This will have to be quick. I am zonked.

I did it. I got up at 5:30, did a little cardio, some weights and cooled down with yoga. It felt amazing. Yes, I’m one of those crazy people who LOVES a good sweaty workout.

Getting up with a plan was easy, plus I had made muffins last night, prepared backpacks and lunches and clothes were ready so I wasn’t rushing.

Gil and the kids left about 7:20. I had to move everyone along so I didn’t get my shower until after, which was fine since I had plenty of time before meeting my friend, so I thought…

Here’s where I flaked. Somewhere between my shower and getting dressed, it hit me that J and I agreed to meet after we dropped off the kids. Her youngest has been in preschool for the past two years and couldn’t be dropped off until 8:30. This was the time I had in my head…

Until I remembered that the child is now in REAL school and gets dropped the same time my kids and all of J’s others do — 7:45ish.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I was doing so well.

I was actually taking my time and enjoying the morning until this hit me around 8:10.

Here’s the thing, you guys. J is one of my very together friends. Girlfriend gets up at 5, does her Insanity workout — yes, you read that correctly. She has four children and a successful and demanding career and makes it look easy. But…she is super-scheduled. No doubt, she was at the coffee shop not a minute past 8.

I struggle with promptness. Shocking, I know. But I understand how busy J is and I value her time. I go above and beyond to be on time anytime J is involved. Of all people to flake out on, WHY did it have to be her?

Ugh. I felt terrible. I texted her, told her what happened, begged for forgiveness and told her I could leave right that minute — this was around 8:15. She was nice about it but had to be at work by 9, so we rescheduled for Wednesday.

I plastered post-its all over my house. Please, all that is holy, do not let me forget.

I moved on.

8:30 – 2:00 : I got a lot done. Laundry, paid my student loan, which by the way is FOUR months past due. I know. Not because I didn’t have the money but because I set up the auto payment incorrectly when we changed around some banking stuff. I thought it was getting paid. Um, it was not. Next up — look at my finances.

I ended up finishing up a writing assignment for work, so hopefully that’s off my plate. I edited a paper for a friend, sent it to her and am praying she likes it and won’t ask for more changes. This one was more involved than I anticipated, but yay, it’s done.

Okay, I felt like I was getting more done, so hopefully I’m forgetting something. I responded to some work emails. I did some planning for a Halloween party I’m supposed to be handling at church this Sunday — Lord help me. I’m also in the middle of planning a Bonfire in November at a friend’s house. Long story — what was I saying yesterday about saying yes to the right things? Perhaps I do overcommit. I also spent some time chatting with two different friends. One is extremely overwhelmed and depressed. The other, well, she was recovering from a weekend with her nutty in-laws. This morning her FIL clogged up one toilet and her MIL clogged up the other. My poor friend attempted to brush her teeth and pee before taking her kids to school and when she lifted the toilet lid, she was greeted by her FIL’s ginormous turd. Seriously, what a way to start your week.

2:30 – 4:00 — Homework day from hell. Piers knocked his out so he could play Minecraft. Wallace was a hot mess from the moment he got home from school. All he had to do was draw a few pictures of things that started with the letter ‘I’ — not that difficult, or so I thought.

I left him with his notebook and crayons and when I returned he had drawn and elaborate picture of…

A lighthouse.

Me:  “Wow, what a great picture, Wallace. Tell me about it.”

Wallace:  “Well…it’s a lighthouse.”

Me:  “Uh huh. That’s a great picture but aren’t you supposed be drawing things that start with ‘i’? What letter does lighthouse start with?”

Wallace:  “An ‘L’!!!! Oh yeah! I forgot…” He points to the center of the lighthouse. “Here, I’ll just draw a line to this part and it can be ‘inside’ of the lighthouse. Now it’s an ‘i’ word!”

He looked quite pleased with himself. Whatever. It worked. But from that point on it was downhill. This kid is such a perfectionist when it comes to his drawings. They are never the way he wants them to be. I suppose he used up all his energy on the lighthouse because when I suggested that he draw an ice cube, he went off the rails.

“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRAW ICE CUBES. CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS THE WORST DAY EVER?!?!?”

At some point, I couldn’t deal and had to remove myself and breathe deeply.

I tried everything. I fed him another snack. I gave him water. I suggested that he take a break and come back to it. Nothing worked.

I finally turned on his latest obsession — “Halloween George” which is his name for  the Curious George Halloween episode.

It was remarkable. He instantly settled.

5:00 – 7:00 — I had to cook beef. I hate cooking beef. I work at our local soup kitchen once a month. I love it. I love the people I work with. I love serving food and cleaning up and interacting with the patrons. I loathe the pre-prep. I feel guilty that I hate something so necessary and important. I need to pass this off to someone who likes cooking more than me. I need to be the person who picks up the day-old bread at the bakery — that’s the kind of food-prep I can handle.

I was on the third 5 lb. roll when Gil got home. Our house smelled like a burger joint but there was no dinner. Thank goodness we were on vacation last week — we’re still in good moods. He took one look and said, “Ahh. Soup kitchen Tuesday?”

He finished the beef and drained the fat and packaged it up for me. I bowed at his feet. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. Actually, I removed myself from Beef City and loaded the kids into the tub while Gil also threw something together for dinner. Grits and eggs with some frozen broccoli on the side. It worked. We ate and the kiddos were in bed with lights out by 8:30.

I’m spent but feeling more motivated than I have in a long time.

I got some great suggestions from my readers today. Thank you!!

Sherry has raised SIX children and is very efficient. She didn’t tell me that but I know she is — I can sense it. She suggested writing lots of lists and then setting goals for each day. I’m working on it — tomorrow is list day, as in I’ll empty my brain onto paper.  Sherry’s blog is awesome. Check it out.

Baby steps. I’m going to bed now — 5:30 will be here soon.