5:00 AM: Yawn! Time for bed!
7:45 AM: Those three hours were totally refreshing. Who needs all this 8-hour stuff?! Get up, get the kids up, make breakfast, then throw on a hoodie to take Jon to work and drop Saturn off for Safety inspection. Drive back, pick up first Diet Coke of the day (I know, ok?).
8:40 AM: Kids are out the door for school. Notice that James sneaked out of the house wearing a shirt of Christopher’s that he covets and has been told repeatedly is too small for him and that he still has bed head. Wonder if repeated bed head on children is some sort of red flag for a DCF visit.
9:00 AM: Showered and flossed, it is time to start the day! Work!! Go, Nepal!!!
9:03 AM: Get phone call from Jonathan reminding me that he tested the hose on new washing machine that he installed yesterday before work and that it is ok to start the eleventyhundred piles of laundry that accumulated in the 5 days our washer broke down on laundry day. Realize that I will have to move those eleventyhundred piles in from the kitchen where we moved it to make room for the machine to be put in.
9:05 AM: Cursing about just HOW enormous eleventyhundred piles of laundry IS.
9:15 AM: Answer the door to my neighbor requesting to borrow sugar. Try to be inconspicuous about trying to hide a stray hot pink bra that I missed. :S
9:45 AM: Stare at temporary washer and regret how much smaller it is. Start one of many, many loads of laundry that I will keep going through out the day (And night!).
10:00AM: Go into kitchen and look at huge pile of dishes in the sink. (Again, I know, ok? I never claimed to be a great house keeper.)Recall just how much I hate doing dishes and calculate how many dishes accumulate over 3 days. The obvious answer is, of course, eleventyhundred. Unload the dishwasher.
10:15 AM: Start load of dishes. Contemplate hand washing the rest. Say, “Screw it” and make toast instead. Decide that the rest can be added to the kid’s slave labor chore list.
10:30 AM: Sit down with toast and begin sketching out to do list for sherpa website. Contact Jonathan to remotely install Microsoft office on computer. Research all things Nepalese. Review notes from conference call and complete To Do List. Thank the fates that it is is mailed off at the same instant my phone rings for a progress report. Realize that I LOVE DOING THIS.
12:15 PM: Stop work to gather photos, toys, books, and family portrait for a presentation in Christopher’s class to spotlight him.
12:30 PM: Go over to the school to volunteer in Christopher’s classroom. Correct math tests. Notice that Christopher needs help in fractions. Remember just how much I suck a duck at fractions and curse my right-brainedness.
1:30 PM: Give Christopher’s class the presentation all about him. Kids being kids, they glom on to the one statement Christopher made about his brother dying. Answer questions about Matthew and listen to many stories from sweet little ones about babies that “Died in their mommies tummies”. Manage to stay composed somehow while receiving sympathetic glances from the teacher.
2:30 PM: Realize that I never ate lunch and scarf down half a bag of Sweet Thai Chili chips while I go through my daily emails. Star those that need replies. Wonder when I will have a spare moment to actually get to it. Also wonder if I can bribe my lovely British reader I am doing an exchange with with more Twinkies to see if she can get a hold of the red onion relish I devoured in the Lake District.
3:20 PM: The kiddies storm in from school. Give huggies, kissies and hear about their day.
3:30 PM: Finish conversation with James about the difference between bullying and teasing. Try to explain why I can’t call the principal because he was told he shoots hoops like a girl at recess. Secretly fantasize about shoving the teaser into a tutu and taping him to a flagpole. Worry about what kind of person that makes me, exactly.
3:35 PM: Look through the kid’s backpack while they begin their homework. Remove wadded up homework, discarded lunch baggies and stray fruit snacks covered with crushed bits of Ranch flavored Doritos.
3:55 PM: Realize that I have 5 minutes to get James to get his first round of allergy shots before they close. Try to assure an increasingly alarmed, needle-phobic James on the drive over that it “Won’t be that bad”. Try not to have brain explode when I think that I will have to repeat this experience 1-2 times a week for the next three years because my son is horribly allergic to just about everything. Mourn for a moment that we can never, ever, own fluffy, flop-eared bunnies.
4:05 PM: Charge through the clinic door with a half hysterical James and almost plow over a little old lady with a walker trying to stop James from bolting back out the exit. Apologize to little old lady and her walker and haul my children up the stairs because we missed the elevator. Get to the clinic desk only to be told that they are not giving shots today due to training. Barely resist the urge to slam my forehead on clinic counter when I realize that this means that I will have to repeat the whole damn process tomorrow.
4:15 PM: Arrive home and start kids on homework. Curse that I don’t have a printer. Curse harder when I realize that I am married to a computer geek that at one time had EIGHT printers in his office. Inwardly curse homework louder than my children when the daily proclamations of how unfair homework is begins.
5:00 PM: Get phone call from mechanic about car. Get news that the repairs we had done to it were not effective and that the engine is totally shot. Put down car and try not to sob and curse for the billionth time today. Remember that Jon is taking the boys to pack meeting tonight and that I will have two uninterrupted hours to work. YAY!
6:00PM: Defrost chicken for dinner of teriyaki chicken bowls and put rice in the rice cooker. Get phone call from Jonathan that he is trying to finish a project and will not be home in time to take the kids to pack meeting. BOO! Try to not rip his head off and explain how to finish dinner for all of us when he gets home. Hang up the phone and try not to mourn the lost “Alone time”.
6:30 PM: Frantically look for thread that is not yellow to sew on a button that popped off Christopher’s scout shirt.
6:40 PM: Run out the door and pack the kids into the car for the drive up to the church house that we used to attend. Try to reply calmly and with understanding when Christopher comments that he goes to church with his grandmother now and that we haven’t been to this church since he was FIVE! GEESH, Mom! Answer further questioning about when we are going to stop being heathens and go back to church with an honest answer: “I.Don’t. Know.”
6:45 PM: Arrive 15 minutes late to pack meeting about American Indians. Make feathered headbands and story vests and get welcome and instruction on how to enter a tepee correctly. Have a blast with my boys and watch them do relay’s, stack campfires, and make dream catchers. Look downright dorkalicious when doing the cheer for Christopher when he receives his merit badge.
7:35 PM: Receive phone call from very sick and puking sister asking me if I can take my very fussy great-niece for the night because everyone in their house is ill. Agree, and try not to sound totally tired and stressed out.
7:50 PM: Arrive home with baby and hyper children keyed up from eating too much Indian Fry Bread. Realize that Jonathan is still not home and that there is no dinner ready.
8:00 PM: Try to do dishes while cursing earlier decision to not finish them, hold fussy baby and keep chicken from burning on stove.
8:20 PM: Put dinner on the table for the kids. Bathe a messy, fussy, barfy little Ellie. Try not to freak out when I realize that she is exactly the same age Matthew was when he died.
8:30 PM: Take a huge breath of relief when Jonathan comes home. Bring him his food while he troubleshoots my nephew’s laptop. Feed Ellie a bottle while trying my best to simultaneously eat.
8:45 PM: Give up on trying to eat and turn my full attention to getting the tiny barf bucket I’m holding to calm down and stop crying already! Go over bills with Jonathan.
9:00 PM: Tell the kids to go to bed. Realize that I didn’t have them brush their teeth. Realize that I don’t give a damn. Watch The Office on the couch with Jonathan (Who is still paying bills) and the baby (Who is still being a fussy barf bucket). Send a prayer of thankfulness that while I was quite a dork growing up, my hero’s were NOT famous table tennis stars.
9:25 PM: Start watching “Scrubs” while folding the Mount Everest pile of freshly laundered clothing.
9:30 PM: Ask the children to be quiet and go to sleep. Try to get the baby to stop crying.
9: 45 PM: Ask Jonathan to ask the children to be quiet and go to sleep. Try to get the baby to stop crying.
10:05 PM: Yell at the children to BE QUIET! And GO THE FREAK TO SLEEP ALREADY! Try to get the baby to stop crying.
10:24 PM: Ask Jonathan to yell at the children to BE QUIET! And GO THE FREAK TO SLEEP ALREADY!! Envy the intimidating projection of my bass husband. Try to get the baby to stop crying.
10:30 PM: ELLIE IS ASLEEP!
10:35 PM: Not.
10:40 PM: YES!
10:55 PM: NO!!
11:15 PM: YES!!! Maybe??? Please????? Whew. It really may be happening.
11:30 PM: Return from “Emergency” Ben and Jerry’s run. You know that things are dire when I break out the “Chunky Monkey”.
11:35 PM: Spoon in hand, I open up the laptop and allow myself until midnight to try and catch up on blog reading.
Midnight: Put away the folded piles of clothes on the bed so that Jonathan can go to sleep and then let the work begin. Hopefully I can get in a few hours of research and writing for the sherpa website before Ellie wakes up for her feeding and I crash and burn and die. Try not to think that all of this starts all over again tomorrow.
Sigh…
Stumble it!
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