Piles of Laundry

There is a heap of clean clothes sitting on my bed and another on my dresser. They have been there for two or three days now. That's how you know that I've been rather busy lately. It is unheard of that I don't fold and put away clothes as soon as they come out of that warm dryer. I mean, letting them cool down before folding is just asking for stiff, wrinkly clothes, right? But the wrinkles all over my clothes are a sign that we are nutty busy with life and adjusting to new schedules. Let me give you a peak into what kind of madness I'm talking about....Thursday, for example, I woke up at 5 am and ran my fingers through my messy, not washed for 3 days hair. It would have to do for now. I threw back a coffee all while making 2 super nutritious breakfasts and packing lunches/snacks for the kids. Somehow, I didn't remember to make my own breakfast.  The kids got organic, free range, whole grain, Non GMO breakfast and I grabbed a poptart.....I wrangled one child down to give him a dose of ever-so-tasty antibiotics for the double ear infection that he managed to get his first month at daycare. Child number 2 cried because she didn't have a straw for her juice. Ty rushed around to help get breakfast cleaned up while I dressed the crabby 5 year old. Ty grabbed Maxwell, air-kissed me goodbye and flew out the door so he wouldn't be late. I grabbed up my belongings and made my way out as the morning sitter made her way in. I got into work for 7 am and plugged away. At lunch time, I decided I would go get something to eat since not only did I manage to forget breakfast, but I didn't bring my lunch. As I drove up to the sandwich shop, I looked down into my bag and frowned. The night before I had bought something online and I could envision putting my wallet down on my desk in my office. At that same moment, the gas light came on and the lovely little "Low Fuel" voice chimed in. Really?! So I drove back to the house (luckily I live right down the road from my work), grabbed the wallet, got the gas and....didn't eat the lunch. Headed back to work.

At 2:15 pm I got a call from Scarlett's school. The nurse informed me that Scarlett was complaining of an ear ache. She was sending her back to class but wanted to let me know. Being the intuitive mother that I am, I called the Dr right away and let her know we would be coming in for antibiotics for yet another child. Forty minutes later I got another call from the school nurse and I made my way out to pick up Scarlett. As I walked in to the nurse's station, I saw a teary-eyed little girl hold open her arms for me. I gave her some Tylenol and carried her back to the SUV.  We made our way to pick up Maxwell at daycare, on the other side of town, and then headed to the Dr's office, back where we just came from. Of course it was a 45 minute wait for the Dr to do a quick look over and say, "Yup, it's a bad ear infection. I'll send some antibiotics to the pharmacy." So I loaded up the kids and then headed to the store because ALAS, I remembered that Maxwell had only ONE diaper left at home. How that even happens without me ordering another supply online, is beyond me. Guess I've been busy....or something.

After taking two hungry children into the store and letting them snack on whatever they wanted so we could get through our quick shopping trip, we finally piled back into the car to go HOME. Ty text me to let me know that he had a meeting and it ran late, (surprise, surprise) but that he was almost home and was going to start dinner. Hopefully by the time we got home, dinner would be ready. Sounded amazing to me! And then I looked up to see a very long line of red brake lights.....
I had forgotten that it was the Victorian Festival downtown and they had closed the roads. Since I didn't take an alternate route in time, I was forced to sit in a car with two miserable, crying kids and blasted some lovely Christmas tunes, to try and drown out the cries, for 25 minutes. After getting home from the ride that took 35 minutes longer than it normally would have, I carried all of the bags and kids in and started to pick up the mess of a house. I picked up some clothes in an attempt to clean, but then dropped them on the floor in defeat because the kids both needed to take meds and get ready for bed. Ty and I team tackled them and after flailing children finally swallowed the last of the medicine, we managed to get them both to sleep. I stood there looking at a plate of cold food and the messiest house I had seen in months and tried to decide what was more important. Should I eat or take a shower? My grumbling stomach answered for me and I sat down and ate some food for the first time since 7 am.

Then I stood in the shower with the water pouring down on my head, transfixing my mind and I thought, finally, a moment of peace. Then I heard a cry from Maxwell's room....


And that is how the days have been lately. I am just trying to get into the swing of working full-time (set hours) and be a mother. There isn't much room for anything else at the moment. And I'm ok with that for now. I know that life is like this for a lot of people and I know things will calm down. They always do. But, I'm pretty sure there will be piles of laundry scattered about my house quite some time. ;)