Today is the Tomorrow that You Worried about Yesterday

For some reason, it was especially difficult to wrap my head around the whole 'school is back in session thing' on Sunday night. Oddly, it's already the third week of school for us here. Yet, the night before last was the toughest of nights.

I thought I was ready. I felt ready. I WAS ready. Ready to get back into some semblence of a routine. Ready to get the kids to bed earier. Ready to help with homework and assist those spongey little brains in soaking up more and more stuff.

But, Sunday night I just found myself saying, "NO! DON'T WANNA!!!"

Ever have nights like that? I was not ready for the kids to go to school and David to go to work. I was not ready for a Monday. The weekend was a great balance of lulls and chaos. We got enough accomplished to be satisfied but not so much that we had no down time. (There aren't a lot of weekends where I can actually say that, either!) We'd had a nice dinner (courtesy of David...which totally rocked because I hadn't planned a THING besides the rotisserie chicken we had picked up while shopping) and I realized it was already getting late. It was time to get the girls into bed and and I just plum did not feel like it!

Even when I lucked out AGAIN and David actually did all the bedtime stuff with them (they were having a 'Daddy weekend' anyway and just wanted him to do things for them) I could have used that time to prepare for the morning. It doesn't take long to get most of the lunch stuff together the night before, but those seconds saved in the morning rush are PRECIOUS. Nope. Didn't do it. Given that I've not been sleeping as much as I should, I could have just gone to bed earlier and gotten some much needed rest.

Any guesses? NOPE! Didn't do that either!

I'm actually trying to remember what I DID do. Hmmm...

Anyhow, Monday came on fast and furious. An event that happened on Saturday did make my Monday a little more complicated. 14YO was at a local waterpark with her friends and she slipped and fell. No bones were broken or anything like that, but she landed on her FACE of all things and her eye was nearly swollen to the size of a golf ball by the time she got home. Her arm was hurting her too, but she could move it just fine and no bruises were visible. Her eye startled us when we first saw it. 7YO even started to cry! 14YO was horrified that this was happening to her 9th grade face.

So, I gave in and let 14YO stay home from school. I wanted to get her into the doctor anyway to get her elbow looked at. It was still hurting her more than it seemed like it should and it was starting to swell a little. A morning appointment at the pediatrician's office resulted in an Ace Bandange for her sprained elbow and a lollipop. (4YO got one too! SCORE!) 14YO's eye is not so much swollen now as it is PURPLE. Amongst yesterday's adventures, we stopped by Target and got eyeliner and eyeshadow to match the bruises. We even got some matching nail polish...you know, just for kicks! Except for the swelling that's still there (not to mention the part of her eyebrow that was scraped off by the pavement and its resulting scab) she looks pretty normal today.

So, by the time I'd run my two girls around, stopped by the high school to take the doctor's note, and picked up 7YO from school, most of my day was gone. And the overwhelming piles of dishes and laundry were growing by the minute. (I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure the cat helped himself to a bowl of cereal and used at least 6 different cups while we were out.) But, those things still had to wait because 7YO needed help with her homework and 4YO had to get ready for soccer practice. Dinner? No time for that either.

FROZEN BEAN BURRITOS TO THE RESCUE!!!

I sat down toward the end of my day feeling exhausted, yet like I didn't really accomplish ANYTHING. Someone had turned the treadmill that I normally run on up to high and it kicked my arse. I guess the important things were done. The kids ate and all the homework that needed to be done was finished.

Poor David could have walked into a war zone when he got home! I looked around my house and saw all that had not been accomplished. I was just WAITING for him to say, "So, what'd you do today?" as he walked in the door. I was ready for a fight. My initial plan was to avoid it altogether and just go to bed early. The kids had all eaten and were in bed and I was way more tired than hungry. We had plenty of leftovers in the fridge, too. As I opened up the refrigerator, I saw a few items that I could easily toss together to make a decent dinner for David and myself. Since the really overwhelming part of making dinner is figuring out what to actually make, it was easy to throw a quick meal together for the two of us.

Just so you know, David didn't use any 'fighting words' when he walked in the door. Plus, I had cooled myself down dramatically by the time he actually got here. All the stuff that needed to be done could wait until tomorrow. And since today is that tomorrow that I worried about yesterday, my kitchen is clean and the last load of laundry is in the dryer. Control is slowly becoming mine again. For now, anyway!

But you just never know what that pesky TOMORROW will bring!