The Kids

The Kids

Monday, April 23, 2012

My Two Minute Day

I went to our church plant meeting Saturday night and my friend, Jill, took one look at my tired expression and knew that it was just one of those days.  She said that she has started defining her days by minutes.  If it is a three minute day, that means you had three minutes to eat, three minutes to shower, three minutes to...make your list and you get the idea.

Saturday felt like a two minute day.

Abby had a 9 am soccer game.  No problem, if the weathermen were not completely wrong.  I was expecting temperatures in the 50's, not the low 40's.  Add on the drizzle, sometimes actual rain, and it was pretty miserable. 

Caleb had a 10:30 am soccer game.  More cold, more rain.  And the boy was a mess.  He suddenly became shy about playing and was freezing, since he had just sat through his sister's game.  My son, who loves sports and is a barrel of energy, sat on the sidelines pouting for the first half of the game.  He finally got over himself and played the second half.  By play, I mean stood around and sometimes went after the ball.

After that fun game, Abby came running over to us and said, "The car won't turn on!"

Let me back up-we all took turns sitting with Noah in the van, parked where we could see the game.  Noah happily watched Laurie Berkner and stayed warm while we froze our butts off.  The routine was to turn the van on for a few minutes, then turn it off, while the dvd player kept running on its own.  Every now and then, you had to slightly turn the key to keep the dvd player on, but then you turned it off again.

Here is a lesson learned-do not leave the key slightly on.  It will drain the battery.

I asked the car next to us if they could move so that we could move one of our numerous family cars next to us for a jump.  The man in the driver's seat was about to respond when the woman in the passenger seat replied, "No!  We're not moving.  We just got here."

Um, okay?  I mean, I understand that the soccer field parking lot is a nightmare and getting a good spot is a miracle, but there were at least eight spots within sight that they could move to. 

I just backed away, speechless, and tried to explain to Nick's dad, as he waited for the spot, that they were not moving.  Then, for whatever reason, the guy started backing up his car-he must have won the argument on what is considered basic human manners.

Let me add that in the midst of this, it was rainining, there were cars moving in and out of the parking lot everywhere, Nick was driving past with his car, thinking he was going to jump it, Caleb was off wandering around, looking for his team who were supposed to be celebrating a birthday after the game, and I was in a hurry to go clean a house.  Found out that the party was going to be moved to someone's house, so after switching car seats around, getting texts with directions to the new party place, and pretty much basic chaos, we were on our way.

Nick took the boys to the party.  My in-law's took Abby to a friend's house who was going to take her to a birthday party.  And I left to clean a house on an empty stomach because I had planned my lunch around the birthday party at the field.

At this point, the day was not even half over.

After parties and carpooling and cleaning and crabiness, Nick stayed home with the kids while I went to our church plant.  Which is when I explained to Jill that I was having a two minute day.

I have come to love Mondays.  There are no sporting activities tonight (except for Nick playing softball and he completely understands that we will not be watching those games until school is done).  My kids will come home and we will do nothing but sit around and play. 

It is lovely.

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