Why We're All So Tired All The Time!

Hello All,

7PM is not one of my favorite hours. Getting kids ready for bed is notoriously "unfun." Oh, wait, I can hear it now: "These are the best years!" Do you ever notice that when a fellow parent says that, they are, to a person, referring to years long past!? Funny how the "now" is never spoken of as "the best years!" Now, I will break the rule: These are the best years, but 7PM is the worst of the hours! I can't wait until they are just a little older and bedtime means they are tired and they get themselves showered and readied to sleep. Anyway, I digress: 8PM is better. Kids are in bed reading and the operative word for Daddy, "quietly!" 9PM is just awesome! A little after 9PM, 2/3 of the kids are out...a little like this picture here, with Caleb and Lizzie unconsciously imitating Michelangelo's famous fresco "The Creation Of Adam."

Most of the time, Caleb or Lizzy are out first. Caleb, like his Mother, is a notorious sleeper. He just lays down and is gone pretty quick. Lizzy is usually next, slowly drifting toward unconsciousness. Once she is out, she pretty much stays right where she is. Caleb on the other hand will move all over the bed, in and out of 20 or 30 positions per night! And, it's not rare for him, at the slightest movement in the room, to dialogue clearly in his sleep! In this picture, he did start on the couch with Renae...

And speaking of version 1.0, she is never asleep earlier than 10PM. That's right: Sometimes 2 hours after getting into bed! She is just not easy to turn off. She reads voraciously in bed and seems to spend her time thinking about all sorts of insane thoughts. When she was a little kid, I would come home from Sunday night service and she would be obsessing about her strange fear of lions, that I promised to spank if they ever came near our house. That seemed to comfort her.

Renae, when it comes to sleep, is to much like her Father, who loathes to miss any opportunity that resembles the solitude that late nights afford him and that one day, will be the norm of his existence. ("Oh how I long for a sparcely lit, quiet study...it's coming...I believe it!) What's that? Oh yeah, I know: Best days...

Then, there's Mommy, who is known to sleep just about anywhere, at any time. Having moved more than 10 times in 5 years, as well as bearing three children in 8 years, and being married to a guy who loves late nights for over 12 years, has made her quite ready for a few years of sleep! But, the "when's and where's" of a young Mom?

The old rule was, "sleep when the kids sleep" and this worked, when the kids slept! Nap time used to be such a great thing for Lela. Ah, and then there was the Spanish siesta! All of Jerez used to shut down daily at 2PM and when in Rome...or Spain...do as the Spaniards do! That worked for a while and then we moved back. Today, Lela steals a nap here and there whenever she can, but as you can see from the picture, she rarely sleeps alone!

And then there's me. You'll note that there are no pictures of me. That's simply because I do not sleep...or, more accurately, nobody is awake when I go to bed. I spend those precious late hours studying, blogging, reading (current book: "Paul's Metaphors") doing laundry ("I am not ashamed!") and catching up on my Hulu cache! Plus, if I slept more, I might have missed these pics and not been able to remember these great times!

Blessings To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez