The Witching Hour

"Mom, lookout Charlie is running with scissors!" and he came running toward me and then as he saw me see him he tossed them at me as if he knew he would be in trouble and had to let go of them before I saw what he was doing. They were rounded tip, and no one was injured, but still...wild stuff goes down around here during the witching hour. Right before this I answered the phone and realized that there was an extra little voice on the phone. I kept saying into the phone, "Is this Charlie? Charlie? Where are you?" and then I proceeded to run through the house, hearing laughter in the phone, and a tiny little voice saying, "wight here!" Finally I see him in the basement and he cracks up and begins running with the phone. Before that, I found him (2 yrs old) building with legos in the art room. Real legos, little tiny legos. He thinks he is eight yrs old. There are 3 extra kids in my house right now, and one of mine is at the neighbor's, and I have one sitting at the kitchen table insisting he cannot do his math homework without my help, even though all it is it simple addition and subtraction and he is 9 yrs old. And amid all of this, I am supposed to be making some dinner. From 3:20 until dinner, I sometimes want to just run away for a little while, let them all fend for themselves, and then come back for sitting down to dinner time. During the witching hour you can often find this household crazy loud, really messy, really hungry and often crabby. I have tried a scheduled after school plan, a relaxed, chill out plan, a leave the house plan and a leave them alone plan. But I find that it isn't my fault, it isn't the plans' fault, and it isn't even the children's fault... I truly believe it is the hour's fault. The crazy, the exhausting, the mixed up, the dreaded...witching...hour.