Saturday

We made it through the week. Just barely. I really suffered this week. The start of the week I was like:
                                   
By the end of this week I was like:
                                    
It's been bad, but I was excited Friday night because the weekend was finally here. I watched a movie with my husband and relaxed. I looked forward to getting some rest.

I was dreaming blissfully yesterday morning when I was nudged awake. My husband was whispering. "Honey, honey. It's almost 7."
                         
I groaned, "What the hell? Why did you just wake me up?"
"It's almost 7. I thought you had to get up and do stuff."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because you always have to get up to do stuff."

I was awake now. There was no turning back. I got out of bed to start the day. It was 6:54 am. I was very pissed off. I went downstairs, put water in the kettle, let out the dog, filled up her bowl, and started doing the dishes while I was waiting for the water to boil.

I heard my husband come down the stairs. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"The dishes." Obviously. "What are you doing up?"
"I felt bad for waking you up so I figured I'd get up too to tell you I'm sorry and to show solidarity."
I was glad. Misery loves company.

He was right, I did have a lot to do. I had to do some work, get an oil change, and run to the store. I left the house early and was back by 11. When I walked through the door my 11 year old and her friend announced they were going to walk to the park AKA try to find a neighborhood boy. My youngest was upstairs doing whatever she does.

I make a fresh chicken salad from the chicken we had for dinner the night before. I made 3 chicken salad sandwiches and put them in the refrigerator. Then I had a million things to do before my oldest daughter's dance recital. I texted the older girls to come home and have lunch and called down my youngest a million times.

My daughter and her friend walked through the door and I said, "There are chicken salad sandwiches in the refrigerator. Fix yourself a plate with some fruit and pretzels." Then I went upstairs and instructed my 9 year old to do the same and start to get ready. She said, "Ok."

I went to do my chores and get myself ready. Then, I had to put up my daughter's hair, do her makeup, and get all her costumes together. There was no time for dawdling.

When that was done, I told my nine year old to get her overnight bag ready because she was going to a birthday party and sleepover following the recital. "Did you get my friend a present?" she asked.
"We are giving her $20 in a card."
"NO MOM. NO WE'RE NOT. That's lazy! You need to get her an actual present."
"Twenty bucks is an actual present. She can use that money to get whatever she wants."
She put her hands on her hips and said, "Then you need to give her $50."
I literally laughed out loud. Get out of here. Who does she think she is?
"She is getting $20. Now, I need you to march your ass upstairs and fix your overnight bag. Do you understand me?"
She gave me an evil look and declared, "FINE! YOU'RE HORRIBLE." Then stomped up the steps.

I retrieved a blank note card from my box. I picked one with colorful stripes that I thought a 10 year old might appreciate. When my grumpy child came back downstairs, I handed her the card and told her to write a nice message to her friend. She looked at me disgusted and said, "You didn't even bother to buy her a birthday card?!? Really, mom?" Then we had another argument.

I wasted 15 minutes of my life yesterday fighting about this damn $20 in the card. It was maddening.

At 2:45 we were ready to go. We all pile into the car and we were approaching the auditorium when my 9 year old tells me. "I'm hungry. I only ate a doughnut today." My oldest daughter's friend chimed in. "Me too."

                   
Seriously?!?! We have ample amount of food in the house. I handcrafted chicken salad, there was sliced meat and cheese, chips, pretzels, fruit, soup, yogurt. A variety of things. These kids are too old for me to micromanage every.single.meal. We are talking about reasonable human beings who have 2 legs and arms. I told them to have lunch and I made it for them. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. I did my due diligence. Therefore, I did not feel bad.

"Sorry guys. There's some pretzel rods in here. You can eat those." They scrunched up their nose but ate them. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. My oldest daughter said, "Well, I did eat lunch mom and that chicken salad sandwich was delicious. I LOVED it." She's a suck up. haha. That child has never been known to miss a meal. She has that innate survival instinct that tells her she will die if she doesn't eat. Not all kids have that.

We walked into the auditorium and bid my oldest daughter farewell backstage. Then we sat and waited. We watched all the performances and it was very long. My daughter dances beautifully. I was so impressed with her. She is so graceful and so confident. She looked stunning and I was so proud of her. I cried some happy tears. I was so proud of her. She's worked really hard this year.

Afterwords we did hugs and pictures, we gave her flowers and compliments. She was beaming. We told her that she could pick dinner and she wanted to go to Outback. Yum! First, I needed to drop off my youngest at the birthday party. I did that and then met my husband and the two older girls at Outback where my husband ordered food like he was a Rockefeller.

When we walked through the door at close to 9 pm. I was beat. The day, the week had finally hit me like a ton of bricks. I was exhausted. I took a hot shower and told the girls I was going to bed and gave them the rules that I was sure they were going to break but I was too tired to care.

I crawled into my bed, read the news and went to sleep around 10. I was so excited because I had no plans on Sunday. I was going to sleep in and lay around for a while in the morning. I need it.

I was in a deep sleep when suddenly I was startled awake by a body laying on top of me and a voice in my ear whispering. "Mom, mom." I could hear a giggle in the distance. What.the.actual.hell? I looked at the alarm clock. It was 1:10 am. "What are you doing? Playing truth or dare? Get off of me."
"But mom. I just wanted to tell you that my phone is not working."
"Your face won't be working if you don't get off of me and leave this room immediately."
She did, and she also took the cat with her and shut my bedroom door.

I fell back asleep, again thinking, Well, at least I can sleep in tomorrow. I was awoken yet again a few hours later by the damn cat meowing at my bedroom door. I tried to ignore it but they just got louder and louder and more urgent. NO, just NO. I got up and let him in. He walked past me like he was a boss. I wanted to kick him.

I got back into bed and looked at the alarm clock. It was 5:45 am. I cried inside. Now, I was awake. My body said, You wake up at this time almost everyday. Let's get up. Stupid body.

It is now 6:30 on Sunday morning and I'm up. I'll go downstairs and make coffee and clean something. I can't sleep in next Saturday because we need to be out of the house by 8 am for a pancake breakfast followed by some gymnastics thing my youngest is doing. Maybe next Sunday. Maybe next Sunday I can sleep until 7:30. I will hold on to hope but if the people and animals in this house have their way, it's not ever going to happen.