Mental Challenges

I started keeping a journal back in December and it was really helpful at being my venting board, but I stopped at the end of April when my morning (ALL DAY) sickness and massive fatigue took over.  It's been  6-7 weeks and wow, I am so tense, stressed and generally grumpy.  I know that a lot of it is dealing with my mom living with us and the adjustments that seem to be taking a long time to fall into place.

I honestly must have mentally blocked out much of my childhood.  It's been really hard trying to relate to a woman who, for all intents and purposes, is just *out there*.  I love her to death, but man.  She needs to focus on taking care of herself and not spoiling my kids all the time.

Case in point, she took the kids to Walmart yesterday and they came home with new toys (she was asked to not buy them any the last time they came home with new toys), Em got a pair of shoes that were 1.5 sizes too big (and completely unnecessary), and there was a bunch of random stuff purchased that we already had.  Maybe I'm making too big of a deal about it, but why is a 65 year old woman kowtowing to a 3.5 yr old and 5 yr old?!?  I am baffled at why she allows them so much power at such a young age.

There is so much inconsistency and lack of boundaries that have gotten introduced in the last 4 months that has seemingly thrown our household into a crazy spin.  Granted, me being so sick and stuff the last 2 months hasn't helped, but it frustrates me that my normally reasonable kids seem to act out so much now.  We'll see if things level out while she's gone for a while.

I'm hoping the break will do us all some good and we can get Noah back into undies and potty trained, my stress level back to a reasonable one and to get the parent/child relationship back in check.  I know that mentally I've been having a tough time engaging with the kids and my mom because I've been so frustrated and angry that I just want to sit in isolation a great deal of the time.  I am also hoping to start doing some more exercise as my nausea & headaches seem to be lessening *knock on wood*. :)