I love my husband. I love football. I love that he's a coach. I love that he is helping young men make a better future for themselves. But there are some days that I hate being a coach's wife. And last week, there were 7 such days. I honestly don't know how single moms do it. Here's the rundown. And sorry, English folks, there are lots of fragments...
Sunday night--Tagging clothes for the consignment sale plus packing the kids for school and soccer clothes, diapers, toys, and pajamas for going to MeMe's after school.
Monday--Running late to work because of all of the extra gear and then being re-routed because the road we take was closed due to a car accident. After work, drive 25 minutes to pick the kids up, grab them some fast food, take them to MeMe's, and head back to school for Open House. Did not get home until 9:45 p.m. Then, stayed up tagging. The one saving grace--soccer practice was cancelled, so MeMe and Papa didn't have to worry about running Emily there and back. I think we were in bed sometime before 1.
Tuesday--Pick kids up, run home and frantically try to squeeze 4 y/o girl into tights and a leotard (with a hole in it but the only clean one), head to dance, run to Target to pick up more safety pins and cardstock (for tagging), pick up Em from dance, rush home, feed kids, bath, and bed by myself. Then, more tagging until 2 a.m. but finally finished.
Wednesday--Very few clean clothes since I've been washing consignment stuff, but my saving grace was our principal declaring the week Spirit attire--YAY for jeans! Before work, dropped off clothes to a dear friend to take them to the sale. Ended up staying very late at work when a former student and athlete needed help with Linear Algebra. Spent 40 minutes and 4 pages of paper on 1 problem! Rushed to daycare, home to change for church, and went to church. We almost skipped church, but my house was so messy I didn't want to spend the evening there. Kids were in bed before 9, and we crashed.
Thursday--Students were released from school at 2:05, and teachers stayed until 4:30...I ran by IL's to drop off car seats, so they can pick up E & T and headed to Waco to the consignment presale. Uh-Oh, forgot laundry basket and forgot to clean out trunk...and haven't been to the ladies' room all afternoon. Must swing by my house first. YAY for shopping at the consignment sale. YAY for MIL bathing kids and putting them in PJs. Boo for the fact that I forgot that I need to make dessert for tomorrow's after-game party. I will have to make the dessert tonight because there will be no time to come home after work Friday. Thankfully, my mom saves the day with the perfect recipe. And Dee is with the JV team in Pflugerville. He actually didn't mind going to the store for me on his way home at 11. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown at this point. I was packing the kids for school and for Friday's game. We need diapers, snacks, toys, football game outfits, and then pajamas for on the way home. Somewhere in here, Dee got home, and I made the cake. In bed after 1 a.m.
Friday--I remembered my things for work and the kids' things for after school. But I forgot my cake and my football tickets. Thankfully, Dee had taken the morning off to get a flu shot, and he brought them up to school. After school, I had exactly 1 hour to get to Belton to pick up the kids and have Emily back up to the school. She was participating in the annual drill team kids' camp, and she was going to be performing in the pre-game festivities. I changed her in her classroom when I went to pick her up and realized that the adjustable waist elastic in her jeans had slipped inside too far to pull it out. I was having visions of her pants falling down during the performance. I must find time to buy her a belt before 7:15. I got her to the drill team on time, and Ty and I headed to Target. We picked up Cool-Whip for the dessert, some stickers for during the game, some juice, and a belt. We headed to Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. And we made it to the stadium by 6:45. I changed Ty into his game shirt, and I chugged my sweet tea. I found Emily and put a belt on her, and Ty ate his dinner while Emily did her performance. The football game went great--we scored with 7 sec left on the clock and won by 1 pt. We headed to the after-game party, and the dessert was a hit. We changed the kids into their PJs, and they rode home with Dee. We got home about 12:45. I was so tired, I went to bed without a shower. I never do that.
Saturday--I had a fun photoshoot, and then we were off to Emily's 1st soccer game. I forgot to buy her black socks to match her uniform (so she wore white--she was the only kid in white socks), and I forgot to bring her water to the game. I also forgot my camera. I also forgot my lawn chair but remembered Ty's. I was literally in tears as I was driving to the game. I was ready to pull Em out of soccer and dance, and I was ready to demand that Dee quit his job immediately. Somehow, I managed to not fly off the handle. After the game, I picked up Chick-fil-A (how could I survive football season without it?) and put the kids down for naps. They slept for FOUR HOURS. I guess this week was hard on them too!
I don't know why I wrote all of that down, and WOW for you if you read it. Maybe I will need to look back on it next year (or later on this season) to remind me that if I just take it one thing at a time, I will eventually make it through the week, and I will live to tell about it. Who knows, maybe another stressed Mommy will stumble upon this post and know that she's not alone!
This week coming up won't be bad at all (I PRAY). Dee helped so much yesterday (imagine what my house looked like after a week like that); he cleaned and even planned a week full of crock-pot dinners for this week. He ran to the store to pick up diapers and milk. And he listened to me whine without trying to give me advice. So here's to an easier week--maybe I will have time to get a few runs in this week. And I'm definitely excited about all of the season premieres...Aaahhh, the simple things! Let me end this post with some pics of Em's performance on Friday.
Here is little brother waiting on big sis' performance. I picked up these microphones at Target for $2.49, and the keep the kids occupied through the entire game. They love to cheer the Roos on in these mics.
Good luck kisses from Daddy!
Waiting to start....
Since I don't know the other little girls or their mommies, I had to make them "block heads" for this post!
That's my girl!
And how 'bout the yummy dessert I made? I needed something that I could make ahead, take with me to work and the game, and it would be good all day without being refrigerated. And it needed to be quick and easy. My mom gave me the recipe. You start by baking a chocolate cake from your favorite cake mix. When it's done, poke holes in the top with the back of a wooden spoon, and pour a jar of carmel sundae topping all over (do this while the cake is still hot). You can do this the night or morning before you will need the cake, and it can be stored at room temp. When it's time for dessert, spread a container of whipped topping over the cake and sprinkle with Heath toffee bits. I didn't have any leftovers! Yummy!
