Frenetic

Last week was a fantastic Friday... This one was frenetic. Heh... I just looked up frenetic in the dictionary. The word is great for me, eh?

Today was even too much for me. Whew.

7:20 - 8:00 Got up/showered/got dressed/answered email.

8:00 Out the door to see the dentist (oh, didn't I tell you, a piece of one of my molars broke off last night!)

9:15 Home from coffee and dentist (got a temporary fix).

9:45 T's (2) gymnastics class starts.

10:30 K's gymnastics class... MWH had the harder 45 minutes between when I left with T and when he brought K. He had to get N (5.5) ready for school and K (3) ready for gymnastics and all of their stuff for school... and out the door ... Poor guy looked exhausted when he got to gymnastics. (He needs a blog to tell you about it!)

11:15 leave K's class. Run home to get N her tennis shoes, K and T some lunch.

11:35 Remember I need my stuff for my meeting this afternoon.... Go in and grab it. Somehow it gets to be 11:45 and it's 5 minutes later than I wanted to leave. Curse silently.

11:52 I'm late. N's not at school on time. Go to the office and get a tardy slip. Get annoyed that the secretary marks it as UNEXCUSED. Geez. I'm doing the best I can. Decide that it takes a special kind of evil to be a school secretary.

11:55 MWH shows up to take over with T and K while I volunteer in N's class.

11:59 Still annoyed with the secretary. Have to go back and get a parent pass for being a volunteer. Try not to shoot daggers out of my eyes as I look at her.

12:03 Get in to N's class. Teacher wants me to photocopy papers.

12:05 Photocopy room has a HUGE line. Woo-hoo! I check email and send a couple and realize that I'm not going to be able do the copies before computer lab time. Happy dance.

12:15 - 12:30 Back in the classroom. I watch cuteness as they do the kindergarten welcome stuff.

12:30-1:05 Computer lab fun!

1:05-1:12 Talk with the teacher about my ideas for _________ and ________________. She likes the ideas. I tell her about my 11 years of experience in the field of ______________ _______________ __________ (very related field). I want to do things in the classroom that utilize my experience and help. I'm volunteering because I want N to have the best educational experience she can have.

1:12 Get T from MWH.

1:35 Make it 5 minutes late to my meeting at [local state] university. I have T with me. She's amazingly good. Experienced Mom (me) somehow grabbed a new Elmo book at the store this morning (on the way to dentist). Experienced Mom remembered crayons and toys too. Another faculty member played with T some (colored) while I did some stuff. Thank goodness for NICE people! Thank goodness T is a great kid! Thank goodness I somehow managed to plan ahead for T's needs during the meeting.

2:35 Leave meeting early to get N from kindergarten. Realize I should have left 5-10 minutes earlier, but I temporarily forgot that EVERYTHING takes longer to do with a toddler.

3:08 I'm 3 or so minutes late at pick-up for N. I am thankful that they don't give tardy slips at pick-up!

3:15 Leave kindergarten to go get K. T wakes up from her nap (I had to carry her to N's room from the car 2 blocks)... At most she got 25 minutes... Most likely she got 15.

3:30 Get K.

4:00 Get home and do snacks.

4:50 Turn on the TV for N and K. Put T in her crib to see if she'll nap.

4:52 Call Dentist to reschedule the appointment for tomorrow morning. Decide that I can't possibly sit in the dentist chair for two hours in the morning since I have so much other work to do. Schedule an appointment for two weeks from now. Sigh. Hope that we have a nanny/daycare by then.

4:53 Turn on Alfred and be very thankful for him. He works and works. He never complains. I love him. I wonder if they have a robotic nanny.

5:01 Call Daycare program at N's school to see if they can have her Monday morning. (I had forgotten to call yesterday because I was so worried about T & K's arrangements.)

5:20 Do a little happy dance because I got a slot for N on Monday morning! Yippee... Care has been found for all children between 10 and 3:05 on Monday.

5:25 Decide to let N and K watch another 1/2 hour of TV because I'm so exhausted and overwhelmed.

5:30 Grab computer and go through email. Be thankful that it's Friday and that no one really sends email on Friday.

5:35 Start to write down the day.

5:55 N and K's show is over. Watch them play. Hear T yelling from her crib. She never went to sleep. She just played. Big sigh.

6:05 End this entry and get T.

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I'm really exhausted. I could totally do the SAHM thing. I could keep myself busy and out of trouble, but I want to do a little work too. I like my work a lot. I really do. I can't do the SAHM and Working Mom thing at the same time without help. The context switching is REALLY hard. When N was a baby, MWH and I tried to do the daycare for just N by ourselves. After 2 weeks, we realized we needed help. Now with 3 little girls, we still need help. (Surprise, eh?)

I'm checking out lots of nanny leads, and lots of daycare options. I have emailed just about all my Mom friends and mailing lists and spoken with so many people about it. I'm still hopeful we can have a solution in place within two weeks.

This weekend, I need to

1. Work on my class lecture.
2. Grade papers--about 5 hours of work.
3. Work on that project I don't like.
4. Work on a project I do like that I will work on a LOT for the next few months.

Think good thoughts for me.