no harm comes to them but they make quite a ruckus when they get in a scuffle!) Aly is supposed to get about twice the amount of food that Lily needs. Aly is still technically a puppy and twice the size of Lily, so it makes sense. But, that means that each dog needs to stick to her own bowl of food, right? But, each dog knows that what the other one has in her bowl MUST be better than hers. I know they are capable of learning how to each next to one another. This should not be too much to ask. But, keeping them interested in what is in their own dish is a bit tricky. However, once they get a few mouthfuls of food down they get more excited about thier own dish and less distracted about what the other dog has.

Who said pets aren't just like children?

What's even better is that, the more excited they get about their own dish, the more worried they become that the other dog will take it. Then, they slam their heads into their food bowl like it's some sort of competition, always keeping one eye on their competitor while they inhale their kibble.

Mealtime is over before we know it.

The other factor that makes this whole new feeding process a bit tricky is that Snickers the cat also likes the dogs' new food. While Lily makes it more than clear that she will bite the head off another animal that tries to share her food, Aly doesn't really seem to mind. So, the cat pokes his head into Aly's dish and Aly just sort of eats around him.

I should probably get some pictures of this, huh?

Yesterday, I figured out that the best way to deal with this is to have a bowl of cat food on hand and let Snickers just line up with the dogs and eat his own food out of his own dish. In case I haven't said it before, my cat is not a normal cat.

Other than that, my days have been filled with the Chrismtas decorations that won't put themselves away and attempting to conquer Mt. Laundry. Again. And again.

Plus, this happens to be Hump Day and the elevation seems to be messing with my ears or something...