I'd Like You To Meet My Mysteriously Misguided and Mischievous Mini Me, Myrtle.

Mini Me Myrtle is driving me nuts.  She won't  leave me alone this summer and she has completely messed up my M.O.  It's like she is a dark rain cloud that keeps following me around and is rather quite stubborn and obnoxious. Very annoying.  Let me tell you why.
This has become the summer of Bad Habits.  Mini Me Myrtle has a simple strategy.  Destroy any and every good habit that I have worked so hard to develop.  Quite evil, yes?
The idea was planted over a year ago.  I was at a friends house one morning around 10am.  Her daughter was just coming upstairs and my friend told her good morning.  Good morning?  It's 10 O Clock.  My kiddos are all up by 7am every morning.  How I would love to have a few hours in the morning to get stuff done!  She said that because the rooms in the basement were so much darker, her kids sleep quite late.  Wow!  We were finishing our basement at the time and I couldn't wait to test this out this summer.  Well guess what?  It totally works.  
In fact, we started sliding a little on bed times at the beginning of the summer.  What once was 8:30 or 9:00pm, became 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30......Crazy late, but we knew that they would sleep in until 10 or so the next day.  That's still 10 hours!!  So I let it slide, and slide it did.
As the hours got later and later, I was going to bed later and later. Instead of waking up ready to run, I woke up really unmotivated.  Although my kids were sleeping later, I wasn't getting much accomplished in those early hours.  It was as if I needed their driving force to get me going.
So 10am wake up turned in to 11:00 breakfast, 12:00 finally getting out of pj's and then the next 2 hours playing the mean chore mom.  The day was half over and we're just getting started!  Simple fix was to get them to bed earlier.  This has become the most evasive task yet.  It had become a habit.  A bad habit that was not easy to change. It's kinda like when your car is stuck in a rut, your wheels are spinning and you're trying to get out, but you don't move anywhere.  You keep thinking, "Just gain some traction and kick in, you dumb tires! This isn't rocket science!" You finally get agitated enough that you call in for some help and have others give you a push. But the whole process is not quick  - and therein lies the frustration.
Kids not getting enough sleep is nightmarish.  They fight, whine, and complain.  Which makes Mom extremely unpleasant.  So unpleasant, that Mom had finally had it with the 8 year old whining when she told him to "Get off the wii!" for the millionth time and ultimately unhooked the entire system and told Ethan he was done with it for the summer.  The ENTIRE SUMMER!  It has been 4 days, and I am happy to report that the said 8 year old is still alive and the earth did not stop spinning.  Who knew?


This has just become my summer so far.  Everything I've done to create a healthy, mentally stable me over the years has been replaced by Mini Me Myrtle's masterminded ideas.  I used to get up and run every morning or go to the gym.  I've been doing this for years.  I can count on my 2 hands how much this has happened this summer.  I've woken up tired, decided I needed to sleep more than to run, and every day this just got easier and easier. I've been a little unmotivated to blog.  Not sure why, because I really like having this connection, but the desire just hasn't been there.  Gardening?  Not quite wanting to anymore.  Cleaning my house?  I need to, but really don't have any drive to do it.  Doing the daily dishes?  Biggest task ever.  Reading?  Usually love it.  Can't seem to get interested in any book.  Traveling?  Eh..don't really feel up to planning anything.  But the really weird thing that Myrtle has done to me is mess with my water skiing.  Everything seems off-kilter and that was not left off her list.  Up at Bear Lake last week I tried, unsucessfully 10-12 times to get up out of the water on a slalom ski.  I've waterskied for the last umpteenth years, usually getting up on the first try.  But now, Nada.  It was like my body had forgotten how to do it.  Kerry was sort of laughing and a little confused, wondering what in the world was wrong with his wife in the water.  I started to wonder if I was done - if 35 was the magic number that would be the end of doing something I really love.  I never got up that day.    It was like riding a bike but getting on and falling over everytime.  So I'd say to myself, "Wow, that was weird.  Must be a fluke."  And get on again and fall over.  Repeating 15 - 20 times.  
I tried again the next day.  No go for about 5-6 times. Finally I broke the curse and was up on top of the water and was skiing again.  I yelled out in a mighty Hallelujah and told Mini Me Myrtle, "In your face!!"
This post was really for no other benefit than my own, but I appreciate being able to rant a little.  I've got to address this issue and start making some changes around here, and usually writing it out gives me some accountability to stick with it.
I'm happy to report that Mini Me Myrtle has plans to be leaving, quite quickly I hope.  And that's a good thing, because I'm sick of her.