I was so excited to start my day today. I had a SLEW of east coast calls to make which meant that I could start calling at 7 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. (Typically I only get in about 30 minutes of calls in the morning before everyone starts stirring but today I was set up to get in an entire 1 1/2 hours of calls....yippee!)
At 5:50 a.m. the descent into the bowels of hell began....I had just woken John and I was preparing to get in a rare shower without an audience of 1 - 4 children, when I heard a faint knock on the bathroom door. It was Elijah.
"Why'd you wake me up?" he said.
"I didn't wake you Eli," I replied.
"Yes, you did...with the shower."
And so it began. I never did get in the shower. I got no peace & quiet in the early morning hours. However, with only one awake I was still able to get a few calls in (especially when the one is an older child and not Hannah). So at 7 o'clock with Elijah snuggled on the couch under a blanket I began my east coast calls....it should have been a sign, but I didn't recognize the omen: first 3 calls were companies/schools whose voicemail greetings indicated they were not open until 8:30 or 9 a.m. EST. By 7:20 I had only gotten in about 2 calls and all 4 of the children were up an hour early.
By 9:00 a.m. (CST) I was ready to rip my hair out. We had been through 3 meals already: cereal, then some pot pies, finally some turkey sandwiches (possibly they were just having a 3 course breakfast? idk). There was screaming and violence and great gnashing of teeth (some of it was even from the children).
Finally I gave up and walked away from my desk. I decided a break to shovel up some of the mess on the ground would be nice. I grumbled my way through straightening up the lower level, including a not very patient lesson for the children on "Why I don't like to buy granola bars." (I found 4 granola bar wrappers and 2 uneaten halves of granola bars behind the recliner. Littering and waste are not life lessons I'm trying to teach.)
It was a glorious morning, and I have been behind the 8 ball trying to get work accomplished while starting Journal & AWANA time instead of completing my work prior to having them start school. Now I am making a huge batch of homemade soup because I need some comfort food. While it's cooking, I need to get to emptying and reloading the dishwasher, changing the loads in the washer & dryer, and teaching math.
But don't cry for me Argentina, things are actually looking up....this morning I was seriously planning my getaway complete with a change of hairstyle and color to complete my disguise. It isn't even noon and I'm already back to just wishing I could have a real vacation.
Yeah! It's hump day!
