Some Days Are Like That

Let me tell you about a morning I had last week, and why I like my happy pills.

I wake up in the morning to get breakfast on the table and open up the dishwasher to smelly dirty dishes, because Melissa didn’t start the dishwasher the night before. I look around and realize that also last night, no one cleaned the living room. I really need a shower, but because my preschool plan isn’t ready for the day and the house is messy, there’s no time. A few minutes before Melissa has to go to school, she realizes her homework isn’t done. She needs to finish it and then emails it to me so I can print it, because the printer in her room doesn’t work. Apparently, neither does the email because we have to go back and forth several times to get it done. Meanwhile, I have to send her carpool away because it’s taking too long, so I will now have to take her to school. She also remembers another assignment she needs to do and asks if I have colored pencils. It takes me a few minutes to find them in my primary bag. I give them to her in a Ziploc bag so she won’t drop them. She finds a way to hold the bag upside down and drop them anyway as we are leaving the house. I realize time is short so I try to take a different route to school thinking it will be faster. I find out I’m wrong. Then we get there and I find out her first period is seminary, so she could have skipped it or been late without much trouble, but by now it’s too late for me to change anything. I get back home and find that Shannen and Noelle are not ready for school as I had instructed them to be upon my return. Shannen has made her own lunch and now has jam on her white shirt. Noelle is wearing a new skirt that is too big for her so I need to sew up the back. Shannen’s skirt needs to be ironed, but there’s no time. Shannen has to do her own hair, and does okay, but not perfect. I start to do Noelle’s hair and find out that she has bubble gum in her hair that last night “popped out of my mouth and landed in my hair”. I do the best I can to make it look good for school. On my way out the door to school, the guy doing the insulation in our home addition shows up early, so I have to get out of the car to unlock the door for him. We are already running late. I think we’ll get there in just the right amount of time. Shannen is worried, but I tell her there are six minutes before her bell rings so she should be okay. Three minutes later, as I drive away from the school, the bell rings. I realize the school’s clock is faster than mine so I can no longer time it to the minute. Guess she’ll be late today. I come home to see new gopher holes in my front yard.

Two years ago, I would have cancelled preschool, eaten a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and run away. Today I can smile and just say to myself, “some days are like that.”