Saturday, October 09, 2004

Help

If you find my mind, will you please UPS it back to me? Thanks.

This morning at 8:15 a.m., I agreed to watch a friend's two sons (ages 3 and 4.5). The husband said, "What you doing from 9 to 1?" And I said, "Just hanging out." And he asked if I would watch the kids from 9 to 1:30 or 2:00. (Did you notice how the time immediately changed once he had me committed? Guess what this guy does for a living?**) I said, "All right, no problem," because I had no plans to go anywhere anyway. I'm just a glutton for punishment.

My house has scattered debris as if a volcano exploded and spewed random toys and papers and pencils and dirty dishes and grimy socks everywhere. So, I showered and did my best to straighten the area of the house visible from the front door. So, I've spent my morning and now my afternoon with six children. Yesterday I had seven children here. I hope tomorrow I will have five or less and if the trend continues, by the end of next week, I should be child-free. A girl can always hope in the laws of logic.

Anyway, I was sorting through kitchen-counter papers and when I thumbtacked a birthday party invitation to the crowded bulletin board, I noticed with horror that the school picture envelope and accompanying paper is still there. It very clearly says, "CHILDREN WITHOUT PAYMENT ON PICTURE DAY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ORDER PICTURES LATE. NO EXCEPTIONS."

So, last Thursday when I carefully dressed YoungestBoy and combed his hair and sent him off for Picture Day . . . yeah. I didn't send the payment. Luckily, there will be Make-Up Picture Day for kids with idiots for parents.

The phone rang at 2:00 p.m. exactly. My friend, the mom of these two boys, said they are running late and is that all right and they should be here by 3:00 p.m. I have been waiting to put Babygirl to sleep until they left. I'm not sure now if I should even bother getting her to sleep at 3:00 p.m. That's when she normally is waking up.

My husband's been gone most of the day. He took YoungestBoy to a soccer game this morning, then was home long enough to shower and dress for the wedding at 1:00 p.m., which will be followed by a baby dedication. He still has to type his sermon for tomorrow.

I still have to find my mind. You know how severely sleep-deprived people forget details and are less efficient and apt to make errors? Well, turns out that's how I am, only I'm just time-deprived and overloaded with responsibility. In my next life, I am definitely going to be a . . . well, I can't think of what, but someone with fewer demands like a neurosurgeon, maybe.

(**That's right! Sales--the dad is a salesman!)

3 Comments:

Blogger Marguerite said...

Have you ever considered dropping your kids off at someone else's house for the day?

Sounds like there are plenty of parents who owe you big time.

7:54 PM  
Blogger Judy said...

Hey, if I found YOUR mind, I would keep it!

It took me a while to learn that if someone were to ask me what I was doing, to say - 'why do you ask?'.

6:16 PM  
Blogger Tina said...

My guess was car salesman!

7:03 AM  

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