Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A sticky situation

I woke up in a jam when I heard Savanna whisper to me, "Mom aren't you going to get up?"

I sat upright grabbed my phone and checked the time. How did I sleep in? I set the alarm. Checked it. Then checked it again. Made sure I had it set for AM, not PM.  Are you sure it's set? Checked it one more time. I am much more of an evening person than a morning kind of girl, and I depend so much on Jay in the morning. But Jay had been out of town. So I was on my own.

Well apparently during my checking in triplicate I had managed to turn the alarm off.
It would not be such a big deal sleeping in a bit except for this day.  I had left the kitchen a mess and figured I would take care of things sometime the next day. Only things changed a little as I headed to bed. Jay had been out of town and would be coming home the next day. I got a call from him saying that he would see me around 11. I was thinking that I had until at least 2:30 before I had to be at the airport. 

On a regular morning I would have time to take care of things. But not this morning.
This morning is not a normal morning. It is Mornings with Mom at the school. A special time to go have a gooey treat and milk with your kids before you send them off to class on a sugar high. We need to leave for school a little early to be able to have time to eat gooey treat before school starts. Oh there is also extra lunches to make, because its ZOO field trip day, for Luke who normally does not take a lunch. And I need to make one for me and Tucker. 
So I hustle out of bed and quickly get ready. I assign Luke to unload the dishwasher and I got started on our lunches.

I hear a crash from behind me. I turn around to find a broken jam container on the floor. Jam and crushed glass are all over-----really-----all over the floor. How does one clean up jam and glass in a hurry?

I do the best I can and move on to making breakfast- the kids must have something healthy in them before eating their doughnuts at school. I make the eggs (with cracking help from Savanna) and proceed to make our morning fruit smoothie. I could not find the lid, so I substituted with a plate. Its worked in the past. But not today. I must have had more water in the blender this time because that's what shot up out of the sides of the blender. Water mixed with sticky fruit. And what goes up, must come down. It went up the cabinets, and down the cabinets, and the floor. 

I wiped up yet again another sticky mess, then rushed the kids through their eggs, had them brush their teeth and sent them to the car with a smoothie in hand.

We all load in the car and Luke spills his smoothie. ALL over his booster seat. I thought I was leaving the sticky mess's inside the house, but they are following me to the car. We swap the booster seat out for the "spare" and clean up his pants.

Off to school to get more sticky with doughnuts.  We make it inside and there is no line because we are running so late! (the bright shiny part of the morning)

Doughnuts consumed we take our sticky selves to class. And wait to go on the fieldtrip. I head out to the car to dress Tucker (and de-stickify him) It is still drizzling out. I can hardly wait to go to the zoo- in the humidity and drizzle. Just more stickiness. 

The zoo was, well- the zoo. Only wetter and smellier and stickier than I remember. I hurried Luke along, and broke it to him gently that we would need to leave a little early to get Dad.

We left the zoo, wiped hands and faces once we got to the car. Picked up Jay, brought him home, put Tucker down for a nap, then Jay down too. I then focused my thoughts on cleaning up all the stickiness from earlier. Plus the other normal dirtiness of a family of six. 
I scrubbed. I swept. I washed. I dried. I tidied. Things sparkled. Things shined. My home was practically singing it was so happy.

Then it was time to go get the other kids from school.

Within moments of getting home with everyone, the house was back to its messy state. There were crumbs everywhere from chips. Dip on the table, drinks spilled.
I was starting to feel a little bugged. I felt like I had done good managing my emotions all day. But now? Not so much. Why go through all the work of cleaning up to have it all be messy again?

Jay picked up on my mood and not understanding the events of the day said ..." Everything alright? I am sensing a little tension."

Hmmmm-

6 comments:

Kristie said...

How is it you managed to type all that without yelling? or cursing? I don't think I would have handled it as calmly as you!! :)

If it makes you feel any better, we forget to get up early also, and had our "morning with mom" around our own kitchen table.

Neighbor Jane Payne said...

I thought you were a saint as I read this. Truly. I would have cried. No, that's not right, I would have hollered and made everyone else cry.

I'm so glad you posted this Alisa. You'll love reading and rereading this someday.

April said...

I would have TOTALLY freaked out, if I had this morning. Of course, my children would have gotten cold cereal instead of eggs and smoothies...

I'm glad you made it through the day! One day we will miss all of the mess - right?

vgsmom said...

That would have sent me into a tailspin with much yelling and tears. Never would have made it to the school for breakfast. You are a mighty warrior.

3boysmom said...

Wow, I had no idea when I saw you at the zoo that you'd had such a rough morning! I lucked out because Connor and Coby told me that rather than get up early for their "morning with mom" they'd rather sleep in and have me make muffins. I happily obliged!

I know I told you last week I'd come out of lurking and leave you a comment. I'm making good on my word!

I hope today has been a better day for you.

Michelle Heath

TheBMillers said...

oh my - what a day.. and it does always seem to follow you when something like that happens.. it sets the course of the day.. I would like to know your response to Jay's statement though?? lol and yes you get GOLD STARs for still making them eggs with smoothie's making it to donuts AND still hitting the zoo.. all in a mornings work by 11 to get the hubby from the air port! Nice work!

Barbi