Mad for Mornings

Ah, morning time. A new day is starting. What surprises will there be? I always greet a new morning with a bounce in my step and a smile. But, seriously folks...mornings stink!

I heard J get up this morning. She gets up at six and I get up at six-thirty. I smiled a little, thinking that it was a good thing that I had another half-hour to sleep, because I was exhausted. "Mom, I overslept. It's six-forty."

Ugh.

SJ was in my bed so it took another ten minutes to talk him into emerging. My lower back hurt like the dickens, as it does every morning. Part of the reason for this is because we need a new mattress. A bigger reason is because I need to "strenthen my core." This is gym talk for getting off my lazy ass and doing some crunches.

Down the hall I shuffled. I can't even think that early in the morning. I'm on auto-pilot - very slow auto-pilot. It took another five minutes to get SJ off my hip. I bribed him with grapes that I had one-handedly washed and put in a bowl.

I needed to tinkle, but J was in my bathroom showering. I didn't want to dodge the land mines of puppy urine in her bathroom with sleep- blurred eyes so I held it.

I packed J's lunch and A's lunch. Then I packed A's morning snack and her after school - before tutoring snack and filled her water bottle.

Once, in the middle of this process, I told A to get out of bed. She didn't budge.

After everything was packed, I told her we had twenty minutes to get out the door. She wasn't hungry. I decided to feed her crackers or something on the road.

I handed her clothes to her. She got them on. I ran in my bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. I'm not pretty in the morning. Well, to tell the truth, I'm not pretty any time of day, but mornings are worse.

I came out of the bathroom and A was complaining about her new jeans. They kept falling down. We had four minutes to get out the door. I grabbed her some leggings, but no she WANTED JEANS. I found some jeans and gave her some shoes and said, "HURRY!"

She had to have help with her jeans and have her shoes tied. I got this done, grabbed SJ and threw a sweat shirt on him, gave A her backpack, told J to grab her lunch and rushed out the door five minutes late. (as usual)

I remembered on the road that A hadn't had her breakfast. I asked J to open her backpack and pull her out half of the lunchmeat from her lunch. (She doesn't eat lunch meat in sandwiches. She likes it by itself.) J did it begrudgingly. Apparently, she would rather have me drive into the ditch while I'm trying to do it myself.

J got to school on time, but I have to go east from our house to get her to school. Then I have to turn around and go west to get A to school.

The traffic was horrendous around A's school- also one of those daily annoyances. We parked by the road and I started walking her to school. We had to park a quarter mile away from her classroom - not joking here. The five minute bell rang.

"Hurry," I said. She continued to walk as if she were slogging through mud.

I finally got her to run a bit. I commented, "My Grandma runs faster than that!"

"MOM, just GO AWAY!" she yelled.

I watched her to the gate. I'm sure she started walking again. I doubt she was on time.

Did I mention that this was one of those mornings where SJ decided to be cooperative? Imagine a morning where he isn't cooperative. They happen.

SJ and I drove home. First order of the day was making some darn coffee.

I know that I am a stay at home mom - not technically considered a working mom. When do working moms get out of bed? It must be five at the latest? Do they even sleep at night?

Ah, mornings gotta love 'em.