Tuesday Morning Troubles

I knew something was very wrong the instant I woke up this morning.

Sunlight was peeking in through my blinds.

What is so wrong about that? Well, you see, I get up at 4:30am every morning, which even during the long days of summer, is still pitch dark time. During winter, I know that when my alarm goes off, it should feel like I'm dragging my poor body out of bed in the dead of night. It wasn't my alarm that woke me up this morning either. It was the familiar crashing noises of the garbage truck making the rounds on my street, something that is usually happening at the same time I am loading my kids into the van for the school commute.

My clock face warned me that it was 6:55am. At the same moment that I was rubbing my bleary eyes and trying to make sense of the time, I was supposed to be picking up Justin before continuing on to the school. Uh oh.

In a panic I woke up Terence and pleaded for his help. Then I called Kristi, still half awake, to let her know that I was running late. She generously offered to pick my kids up and take them to school, but all four of my kids were still blissfully snoozing away. Instead, she opted to take Justin to school herself, and I tried to pull myself together so I could get the kids to school only a little bit late. (With a sick feeling I realized that Brandi must have waited in the cold this morning for our run wondering where on earth I was. I hope she didn't wait too long before giving up on me.)

Luckily for me, my husband is a star when it comes to these kind of last minute preparations. While I made oatmeal (I have nothing else for breakfast in the house) and packed lunches and backpacks, he got the three older kids up and dressed. He even tackled B's hair. (M's didn't get done, but whatever. Who cared at that point? Not me.) Fortunately, K is old enough to hold his own bottle, so I mixed up some formula and pressed the bottle into his hands before strapping him in his car seat still in his pj's. Then, with only a slight mishap with the van loading-- M dumped J's oatmeal all over him in a squabble-- we were on our way, only 30 minutes behind schedule.

At the school, I had to unload all four kids and walk into the school so I could sign the kids in late, which was a real pain, but at least I finally got them delivered to school. In the parking lot, I changed K's diaper and put him in some clothes before heading off to the gym. At the gym I had time for a 15 minute swim before it was time to walk B into her preschool class. From there, K and I headed to Wal*mart, where I dithered over how to spend my non-existent grocery budget on a few essentials.

Now I'm back home, K's napping, Terence brought B home from school, and Kristi should drop off M and J any minute now. My life is mostly back on schedule. But why do I still feel off-kilter? Is it some kind of unwritten rule that if your morning goes awry, the rest of your day is bound to be out of whack?