A poem.
Based on real life. In case it’s not obvious.
Some days are-
Hectic.
Some days you wake up to your husband telling you he missed the bus so you need to get the kids up and in the car which is always met with groans and drive straight home because today is busy so there’s no time to see the fish
And when you get home you have to feed the dogs who just got neutered and give them their pills so they won’t jump and upset the sutures but of course they’re excited to see you so they jump anyway and you take them out to pee which they don’t
And when you’re done it’s time for summer school for the oldest who’s going to do a musical this summer and you haven’t changed so you throw on some clothes while telling the six year old she needs to get changed if she wants time on the playground and on your way you realize the blinker on the car is giving out so while the younger kids play and the oldest goes to her class you look up compatible bulbs for a moment then get back in the car
But it’s not time to go home because you’re out of several things like milk and vegetables so you go to the grocery store and fill your cart and the kids beg for a snack and you tell them they can have one thing so they choose two and then the three year old is begging to go home and insisting she’s starving and you get some yogurt drops to calm her down but she doesn’t get that you have to check out before she can eat it and you didn’t bring enough bags but it’ll be fine you just need to get to the car
And when that’s all put away you need to take the dogs out again because they really do need to pee but they can’t go out unsupervised because they’re not supposed to run and if they go out alone they will and if they go out together they will so you have to take them one at a time which they severely object to and when that’s done it’s time to get in the car because it’s summer school and the six year old has swim lessons
And the car is still making frantic blinker noises and the road to the high school with the pool is under construction but going around made you late last time and everyone else is just driving in and it’s close so you do but it feels like the people in the backhoe are watching you and judging but that’s not important and the locker room is locked so you have to backtrack with the six year old to the bathroom on the other end of the school and the youngest is already settled in the bleachers with her tablet so you ask the gentleman if he’ll make sure she doesn’t spring up and dive into the pool and go change and of course she can’t get the shirt on and then jog back to a kid who didn’t even notice you left and you get a moment to breathe while swim lessons happen and you do some cross stitch and the youngest wants to sit on your lap and near you and play with your stuff and the six year old is trying to get you to watch her jump and then you’re done and you get her changed in that bathroom on the far end of the school which is so far and she’s too cold to walk but then you’re out the door
And you can pick up the oldest who has a book from her class which she cannot lose which is so important she never gets around to taking it out of the car and reading it and you go to the library because they have free lunch and you’re not making lunch today so of course none of them eat much of it but at least some of them ate some of their apple
Then you go home and take the dogs out again and try to catch up on some writing and then it’s time for writing group which you’re doing in the dining room because you need to keep an eye on the dogs because the cones to stop them from licking their incision isn’t stopping them so you get to and you just got them yesterday but they’re already breaking so fixing that is added to today’s list and you order some dog-body sleeves online but realize you need them today, not this weekend, and meanwhile you haven’t really gotten much writing done but you promise you’re doing more and you encourage your friends to do theirs and then you need to take the kids to Grandma’s for piano
And while they’re at Grandma’s you have time to run to the auto parts store and get that blinker light and stop by the pharmacy and pick up your meds, and some chocolate because it’s been that kind of a day, and you go home and look up a video on how to replace the light and realize that with the engine still hot and needing a power drill to unhook the light and with martial arts coming up and you need to pick up the oldest from Grandma’s you don’t have time to do this right now but you can take the dogs out and at least one of them has peed a few times today and you straighten the cones and put them in their kennel because maybe they’ll have less room to lick themselves for now while you look for body sleeves though probably not
So you pick her up and give her the uniform and drop her by the door and now you have time to run to the pet store and find the body sleeves and wait, those are a lot more than you remembered and the ones online were way cheaper but they’re not the only pet store in town so you’ll try another and if that doesn’t work surely you can rig something up at home while you wait for the package on the weekend and the next store has none at all but they suggest one in town you had heard of but not visited so you go there and the layout is baffling but a helpful associate helps you find exactly what you need for about the price you were expecting so you can cancel the online order that hasn’t shipped yet and you could go home and put it on them now but you wouldn’t have time to keep an eye on them for the first little while so why don’t you go to martial arts and wait for the oldest to finish her lesson
Which gives you at least a moment to breathe
Before you take her back to Grandma’s because they’ve been waiting to have waffles and bacon with the kids for dinner for three weeks now with unexpected cancellations and Grandma needing to fly out to be with her mother and now your husband is off work so you go pick him up and finally you’re home with nowhere to go
So you can eat dinner for a moment
And take the dogs out, of course, and try on their new body sleeves which are already working so much better even though the meds have worn off and they’re trying to jump and run and all the things they shouldn’t
Before the kids come home and have all sorts of things to tell you and argue about if it’s bedtime and which book we’re reading and try to parent the youngest when mom is busy which she doesn’t appreciate
But some days
You can fix a blinker, by yourself! and it’s working and you feel like a master of tools (and youtube)
And some days,
You get a moment in the car to talk with your kids and share and get to know them better
And some days,
There are fireflies.
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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