Kangatopia

I am not very well organized. Everyone will tell you this. I dream of being well organized. I fantasize about having an immaculately kept house. But, the truth is, that while I like to keep the dirty dishes to a minimum, the dirty clothes from growing mold, and a basic, if not well ordered, tidiness in our home – I am not one to place housekeeping and organization right up at the top of the list of priorities. Bedtimes, however, are another matter. God help a child who leaves a light on, or dawdles too long at bed time. Even though I rarely will spend a week night scrubbing out a toilet (that is, after all, one of the chores piled on Bear on the weekends), I generally try to keep up with the laundry – my success rate determined by how much there is to do (a lot of laundry will get shuffled off to another day – a little might find it’s way into a neatly folded pile on the floor) and how weary I feel (or how quickly I want to be in bed.)

Last night was a surprisingly energetic evening. Leaving the kids to have dinner with Shep, I raced off to the lake on my little blue bike and had a better than average ride. I was faster and stronger than most evenings. I think I’ve said it before, and I will probably say it a million times more, rides like the one last night are what keep me going with cycling. They give me hope that one day I will meet my goal of being one of the faster and stronger cyclists at the lake at any given time.

Then, upon my return, I had dinner with Shep, bathed the girls, got everyone into bed, made Bear’s lunch for his field trip to the wax museum, prepared blueberry muffin batter, showered, logged my last two rides, washed dishes, folded clothes, washed clothes, dried clothes, and read about 10 pages in the new Harry Potter. I am telling you all of this because I am proud of my own productivity.

However, in spite of all that activity last night, this morning did not go as well as I hoped. You see, my darling little baby turns 4 today. She is so amazingly cute, of course. Last night her anticipation made falling asleep a goal, rather than an immediate reaction to laying horizontal in a dark room. We woke her up this morning by singing Happy Birthday to her. Shep baked the muffins while I got ready, and then we all trooped downstairs to a lovely little breakfast of muffins and juice. The kids got ready for their day, and we all piled in the car and headed north. Then, I realized suddenly when we were about three miles away that I had forgotten Bear’s sack lunch in the fridge. So, we turned around, raced back, picked up the lunch and headed north again.

Once we arrived at the daycare, I found that all of Monkey’s classmates were going on a field trip to a play center and she was the only one not signed up. The crushing guilt inspired me to include her in the trip, but that meant that she too would have to have a sack lunch. Winston, too, needed cupcakes so that her classmates could help her ring in her new year. So, after sorting out the financials for Monkey’s trip, I sped off to the grocery store to purchase Monkey’s lunch, Winston’s cupcakes and 2 dozen party hats for Winston’s classmates.

Returning to the daycare, I found that what I wanted more than anything else in the world was to stay with my children. I visited each of their classrooms to give them gigantic hugs and to shower them with kisses (Bear was mortified), and Winston’s teacher who has a large pink stud pierced through her tongue, took a very sweet picture of Winston and me. Monkey was ecstatic that she was allowed to go on the field trip too, and her hug was especially strong.

Finally, I realized that my presence was disruptive, and after stopping to call in to work from the daycare’s phone (I forgot my cell today), I motored off to work to sit in my office which, sometimes, feels a lot like a cave.

My baby turns 4 today. I wish I had a way to bottle up each ounce of her sweetness, every moment I have with her – except, maybe, those when she shrieks.