The Good, the Bad, and the Mundane

I'm not sure whether I'm staying remotely faithful to my blog title. These are the kind of small things I worry about.

So, in keeping with the motherhood angle of the title, here goes. It's a sort of modified day in the life of a working mom.

5 a.m.-- Wake up. Wonder at the fact that I've not been woken up earlier by Son2 who's had a migraine for 48 hours and has been in my room standing by the side of my bed the past two mornings at approximately 3:30, gripping his head in blinding pain. Phew. Maybe it's over.

5:30 -- Get up, go downstairs and realize immediately that the fire is out in the woodstove. It's freezing. Feed cats who are behaving as if they haven't eaten in weeks. Make coffee!

5:40 -- Try to pray, but that proves elusive for some reason. Brain overload or something. Read Bible until it's time to make lunches.

6:30 -- Make lunches. Ten minutes out of the day that I really hate. Where are all the lunchboxes? Why didn't everyone put their cold packs back in the freezer? Wait! Someone (Son1) left the freezer ajar last night. Great. Load lunchboxes with water, apples, packs of chips, a different sandwich for everyone, and squeezable yogurt. Say thanks that it's done for another day. If I was wealthy and school lunches were healthy and vegetarian, then I'd have my kids buy lunch every day.

7:22 --I say to Son1 before he walks out the door, "why are you wearing your new basketball shoes?" He says, "Because my sneakers have poop on them and the other ones smell because they got all wet." Lovely. Why do his sneakers have poop on them? Because he and his brothers don't pick up after the dog out in the yard like they're supposed to.

7:27 -- They've left for school. Breathe deeply and remember what work I need to get done.

7:30 -- E-mail, work, exercise, shower, laundry, and so forth. Get a decent amount of work done but avoid a project that I don't feel like starting.

1:30 p.m. -- Leave the house to do errands. This includes buying a bizarre assortment of items for the boys. Sweatpants for Son3 because he's playing in this flag football league after school on Wednesdays and he doesn't have a pair of sweatpants that aren't way too short. Son1 needs a calculator that does sin and cosin (sp?). We didn't have those calculators when we were kids. In fact, I'm fairly certain we were never allowed to use a calculator. He also needs posterboard for a history project presentation, and I need to buy a toner cartridge because our toner is low and he'll have to print out a million things. Of course, he's known about this for weeks, but he'll be putting together the project tonight -- the night before it's due.

3:00 -- Get to school and dispense cash to Son1 and Son2 for snacks because I've forgotten to bring any. Sit on the freezing cold metal bleachers for the next hour and a half to watch Son3 play flag football. Miss his touchdown because I'm so engrossed in another mom's story about her oldest son's concussion. With three sons I figure it's important to listen to someone describe in vivid detail the signs of a concussion. Decide to pretend I saw the touchdown since I saw him make some other plays.

4:28 -- Find out from another parent that my child doesn't need POSTER board, he needs a presentation board. Realize I will now have to take my freezing and starving children back to Staples before we can go home.

5:10 -- Driving home after the day's second visit to Staples, Son2 pipes up from the back seat, "Do you have any medicine with you?" Feel my stomach sink.

And so it goes. We get home, I proceed to direct everyone to their work and help Son2 get comfortable on the couch. Son3 has math, history, vocab, Bible, and science homework. History and science involve me helping him look information up online. What are three natural resources of Maryland? Name three important dates in Maryland's history. Find a picture of a place you like to visit in Maryland. Why does this take so long? Fortunately, the science isn't due until Friday. Let's procrastinate! Gee all you'll have to do tomorrow night is write a half-page paper about the Sycamore tree, collect a twig and some leaves, and draw a picture. No problem.Hopefully there won't be too much other homework. Finally I send him to bed at 8:30 to study his Bible verse.

Son2 has fallen asleep on the couch. He's too big to carry. I have to wake him up and he does the class drunken sailor weave through the house and up the steps. He climbs up to his bunk and is immediately back in a deep sleep. I have to wake him again to get him to swallow his migraine meds. Phew.

Son1 will be working until 10:40 p.m on his history presentation. With my help. Printing. Cutting. Glueing. There's nothing like the last minute.

Can't wait to get up and make lunches in the morning.