Why This May be a part of my Night:



5:45-Leah wakes up from a dream. Consequently, Miss C wakes up as well. I decide I will just get up. Thankfully, the two go back to sleep.

5:50-Weigh myself, and discover I lost 2 more pounds! Think that this has got to be a great day if it starts like this!

8:30-Drop Leah off for her 2nd day of kindergarten.

9:00-11:00-Do some work, discover Mr. C & Miss C have emptied a Carmex container and written with marker all over themselves.

11:00-Try to do dishes, as my dishwasher is not working.

11:03-Discover the C's in a bedroom with diaper cream (retrieved from the top shelf of a closet) spread all over themselves, their clothes, the bed, and the carpet.

11:15-Clean the kids up, and get them in the car to get out of the house.

11:30-Discover I have forgotton my purse at home, and realize there is something in there I need.

11:31-Turn the van around, go back home.

11:45-Retrieve purse, head out again.

12:00-Order two hamburgers from Sonic for the kids, ketchup only. Receive two hamburgers with everything BUT ketchup.

1:30-Return home. NAP TIME!!!

2:30-Receive long-awaited package from Amazon in the mail. Open it, and find $120 worth of Wii games. Weird, since we ordered two books. And we don't have a Wii. Checked the packing slip, realized it belonged to a neighbor two streets over.

3:00-Throw a load of laundry in. I have to do SOMETHING productive today!

3:15-Get kids up, leave to pick Leah up from school.

3:20-Sit in very long car line, and watch my gas tank slowly empty. It flat lines. I start praying. All I need is to hold up a whole line of cars by running out of gas.

3:30-Make it to the school, get Leah! Now to get gas!

3:33-Nearly get hit head on by three teenage girls racing through the neighborhood. I blared my horn, and they blared something else. I felt very old.

3:40-Find the gas station, only to discover that every other pump is out of order. I wait, and am impressed by my van's ability to keep chugging along.

3:43-Finally get gas!

3:55-Stop by neighbor's to drop her Wii games off. She wasn't home, but on her front porch was OUR Amazon box. Weird. So I made the exchange and went home.

4:00-Open the washing machine to put the laundry in the dryer, discover that I washed the clothes with a paper grocery bag. Brown paper residue and chunks COVERED the clothes and the washing machine. Lovely.

4:01-4:45-3 time outs and a white flag of surrender later, Mike finally comes home!

6:00-Suppertime. Surprisingly enough, fairly uneventful!

6:30-Mike fixes dishwasher. Things seem to be coming back to some state of normalcy.

6:39-I finish the blog post. Showers are next, followed by an early bedtime. You know what comes after that. :)

Here's to a more relaxing tomorrow!

New Beginnings

I send my baby off to kindergarten next week. She's beyond excited. I'm beyond emotional. She wakes up each morning asking if today is the day. I wake up each morning thinking, "Oh no, we're one day closer!". I suppose both sides are normal, and truthfully her excitement makes me excited for her too. But my heart, it breaks just a little.

I'm trying not to let her see my emotional side too much, because I want her to be excited and not worry about dear old mom. But the other morning in a quiet moment I looked at her and said, "Oh Leah, I'm going to miss you so much when you are in kindergarten." She looked back at me, and in a calm reassuring manner said, "I know you will, Mom. But I need to go so that I can see how much fun I will have!" In the moment I laughed, and replied that yes, that was true, and that she was going to have all sorts of fun.

But later, it struck me how profound her response was. I thought about how I did the same thing to my parents so often in my growing-up. "I know you will miss me, but I need to go discover, find out, explore, make mistakes, make friends, make accomplishments, make my way...to see how much fun it will be!"

Oh, there's joy in the journey. And my journey has been full of joy. But today, for a moment, I need to ready my heart to let my daughter experience her own journey. And I know that where she goes, she does not go alone. May God bless her and keep her. May he make his face to shine upon her. And give her peace.

What fun it will be!