Fighting For A Life Worth Living

Days 30 and 31 - My Family Have Lost Their Minds

When I first agreed to help watch my niece and nephew while their parents went to Vegas, I only had one concern. Do I have the strength to be hurdled into my old life, the life that taught me all these horrible habits that I am having to change, and be able to leave at the end of the week without reverting to my old ways. If I knew then what I know now, my main focus would be on actually eating. The last four days having been nothing less than chaotic.

When I look into the mirror I see a young woman with beautiful brown hair and a gorgeous smile. I'm starting to believe that my family view me as a young man with blonde hair sporting a tiny blue speedo that answers to the name of Stretch Armstrong. The mornings have been peaceful, but once afternoon hits I am being pulled in a lot of different directions. Tuesday was a nightmare. I had grown tired of my nephew not taking a nap until late in the afternoon and then not going to bed until midnight. My plan was to feed him at 11:30 and then at noon let him ride his bike a little to wear him out. I tried to get him to eat his lunch for an hour with no success. I wanted to us this as a teaching moment. If you don't eat, you will get hungry. My mom didn't want to do that and she packed his lunch so he could have a picnic. We didn't leave until 1:00 because I couldn't get him to cooperate at all. If it wasn't for me looking forward to his nap time I would have told him he was being bad and we weren't going to go. My patience is almost completely gone when we finally are able to leave the house. We have a good time on our bike ride and at 2:45 we finally get that nap I have been waiting for. My other nephew is 15 and has been playing basketball after school until 4:30 or 5 o'clock. Knowing this my plan was to go to the grocery store while the little guy is sleeping, go to his house and pick up some more diapers and milk for baby sister, and by the time that was finished it would be close to time to pick up the older nephew. At the grocery store I am rushing to get everything quickly when suddenly I receive a phone call from my nephew saying he's ready to be picked up a half hour earlier than planned. I let him know that I have a few more things to grab (I didn't let him know the only things I had left were weird items I had no clue where to find) and then I would be there, but after I picked him up we had to go and get the diapers and milk. While we were talking I found out that his dad is not cooking meals at home, but they are mostly eating fast food. He told me that he would like to cook but doesn't know how. This breaks my heart. This would be third generation of unhealthy habits. I let him know I would be happy to teach him how to cook a few things and invited him to go back to Des Moines with me. He said he would like that but we haven't made any concrete plans yet. Our drive was long enough for us to have a good talk, but when we returned to my parents house things got crazy.

I was trying to teach my older nephew how to make apple salad and we were doing great. Then the baby woke up and was crying. Guess who got to hold her. I am one of those people who do not like to be disturbed when they are in the middle of something. I was trying to teach my nephew something and did not want a baby pawned off on me. So I got rid of her as quickly as I could, but it seemed that every time I got rid of her, somehow she boomeranged back into my arms within 5 minutes. I'm not sure how but eventually we got supper made and was able to eat around 7 or 8. This was the most stressful day, but the others have been similar.