Do-Overs =]

I have just been reading an article on perseverance.
It went a bit like this...
read a line....get part way though a sentence..
enter one 6year old...

"Mummy....can you do up my necklace.... Mummmy....mummmy... excuse me mummy....can you do up my necklace....cos I want to wear it today...(+ a stream of rambling chitter chatter)"

I stop...do up the necklace.
Find my place again, am partway through the next sentence....
enter the other 6 year old.....

"Excuse me mum, can I ride my bike please? Mum. Mum Mum!!!!!! Can I ride my bike pleeeeeaaaasee?" He places his little hands on my cheeks and turns my head to face him....

I agree with conditions.
Now I've totally forgotten where I'm up to, and decide to start over. Get two lines into it, and ....
Sense a presence behind me... One 9 year old reading over my shoulder (instead of helping her sister clean up their room for the approaching School year!!!!)
I growl.... she exits hastily.
Think in hindsight letting her read the article on persistence would have been a good idea.... sigh.
Start over again. Halfway through it.... when the 8 year old and the 9 year old start bickering. I can clearly hear them from my seat... hmmm.
Pause....
Listen...
No tears, no blood....
no intervention required.... I finish the article.
Thank goodness for "Do-overs!"
Do you ever feel like you need a "Do-Over?"
You know, when you try and try to accomplish something and it just doesn't get finished... I read a wonderful quote once, although I can't remember the author...

"cleaning the house before the children are grown is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing"

I would like to alter it to say:

"reading an article before the children are sleeping is a fruitless exercise that can leave you weeping"