Sometimes my friends and family who have one or less children say things to me like 'I don't know how you do it with three kids' or 'How do you keep it all together' or even the occasional well meaning, but so misguided 'you are supermom'. These things are really nice to hear and give me a tiny boost of confidence when I sometimes need it most. And there are certainly occasional moments that I feel like I've got it together and managing well, but most of the time it's not that easy.
I remember when Scott loaded all the kids up early one December morning, Riley was just one and Scooter was 2 1/2, to drive all the way to Rockwall for the Christmas parade and then pancakes with Santa and craft time at his mom's church for the day with his sisters and their daughters. I was happy to stay at home and be warm, but I sent him off with a full diaper bag and was somehow rewarded title of 'hero' by my hubby for having the bag full of fruit bars and peanut butter crackers. No one else had thought of snacks and all the kids (and parents) were grateful for the eats when they spent hours out in the cold. I think it was just luck. The other moms just had older kids and hadn't thought through the process in a while, and it was second nature for me at that time. I wasn't really a hero, just a well practiced mother who had learned the hard way what to take on any outing with my two toddlers.
And truthfully, most of the time I am just winging it. I've just gotten pretty good at the winging it thing. Sometimes I've got it together and am well prepared and organized which can make it look like (to the untrained eye) that I am super mom. Other times, well, not so much. Most of the time I actually just feel like I'm holding on by a thread. This past weekend was one of those times and in the spirit of honesty and forthrightness - I am going to tell you all about it. So you can have a good laugh at my expense.
On Friday morning after my minor temper tantrum, I tried to regain my composure and start my day. I thought I was doing good - ahead of schedule even. I bundled the kids up and tried to leave, but I couldn't find my car keys ANYWHERE. I eventually located the valet key and just assumed we wouldn't lock the front door. Five minutes wasted and we got out to the car. Only to discover that the van was covered in ice. I started the engine and the defrosters and realized quickly that if I didn't help it along we were going to be late. Ok, scraper. No scraper. Hmmmm - that's right, now I remember! Last year when we had that late burst of cold in March, my scraper/brush broke. I needed a new one, but that was 9 months ago and I completely forgot about it.
I trudged back in the house and luckily found my keys while I was scrambling around looking for something with which to scrape my windows. I finally settled on a metal spatula. That's right. That was me. The crazy woman in her driveway, scraping ice off of her windows with a cooking utensil. We finally got in the car and were ready to go when I glanced at my fuel meter and remembered that I didn't have any gas. My plan had been to go out the night before to buy printer ink and fill my car up, but I hadn't felt super well so I had stayed home instead. Now, I had to put gas in my car in 20 degree cold.
At the gas station, I tried to find an ice scraper, but no luck. I pumped the gas and froze my tush off and at this point I was no longer ahead of schedule, but close to behind schedule. My plan had been to go through McDonalds close to the hair place for coffee and hash browns. It's a treat for the kids they get to help them suffer through the wait for my hair dye to set. Except that at this point my hands were frozen and I didn't want to wait for my coffee so we got our goodies at Burger King by our house instead. Traffic then sucked so I showed up for my appointment 15 minutes late, but thankfully Liz is family and so she is required to forgive me.
Fast forward a few hours and my hair is done and Riley has crashed out for a rare, but long nap. So I didn't get the shopping done. But when he woke up at 2:30 (after peeing in my bed so that I now had to change my sheets) I decided to bundle up the kids for a quick errand. I still needed printer ink and I thought that it would be nice to meet Tyler at his bus stop and save him the walk home in an effort to apologize for my outburst that morning. We scrambled out the door and down the road to Office Max where I realized that I had forgotten to check the cartridge number before I left. I floundered around for a while and then remembered my printer number so I could get the ink. We piled back in the car and drove to wait for Tyler.
Just so you know - Tyler was very surprised and very happy to see us and the first words out of his mouth when he got in the car were an apology for the morning. So were mine. Such a great kid!!!!
As soon as I got home, I realized that I had remembered the printer number for my old printer and I had the wrong ink. Urgh. So, I went back to Office Max to exchange it for the correct number and then a rare treat - Taco Cabana for dinner, which I really needed so I didn't have to cook at this point. Now it was almost 7 p.m., pretty late for this family to be doing dinner, but it was Friday and it had been hectic. Sometime after 9 I headed back to the office to switch out the ink, only to discover that I had bought the right number cartridge, but that I had gotten color instead of black ink. I have plenty of color ink, but the black is seriously empty. AAARRGH.
I was frustrated, yes, but the weekend was just going to get better! The next morning, I was ready to hit Office Max once again for the ink. But then I dropped my phone on the kitchen floor (which is just concrete right now). The back flew off and when I put it back on and plugged into the charger, I got nothing. Nada. The phone was dead, wouldn't turn on, wouldn't anything. Not good. I need my phone. We have no land line, my phone is my connection to the rest of the world. I grabbed my purse and hit the door running, first Sprint and then Office Max.
Okay, getting to Sprint took an extra 20 minutes because Hwy 75 has been 'fixed', but I didn't know it was finished and I screwed up and couldn't get southbound on the service road until I was 3 exits north of where I was supposed to be, but I ran in and found a tech and slightly out of breath said 'my phone broke and I need it fixed, please help - I have a protection plan'. I was already trying to remember where my kids had left my old phone they were playing with, thinking I could use that one for a couple of days while I waited for a new one. The tech opened the back of the phone and said 'Do you have a battery?' Really? The thing had flown out when it dropped and I hadn't seen it against the almost black backdrop of my concrete floors. Okay, idiot leaving the building now.
I made it back to Office Max for the 3rd time in 12 hours and discovered they didn't carry my ink in black at all. But they did have the Office Max version at a very decent price. I bought it, came home and guess what? Not Compatible with my printer!!!!! At this point I was ready to cry, but I called Scotty and caught him as he was leaving the park with the kids and enroute to Home Depot. I convinced him to stop at Staples for my ink. He and the kids were proud to exclaim to me when they got home that they found the right one (Scott pointed out that it only took him one stop to do it). Finally, ink. I can print.
I needed the ink to print coupons so that I could go shopping. I spent the next several hours printing coupons and getting very frustrated with my computer. For some reason it won't let one of the best e-coupon sites print. I even upgraded some of my 'cleaning and maintaining' software to make this happen. I did a defrag on the thing, no luck. Eventually, I decided to make do with what I had and head out for the deals I had found and for our groceries for the week. I was finally ready to go grocery shopping at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon, not my first choice.
I had 3 stops to make: Target, Albertsons and Kroger. I was doing this because I knew I could get some pretty good deals and save money. Normally, I wouldn't do it all in one day, but my schedule was shot at this point. I got to Target and spent 45 minutes walking around and finding the items I was getting for 50-75% off. I was pretty proud of myself as I handed my coupons to the checker and watched the dollars peel off of my total. Right up until the moment that I opened my purse.
Remember the part where I upgraded my software? That had required a card for payment and my wallet. Which was still sitting on my computer desk next to the printer. I couldn't pay for my stupid groceries.
The checker suspended my ticket and I left my groceries sitting there and drove home. When I pulled in, Scott was outside getting something from his truck. He said 'I was just going to text you that we need bread'. I know, I told him, I was buying bread. In fact, I was buying 6 loaves to stick in the freezer because I was getting it for 80 cents a loaf (super discount), but I forgot my wallet and couldn't pay for it! Oh honey, he said, I think you need about 2 days of sleep. Yep.
3 hours later, I made it home and unloaded my groceries. I had saved about $150 for my efforts and my kids thought I was super mom because one of my super deals was Star Wars fruit snacks. But I was D-O-N-E, DONE!
Sunday was a lot smoother except for the moment that both Liz and I forgot we had pastry in the oven for our impromptu brunch and they almost burned. And the Packers won - going to the Super Bowl, BABY! Pot Roast cooked all day in the crock pot and when we sat down to dinner I looked like a hero again. But, most of the time I'm not a hero, I am just winging it and hanging on by a thread.
Thanks and God Bless!
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