I know you all must be as sick of hearing about my schedule as I am writing about it. But, hey! I just walked in the door. For the first time in 6 hours, and that’s a record this fall.

Tuesday was that sleepy little day with no tutoring, and I could see the long day unfolding in front of me. So I scheduled Imani and Esteban’s gymnastic classes on Tuesday nights. That’s as opposed to Monday or Wednesday, when Joy has gymnastics, but I did NOT see myself getting home after 7 on those nights, so that was out.

But then the only days Yanni could get her math class at the community college were Tuesday and Thursday. And, hearkening back to that sleepy Tuesday, I thought it was the only day I could conceive of grocery shopping on, bi-weekly, of course.

So our sleepy day took a turn for the high-speed treadmill around 1:30, when I was supposed to take Yanni to class early so I could buy groceries for an hour and then go back home for another hour before the evening rush. But. . . it was not to be. My father came over at 1:30, so we didn’t really leave until around 2. And we didn’t get to the store before 2:30, and we didn’t get done shopping until 3:30. Yanni’s class was out at 4:15, but I thought I’d get her late so we could melt right into gymnastics/lifeguard training/picking up Curtis/back to gymnastics/then take Xay to basketball/take the babies home/go to a homeschool workshop with Miriam/go pick up Xay/then pick up Yanni.

So I made dinner real quick at 4 ish, while riding the children to put the food away. The absolute latest I wanted to leave for the evening rush was 4:30. We hit the broadside of that number, and I dropped off all the children except Chanya at gymnastics 4 minutes early. I got to the college, right down the street from gymnastics, by 5–the time Yanni was supposed to be at lifeguard training. I hit the highway to the tune of house music–rush hour music, and got her there by 5:09. Then I was off to pick up Curtis. The sun was setting as we got home, and I was off again to catch the last 15 minutes of gymnastics.

I rushed the children to the car so we could take Xay early to basketball so I could have a chance of getting to my workshop by 7. Xay was 6 minutes early, and I had to take all the children home. It was 7:02 by the time I was out the garage headed to my workshop. I got there at 7:10 and then proceeded to get lost in the huge church.

A man that I should have recognized must have known me, because he knew where I was going, and told me how to get there. The workshop was fascinating, and I hated to leave early to go get Xay, but. ..

And to make a long story bearable, I found myself at long last at home after 10 PM to finally eat that hastily prepared dinner. It was cold, but much appreciated.

Any day after this will be cake.