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Mornings are my worst time of day. I remember as a child not minding terribly much when the alarm went off. Not that I was ever perky early in the morning, but my father and I definitely leaned toward the “morning person” while my mother and sister leaned toward the “don’t talk to me for thirty minutes person.”
At some point I found my sanity and realized the beauty of sleep. Having children only cemented the truth that sleep is precious and not often to be found. Especially when your husband is a night owl but your children are on a strict schedule to get to school on time and learn stuff and so they must get up early. The world, or at least my family, is conspiring against me to not sleep.
Wednesday morning the alarm went off and I grumbled, then grumbled at least four more times as the snooze let me know I was still in bed and with each passing minute we’d be rushing more and more for the door to arrive at school on time.
But I just couldn’t get up, because getting up meant that I would next be peeling Little Missy out of bed while carrying a whimpering Baby Chickadee in my arms as I brought Little Missy‘s clothes downstairs for her before laying out the breakfast options and lunch option to my children, only to calmly say, “No, you can‘t have the chocolate cereal for breakfast without first eating something healthy [JUST LIKE ALWAYS]”, then warming milk for the baby while attempting happy conversation with my grade-schoolers just prior to making their home lunch, reminding them of what they need to do before heading out the door and dropping them at school. So I laid there and stewed and cursed the fact that eight hours of continuous sleep is not in my life and apparently won’t be ever again.
I’m sure the remedy to our situation is so obvious that one day I will say “Duh. Of course,” but right now I can’t find it.
Then I had a marvelous idea. A wonderful, happy idea. That maybe we could play hooky and I’d take the kids to breakfast. Then maybe go to the mall and they could sit on Santa’s lap and we’d make cookies in the afternoon.
But I reined it in and suggested to my children that maybe I get them to school a little late so that we could go out for a nice breakfast that I didn’t have to cook. They were okay with being a little late until they realized “a little late” meant they wouldn’t be there for announcements. Or lunch count. And those sweet little rule-followers panicked and had to think it through and before finally agreeing to give in to Mommy’s strange whim.
So we drove to Patti’s Place and ate among all the retirees who must have thought I was crazy to bring my school-aged children into a restaurant after their school day had begun. I let G and Little Missy order Dr. Pepper and chocolate-chip pancakes and they looked at fish and giggled at their baby sister and let me snap photos of the whole thing.
This will probably be the only time we so blatantly play hooky, but boy was it fun.
Erin Fox is a weekly columnist for the Augusta Gazette and a busy mother and wife. Her popular blog - erin’s little corner of the world - is at http://erinslittlecorner.com.
Mornings are my worst time of day. I remember as a child not minding terribly much when the alarm went off. Not that I was ever perky early in the morning, but my father and I definitely leaned toward the “morning person” while my mother and sister leaned toward the “don’t talk to me for thirty minutes person.”
At some point I found my sanity and realized the beauty of sleep. Having children only cemented the truth that sleep is precious and not often to be found. Especially when your husband is a night owl but your children are on a strict schedule to get to school on time and learn stuff and so they must get up early. The world, or at least my family, is conspiring against me to not sleep.
Wednesday morning the alarm went off and I grumbled, then grumbled at least four more times as the snooze let me know I was still in bed and with each passing minute we’d be rushing more and more for the door to arrive at school on time.
But I just couldn’t get up, because getting up meant that I would next be peeling Little Missy out of bed while carrying a whimpering Baby Chickadee in my arms as I brought Little Missy‘s clothes downstairs for her before laying out the breakfast options and lunch option to my children, only to calmly say, “No, you can‘t have the chocolate cereal for breakfast without first eating something healthy [JUST LIKE ALWAYS]”, then warming milk for the baby while attempting happy conversation with my grade-schoolers just prior to making their home lunch, reminding them of what they need to do before heading out the door and dropping them at school. So I laid there and stewed and cursed the fact that eight hours of continuous sleep is not in my life and apparently won’t be ever again.
I’m sure the remedy to our situation is so obvious that one day I will say “Duh. Of course,” but right now I can’t find it.
Then I had a marvelous idea. A wonderful, happy idea. That maybe we could play hooky and I’d take the kids to breakfast. Then maybe go to the mall and they could sit on Santa’s lap and we’d make cookies in the afternoon.
But I reined it in and suggested to my children that maybe I get them to school a little late so that we could go out for a nice breakfast that I didn’t have to cook. They were okay with being a little late until they realized “a little late” meant they wouldn’t be there for announcements. Or lunch count. And those sweet little rule-followers panicked and had to think it through and before finally agreeing to give in to Mommy’s strange whim.
So we drove to Patti’s Place and ate among all the retirees who must have thought I was crazy to bring my school-aged children into a restaurant after their school day had begun. I let G and Little Missy order Dr. Pepper and chocolate-chip pancakes and they looked at fish and giggled at their baby sister and let me snap photos of the whole thing.
This will probably be the only time we so blatantly play hooky, but boy was it fun.
Erin Fox is a weekly columnist for the Augusta Gazette and a busy mother and wife. Her popular blog - erin’s little corner of the world - is at http://erinslittlecorner.com.
