I get so frustrated with myself – I want so badly to have it all together (even though I have never bothered to define what that means) and I know I have it in me to accomplish great things, like putting the laundry away or blogging on some sort of schedule. Yet time after time it just slips through my fingers. Then there is a week like this one where I begin to remember why…
This may be a whine, or even a rant. Just so you know what you are getting into here.
1. Monday was my birthday! Yay for me, I’m 43! I haven’t done anything to celebrate it, and don’t really see a time when my husband and I could go out to dinner. Over all, I’m pretty happy. I am working, slowly but surely (with the exception of completely falling off the wagon on Thursday) to be healthier. I feel more secure in who I am. I’m even secure enough to know that at some point Jay and I will go out to dinner and that will count as my birthday dinner and it will all be fine. Monday I was totally fine with the day being wall to wall normal life. But now it’s Friday and I’m kind of tired of it.
2. I usually shy away from these kind of posts. My husband and I used to play this game; we called it “My Life Sucks Worse Than Yours”. The only problem is that no one wins at that game. Being the most pitied person in the duo never made us feel any better. But I just look at this week and think Damn! That’s a lot. So this isn’t meant to be a “My life sucks worse” attempt, because I love my life and wouldn’t trade it for yours no matter what. And it’s not a “Who’s Busier” contest either, because many people could have me beat. This is more of a “Why I can’t seem to get anything done” explanation. So please take it in the spirit intended.
3. Here we go: Monday and Tuesday held the usual craziness of taking kids back and forth – three trips to the preschool, ballet, church, gymnastics, boys choir. This week I added in personal training (a gift from my daughter for my birthday! How cool is that?) It was also the week we came back from Fall Break so I was subtracting about an hour and a half of sleep per night. Ouch.
4. Tuesday I also made one of those epic trips to Costco. Just me, Gus, and overflowing cart, a much smaller wallet, and the heat of the pavement heading out just past lunchtime to pack up the car. What’s this? The back of the van is already full of stuff?
And here we run into Principle #1 of Family Life: Everything will take twice as long and three times as much energy as you think it should.
I rearranged all the stuff in the back of the van, put down seats, buckled some groceries in empty carseats, etc. And finally got everything in the car and – barely – got the doors closed. Then we went home.
By that time my blood sugar is somewhere in the negative numbers, Gus is melting down because he is not only hungry, but it is an hour past his nap time. Time pressure is on. Get the frozen stuff in the freezer, get the food in the kid, put him down for a nap. Empty all the rest of the junk from the back of the van so this doesn’t happen again next week, which it totally could because it would be just like me to forget (again) that all that stuff is back there.
Finally, all that is done. Whew. I look at the clock. I have exactly ten minutes to shove some food in my own face, before waking my sleeping toddler and heading out the door to pick up his sister.
AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!
To this point in the day I have had two cups of coffee and a yogurt. I MUST HAVE FOOD. But I have to pack snacks for the hungry monkeys. Because I have to go to one school, then the other – wait there for 40 minutes – then take 5 kids to gymnastics. Then take one to boys choir. And my husband was out of town, so there was bedtime…
There was no laundry done that day. I don’t think there were any dishes done that day. On to Wednesday.
5. Wednesday morning I was all on top of things. I got the lunches all made, I got the backpacks all packed. The big kids headed out the door and I went to hide with my coffee for just a few moments of quiet. (Stop laughing at me, it could happen – I’ve read about it in books – sometimes women sit still and drink some coffee.) My schedule that day was kind of freaking me out, so I decided not to go to bible study. When I emerged from my coffee stupor and realized that we should have left for school 5 minutes ago, I discovered that Gus had lost his shoes, socks, and pants, and both he and Molly had emptied their carefully packed backpacks and filled them with toys.
It was Gus’s day to bring snack.
Somewhere in my house there are now two perfectly good packages of microwave popcorn. Only God knows where.
We rounded up the rest of the stuff and made it to school. Then I went home, where I had ten whole minutes to eat something before running off to my personal training appointment, where my trainer lectured me about feeding my kids and eating Burger King the night before and I wasn’t even going to tell him what that day was like. Nope. It’s not even worth the effort. I just nod and say, “Yes, you are totally right, I should have given them a home cooked paleo meal.” Yep.
Then there was preschool pick up, and nap for Gus, and jump in the shower because I was gross, and then go pick up more kids, and then feed them, and then off to ballet. and then and then and then…
6. Thursday was a day of unusual chaos, but at least I had a good night sleep. So far this week I had been averaging about 6 hours of sleep which is not enough. Wednesday night I got a full 8 hours. So luxurious! Of course, that meant that I didn’t have the time to really look at what the day was holding. I had a pretty good idea, but I still ended up missing something.
Ben and Tessa left for school on time, then the youngest four kids and I headed off to the dentist. This was 21 miles away from our house. There I herded children for an hour as they each had their teeth cleaned. Then back in the car to take Max and Lily to school (29 miles the other direction) and pick up Tessa.
Of course dropping kids off and picking them up is no small job in itself. It means taking the little guys with us into the school, making everyone go to the bathroom again, situating the little kids in their classes and finding the older one at lunch. Finally, however, we were on our way. We stopped at home with just enough time for Gus to take half a nap and have a bit of lunch. Then I took Tessa, Molly, and Gus to the doctor (only 1.5 miles this time) for shots and asthma meds.
Gus was so upset his nose started bleeding. He has told us about 100 times so far that “Those shots really hurt!” He still won’t let me take the bandaids off.
Finally we were home, to stay, for hours at a time. The kids helped to clean up the house a bit (after I yelled a little, I’m ashamed to say.) I got some laundry hung to dry.
Can I just say I am SO OVER not having a dryer?
I fed them dinner, got them to bed, and talked to my husband on the phone – he was out of town for work. And he asked me, “So did Max make it to Boys Choir tonight?”
I was so close! I almost pulled off this crazy day.
7. Friday I have to figure out how to bilocate. I’m not sure what I am going to do yet. Worst case scenario is that I have to pick Gus up from preschool early. That is annoying but not deadly. But you will notice that through all this crazy week I didn’t once mention things like mopping, vacuuming, blogging (although I am sacrificing sleep to do it now) or other things that go along with running a household. I didn’t detail all of the things I did, of course, but you can see that there clearly wasn’t a whole lot else that was done. I know I have done six loads of laundry, which is not nearly enough, paid bills, and my kids haven’t gone hungry. In a frantic attempt to deal with paperwork, my dining room looks like a file cabinet threw up on it. The rest will have to wait for another day. Because…
Now, go see Jen @ ConversionDiary.com for more quick takes. Hurry, or I’ll make you wash some dishes!