The day seemed to start like any other, the typical controlled chaos that we like to call the morning (anything but) routine. In the morning, three out of four kiddos had mild complaints of sore throats, runny noses, and coughs but nothing reaching a stay home from school threshold much to one kiddo's dismay. A fight through traffic to arrive at work. Always annoying but something I refuse to let dictate the tone of my day. After being up half the night trying to save a year's worth of pictures by fighting with the home computer, I was ready to sit down at a functioning computer and get to work. Alas - I think my computer sensed my recent scuffles with the home computers and really didn't want to be left out. Perhaps I was putting out an anti-computer vibe that really short circuits productivity. I couldn't do anything without a technology barrier today. By the end of the day, I had to give up and head home. A project that should have been simple, finished easily by the end of the day waits for me to return tomorrow. But it was time to get home as Rich's work had him tied up today and so I was on my own for kid shuttling.
A particularly proud moment was when I arrived home and my mother in law, who had come up to help us out for the evening said, "Where's K?" and I realized I had completely forgotten about picking her up! Picking up K is part of Rich's routine, not mine, and that was the first it occurred to me that I needed to get her. I only had 15 minutes left before day care closed and I was grateful it was a 5 minute drive! It turned out to be a fortuitous mistake as I was able to throw the chicken noodle soup on the stove to start warming up while I ran to get her. We managed the world's fastest family dinner with less than 8 minutes of soup slurping and quick highs and lows sharing. At that point, I got in the car and didn't return home to stay until 4 hours later. Girls basketball carpool, boys to piano, back to basketball, back to piano, drop off basketball carpool and boys at home, and back to piano to pick up E. In that time in the car, I discovered that I wasn't the only Hoffman having a Monday. Beloved snow forts dismantled while we were gone, friend scuffles, homework frustrations, running late, forgotten piano books and lost coats. Plenty of tears and frustration peppered through the night from all of the kiddos at different times.
The good in this is that we had some really rock star conversations about what actions communicate, what it means to be responsible, and how important it is to nurture forever friendships. The hard today was that no one thing felt hard enough to warrant the level of weary that I was feeling. My friend, Michael, introduced me to the concept of an energy zapper many eons ago and today was just an accumulation of energy zaps. Walking with one kiddo through injustice or sadness is a daily occurrence but a combo of many kiddos and other frustrations led to weary.
At the end of the day, I am sitting here after having tucked in all of my sweet kiddos. We took a little extra time today for snuggling and talking. The real beauty in the hard days is that it really lets you fall into your family. To lean in to those that support you and love you no matter what. It reminds you about the whos and the whats that matter most and what is just Monday annoyance. My heart is most happy that my kiddos come to me, share, and lean in to me when life gets hard. I pray that those conversations never cease. That mom and their family can always be a safe place of comfort when the day feels hard.
So here is our picture for today....taken for a picture frame that Rich has in his office of the Bill and Ted's phone booth... the Hoffmans have their hands up and we surrender to this day (or we are being smushed into a phone booth - hard to say). But watch out tomorrow - we are coming for ya!
1 comment:
You're not the only one who forgot to pick up a kid at daycare. May the rest of your week roll out more smoothly.
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