Lately, and 2 Mom Stories

What was up with February?!  2 funerals (my last living grandparent, and Rob's last living grandfather), SO MUCH travel for Rob, forgetting stuff, lost car keys, lack of spousal communication, mourning, so many snow days, lots of feeling like chickens running around with our heads cut off.  Good riddance, you worthless 28 days!

So far March has been better.  We're re-focusing on peace and calm, even amidst a still-heavy travel schedule and more to do than is possible to get done.  Which is, I think, the definition of life: More to do than can ever be done.  (Dang it, Elton John!  You took my line!)

...

It's been an interesting experience, taking care of our household single-handedly most of the time.  This would have bothered me even a year ago, but somehow, it's not a big deal now.  Maybe cause now it's old hat?  Who knows.  But we still have our shining moments and our train wrecks.  I'd like to share one of each.

Train Wreck

It was a Tuesday.  Tuesdays are the worst to do alone.  I have to take Miciah to viola, which is half an hour from our house, and then come home, shove some food down everyone's faces, and head to church activities.  Well, this particular Tuesday also included a concert at the elementary school for Elijah.  This meant I had to travel from Northern Kentucky to my house in lickety split time.  I had, maybe, 15 minutes to spare.  

Miciah's viola teacher is AMAZING.  One of those people that makes you feel like you're in the presence of a wise, old soul with endless energy.  So when viola went a little late, I didn't sweat it.  Elijah could be a few minutes late to his concert.  There was set up time, blah, blah, blah.  Half an hour is what I figured I could give myself to be late.

We were finally on the road to get home and we had 15 minutes to make our 30 minute drive.  Not going to happen.  I called Elijah and he was MAD.  He started giving me major attitude and telling me how I'm awful and I was NOT in the mood to be yelled at by my 10-year-old.  "What do you want me to do?!  There's only one of me!!"  Elijah was convinced that there wasn't half an hour of play time before the concert starts.  Only 5 minutes.  What?!

I called my aunt to see if she could help me out.  No answer.  I called my trusty neighbor.  She's uncharacteristically not at home.  I called Elijah back to tell him there's nothing I can do.  He was pissed.  I was so upset at that point that I made a wrong turn off the highway and lost another 5 minutes (at least).  For real?!  I called my aunt back and she picked up that time!  She could take Elijah!!!  Finally, a break.  I called Elijah to tell him to get dressed RIGHT NOW.  "But I haven't eaten yet!"  "Too late," I told him.

Then, there's a van parked on the bridge crossing the river.  PARKED.  In one of the lanes.  Traffic was a beast.  I was so not happy at this point, but at least Elijah made it to the school.  I'd miss the concert, but whatever.  I can only do what I can do.

I got home, we all ate in 4 minutes, ran back out the door, dropped off Miciah at the church, and headed to the school to see how much of the concert we'd missed.  ...  Here's the kicker, really:  Elijah's concert hadn't even started.  Despite telling me that the concert would start 5 minutes after he was supposed to arrive, when we showed up 45 MINUTES LATER, it wasn't even close to starting.  They were still in the middle of PTA stuff!  ...  I sighed, swallowed my pride, and enjoyed the evening.

The phone call with Rob that night, though, wasn't a pleasant one.  "You were GONE, and you're ALWAYS gone, and I'm doing this by myself, and..."  

BUT!:  Viola has been moved to Thursdays.  What what?!!  Glory be.

Triumph

It's difficult to keep up with everything that needs done and when.  I've become a multi-tasking, instantly calculating, scheduling phenom.  But, sometimes, I miss stuff.  It hasn't helped that all the snow days have leant no consistency to our lives.

So this morning, when Elijah woke me up at 7:10 (!) to say, "Mom!  We forgot to buy candy!" I groaned.  

Back story:  Each class member takes a turn filling a see-through container with candy for the class to estimate.  It's for math class, right?  I'm sure you can imagine 1- the mathematical possibilities, and 2- how much the kids look forward to this.  He was supposed to bring it in last week, but the snow days pushed it to this Friday.  Two weeks to fill this thing and we STILL forgot.  Of course.

Simultaneous running plot:  Last night I had a migraine coming on right before 10:00.  The best thing to do at that point is to go to bed immediately.  Did I do that?  Of course not.  I stayed up past midnight, and by then I needed medication so I didn't puke and could actually fall asleep.  The problem:  It keeps me up for a good hour in the middle of the night.  I read a book from 3:30 - 4:30 am.

Which meant that at 7:10 am, my response was, "Sorry, buddy.  We'll have to do it next week."  

"ANOTHER week?  Mom!"

"Sorry!"

I laid in bed, trying to go back to sleep.  I was so groggy.  Besides, Rob is the morning person.  He's the one that makes emergency trips to the store, or searches for missing homework, or breaks up fights between the boys.  If it's pre-9:00 the kids know they aren't getting much from me.  But then my mom-ness started kicking in.  What kind of lazy, selfish person can't get out of bed to run to the store (which is 2 minutes driving time from my house)?

I popped out of bed, put on my pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt.  I didn't even look myself over in the mirror.  I just ran out the door on a mission.  I put more individually wrapped, non-peanut, braces-friendly candy in my arms than he could possibly fit into that container and sprinted over to check out.

But then, standing in front of the cashier, I suddenly thought about how ridiculous I looked.  I'm in my pajamas, hair's a mess, no bra, just-woke-up look in my eyes, and I have $21 worth of candy in my arms.  For the first time ever I looked at the cashier and said, "Don't judge!"  He just laughed and I didn't explain a thing.  Moms on missions don't have time to explain!

Elijah and I counted out candies on the living room floor and he still had plenty of time to finish getting ready.  Right before I headed back to bed, to rest for a little longer, Elijah gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks, Mom."

The plot twist?  The class didn't have time to do the Estimate Jar today.  Figures.  Super Mom can't control it all!