Today's Goals

I awoke to the smell of coffee brewing, still half dreaming of a relaxed day reading and writing. When I heard the chaos in my kitchen, I lowered the goal to reading a few chapters in my most recent "how-to write" book.

My son's coughing told me he would be staying home from school for the 6th day in a row.

"You didn't wake me up!" my seven-year screamed at her older brother, her human alarm clock. She was running late for school and we'd all overslept. Bliss.

After driving her to school, delivering my 4-year-old to preschool, and administering cough medicine to my oldest, I promptly sent him to bed with Harry Potter in his hands and saddled up to the computer.

I edited a few lines of my book and remembered an email I needed to send to a teacher. I read a critique of one of my chapters from my online critique group, which somehow reminded me to call my daughter's school. Going down the stairs to retrieve the phone, I noticed large clumps of missing leaves on a houseplant as I simultaneous heard my dog throw them up on the carpet. Nice.

Clean up dog puke. Feed whining cats. Change the laundry while in the laundry room. Call daughter's school and field two more phone calls pertaining to various carpools later in the day (three today).

Edit one chapter and discover nagging writing question. Formulate email to online critique group. Remember email I have put off sending to the school principal and superintendent (separate blog for that).

Time to pick up the preschooler. Drive into town to return library movies. Make lunch. Change laundry. Run dishwasher. Move book out of the way as I wipe down the counters. Medicate child. Throw ball for dog.

Time to pick up daughter and run carpool to Girl Scouts. Upon returning, I make an afternoon snack of pumpkin bread and PICK UP THE BOOK!

"Mom? I need help."

Assist son with homework, push daughter out door to gymnastics carpool. Fix bathroom toilet which will not stop running. Plunge other bathroom toilet which will not start running. Change laundry. Feed snacks to kids. Help with additional homework. Fix problem with computer. Pick up book. Think about how it's now 6 p.m. and wonder what happened to the day. Decide to share the chaos of it with fellow moms on my blog for proper appreciation, using aforementioned book as desktop for my spiral notebook as I write.

Maybe I'll get to that book after dinner, or showers, or bedtime stories. Maybe tomorrow. And who can guess when I'll get this blog entry typed up.

Refueling the Cells

I had a great day. After a casual effort to supervise the older two kids prepare and exit for school, I spent a little time performing yoga and strength training on the WII before showering and leaving my husband as the PIC (parent in charge) while I sat through two hours of cut, color, and conversation (none of which involved the words 'potty' 'stop that' or 'I'm talking, please say excuse me')

With a box full of girl scout cookies which needed delivered, I used the afternoon to take an extended lunch with my sister, niece, and friend, followed by short visits with a few other friends and some shopping (the kind where I spend a leisurely hour in Kmart where I only walk out with a handful of things and a relaxed smile on my face.)

At length, my two hour hair appointment earned me six hours of "me" time. I arrived home shopping-weary, but rejuvenated. So here's the rub. My recharged motherly patience lasted a net of about an hour before I was raising my voice and threatening extra chores. Shouldn't there be some sort of reserve where we mothers can put all the good intentions that pass through our minds as we get a pedicure so we can pull them out when our child faces us defiantly and screams, "No. I won't do it and you can't make me!"?