Going in Circles

I'm tired. The kids have me emotionally exhausted. It's amazing how kids can do that without even trying. So look at the photo I am attaching and here's how it all went down;

I come upstairs for a few minutes - five to ten minutes while the kids were both playing happily at the table. I needed to send an email about one of the special orders I'm working on.

The kids are fairly quiet, so I go downstairs. As I get to the bottom step, I see my five year old shoving something into one of his boots. Upon closer examination... it's my knitting project (no sign of the actual knitting needles) and one other ball of yarn all tangled together. Before I can say anything, he says (the five year old) says "she did it" looking at his sister - his hands are still shoving the yarn into the boot.

I look at my daughter (the 2 year old) and she's sitting by her brother, taking it all in. She has a small smirk on her face. I'm not certain, but I think the all knowing smirk might be permanent.

In my controlled, mom-on-the-edge, even toned but obviously upset voice... I ask the obvious question "what's going on?"

My son backs away from the yarn and my daughter, the manipulator stands up, stomps into the corner, pulls the little yellow cowboy hat she's wearing down over her face so I can't see her and folds her arms around her body with a "hmmph".

I gather the lump of yarn and ask the rhetorical question "now what am I supposed to do?" as I see my project (part of the wholesale order I'm working on) in the middle of knots of purple, turquoise and green furry yarn.

My son in his genuinely concerned and helpful voice says "you can figure it out, I know you can." I know he's trying to be encouraging because he can see I'm frustrated... after all, that's what we do. Although circumstances are a bit different... I'm fairly certain, my son's brain fell out. I hear it's going around in five year olds these days.

Two hours later, I now have three balls of yarn again... and no knitting project. I get to start over. This week has been a tough week for wholesale. I've had a few set backs. I can't seem to find the fabric I used for the scales on one of my mermaid samples... so I'm probably going to have to change it... I need to cut, interface and sew an additional six green crowns, and now I have to start the fur band over that I almost had complete. Granted... none of this is the end of the world and it really isn't much but an added few hours of work (I estimate about three to four).

I just don't know where I'm going to fit those extra hours in. I'm tired! I type this with my two year old on my lap. I think looking into that precious little face of hers is the only thing that is keeping me together right now. Funny how you can draw strength from the very thing that zaps it.