Midnight musings

It's not actually midnight, but at almost 9:30 pm, it could be.  My day got started at 5:55 am.  And, it's a Monday.  Enough said.

Sometimes I wonder how much of my girls' childhood will be remembered.  By them, of course, but also by me.  When I think back to my own days of growing up, I have both specific memories and generalized feelings.  It occurred to me recently that these days, these fantastic, challenging, fun, scary days are memories.  We're making memories here, people.  Is anyone paying attention?

Today was the kind of day filled with more highs than lows.  I love those kinds of days. Even more memorable, when the lows occurred, I took them into stride.  Why?  Because of the highs, I suppose. They sustained me through the lows.

I knew off the bat that today was going to be a long day.  My husband was going into the city for a baseball game straight after work, so my expectation of flying solo was in place.  The morning was productive- bedrooms neatened, laundry put away, dishwasher emptied, and the girls had some playtime before we began school.  My little one decided to pack herself a lunch, and I found her in the kitchen, spreading peanut butter onto bread, tucking strawberries and carrots into a container, and grinning.  She's learned well.  By 8:15, we were at the table.  School went quickly, everyone sitting quietly, plugging away.  The doorbell rang, a neighbor dropped by to thank us for feeding her cats, and gave us a gift certificate for pizza.  Seizing the opportunity, I promised the girls pizza since Daddy was out for the eve.  I paid a few bills, the girls did their math, went on to vocabulary, grammar, and ELA.  We took a snack break, zipped through some writing, read a zoology chapter, and we were mostly done.  More playtime for the girls, neatening up for me, and a quick lunch.  Eyeing the beautiful weather out the window, we decided to go for walk to the tennis courts and play for a while.  All went well, other than the fact that my little one learned how hit balls over the fence (five balls were hit out of court, two lost in the woods, the rest we recovered), it got hot and my older one decided to lay down on the courts in the shade, and the door to the court swung open and my dog tried to make a break for it, straight to the street (fortunately, I thought fast and used my racket to swat him away from the door while little one ran and quickly shut the gate).  I think the girls squabbled a little on the way home, but it was too sunny for me to notice.  Returning home, we found a bag of fresh produce from an old friend, which was an unexpected treat that made me smile.  I ushered the girls onto the couch, and they read quietly while I made salad for later, placed the pizza order, and got us back out the door.  After errands (library, Walmart) we were off to dance class.  While my little one danced, I showed my big girl some books I got out of the library, books I dubbed our "health class" (aka, healthy eating, positive body image, and puberty), books which promptly sent her into a tizzy.  She informed me that she would not read them, had no interest in the topics, was upset at me for getting them, and spent the next 45 minutes first angry at me, and then weepy.  We spoke a little more, I listened to her concerns and promised we would work together to chose material she didn't find upsetting, and she was over it.  Little one got out of dance and was ecstatic for pizza.  By the time we got to the car, she was horrified that we were picking it up, not eating in, and Jekyll and Hyded straight into a horrid mood.  Now that my older one was back to happy, little one was free to become a grump.  After getting the pizza, we buzzed by CVS to pick up some scripts.  Of course the drive-through line was four cars long, so we decided to run in (It'll be quicker!).  But since they'd sent my prescription through my insurance incorrectly, quick turned into 25 minutes of waiting.  Little one was melting fast- but we escaped just in time.  Pepping us up before we fainted of hunger, I suggested we eat our pizza and salad in front of a movie. Bingo!  We agreed on Frozen (believe it or not, it was my suggestion) and before you could say "Put your dirty clothes in the hamper before you sit on my bed" we were upstairs, plates in lap, singing along with Elsa and Anna.  Of course I was conned into "five more minutes" at least three times, but by the time 8 pm came along, I swear, the girls were tucked into bed, teeth brushed, pizza sauce wiped clean from their faces, smiles and snuggles all around.  They cuddled into bed together, surrounded by Lego figurines from Frozen, and within minutes, their whispers and giggles turned to silence.  Only 14 hours since the start of our day.

My next realization was how much cleaner the house is when my husband is gone (sorry, babe).  Part of it is definitely that without an another adult in the house, the division of labor is clear.  There's no thought of, "I'll leave that for him to do" because there's only me.  There's also full responsibility in knowing that whether it is clean or dirty, it is my doing.  Neat freak that I am, I choose clean every time.  Kitchen was swept clean, dining room table left bare, living room reassembled (not counting the dolls organized precisely on the bookshelves aka "apartments"), litter boxes scooped, all well again.  Dog walked, groceries put away, laundry folded.  Whew.  As always, one day feels stretched into many.  I was patting myself on the back for a day well done, until it occurred to me that it was easy to hold it all together today because it was Monday, and I was running off the glow of an awesome weekend, filled with friends, hikes, and fun.  How am I going to do it all again tomorrow?!