I think my children, for the first time in their lives, are bored.

In the past few weeks, since preschool let out for the summer, approximately 75% of the conversation in this household has consisted of, "Mommy!!!" (in a loud, demanding tone), followed by a sentence beginning with either "I want..." or "Can we..."

Don't get me wrong; it's not that I'm complaining about the day-to-day care and feeding of the children. That's expected. People who don't want to do that stuff shouldn't have kids in the first place. I don't mind making meals, fixing the occasional snack, helping with matters of cleanliness and doing the occasional activity to help alleviate boredom. But what they are doing, currently, is constant. I can't even get five minutes to down my morning nourishment without someone ragging on me to do something and, 95% of the time, it's something that really could wait just a little while longer. As if I am going to leap from my chair, fling my Pop-Tart on the floor, and, exuding nobility, cry, "I may not have eaten in fourteen hours but that fact pales in comparison to your desire to color all over my dining room table with markers! Wait no further; I shall eschew my meal and fetch the coloring implements forthwith!" And, again, it's not the mere act of asking to color that gets my goat, as that is all part and parcel with the whole Mommy Thing. It's when it's the fourth request in the past ten minutes, all of which have come while I'm in the middle of some "little" task (such as trying to take in nourishment to sustain my body another day so I may continue to care for them) that it starts to wear on the nerves a titch.

The only thing I can figure is that they are both bored and are taking it out on me. Because my kids are SO not normally like this. But now, not only is school out, but we have no car for most of the day since Robert needs it to go to work. And, back before we sold my car, I had no money to take them anywhere. So we have been doing a LOT of staying home this past month, and, perhaps, it is starting to wear on them. I know it's definitely taking its toll on me. For example, I can hear them out in the living room now and I know exactly what they are doing. They have the couch cushions on the floor and are leaping off the couch onto the cushions. And I? Totally don't even care. They are out of my hair for the first time today and they aren't vegging in front of the t.v. and there's nothing bad about either of those things. Heck, I may even go join them.