Day: May 10, 2006

Just as I was preparing to leave the house with two kids in tow, a friend called to see if Gleek could go with them to the library story time. Once I was done doing the gleeful dance of only taking one child to the store , I politely told them that yes it would be just fine with me. I handed Gleek off and took Patches along for the errands. Much nicer. Patches didn’t fall asleep on the way home, so I had to scratch that idea. Now I’ve just finished picking Link up from school and I’m eating my lunch because, as predicted, I forgot to eat it earlier. So far it has been a better day than I’d anticipated. Still busy though.

Today:
Get kids off to school
Get Gleek & Patches dressed and make them do Morning Things this will almost certainly include at least one tantrum.
Load Gleek & Patches into the car to run errands This will probably include chasing kids around the front yard.
Go to Post office I need to check to PO box, ask a question about customs forms placement, pick up a pile of mailing tubs, and something else that I’m currently not remembering. While I do this Gleek and Patches will attempt to play with the automatic sliding doors and I’ll attempt to keep them from annoying other patrons or injuring themselves.
Price catering food at Sam’s Club I have to tour the entire food section of Sam’s Club writing down prices and making mental calculations so that I can feed the volunteers who help us mail out books and so that I can plan food for the Book Release party. While I’m doing all this thinking, writing, and calculating Gleek and Patches will attempt to fall out of the shopping cart or flee through the store requiring me to chase them down.
Go to the Library My original plan for this stop included me going inside and acquiring a selection of books for reading to kids and for kids to read. I wanted lots of Dr. Seuss because his stories are long & rythmic, ideal bedtime reading for Gleek who needs help to wind down. Then I realized that I do not want to go insane today by persuing my children through a third location. I’ll be stuffing books into the drive thru book drop.
Home again Hopefully on the journey home Patches will fall asleep and take a nice long nap. Last night he napped from 6-8pm which meant I was parenting at 10pm when I wanted down time.
Mailing list manipulation I need to do the final mailing list downloads and address changes and sorting. Once the lists are finalized I need to take the scary step of printing the lists through stamps.com. This is scary because I’ll start paying for postage. I’ll be spending over a thousand dollars on postage before I mail anything. I sent a test package and it worked, but my brain still provides nightmares of the postal service returning thousands of packages to my door because I failed to do something correctly.
Pick up kids from school this requires me to coax Gleek & Patches into the car, argue with them about buckling up, argue again about how we’re not going to climb out of the car to play on the school playground, wait and wait and wait for Link to make his way to the car, then argue with all three kids to get them OUT of the car upon returning home. An hour later I get to repeat the process to pick up Kiki.
Realize I forgot lunch Gleek and Patches won’t let me forget to feed them entirely. They’ll probably get sandwiches shoved into their hands. There is a high probability that I’ll forget to feed me though. I mean here it is 9 am and I haven’t had breakfast yet because I’ve been too busy with the first item on this list.
Remember to require chores My incentive plan only works if I keep track of it. Link in particular tends to procrastinate. Supposedly he isn’t allowed to play with friends or video games until his five Morning Things are done. However if he waits until I’m tired, stressed, or distracted he can get to do the fun things without doing the chores first. He’s not being deliberately sneaky, but it undermines the responsiblity I’m attempting to teach. So I need to not get too tired, stressed, or distracted to require the work first.
Dinner this would probably be a good idea.
Homework Hopefully a peaceful homework time, but usually very similar to herding cats.
Bedtime Patches & Gleek are having a hard time settling down to bed lately. Some of this is directly due to a lack of parental attention during the day. I have to carve out some quiet time for each of them when I read stories and help them slow their bodies and brains so that they can fall asleep easily. Link and Kiki are a little less time intensive, but only a little.
Downtime In theory I get some of this today.

Tomorrow has a list similar to today’s. So does Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Monday books arrive and the pace will pick up even further. I’m going to be running on adrenaline and too little sleep for the next three weeks. I’d be scared and worried, only I don’t have time for it.