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Because it’s Friday the 13th of course…

Today was one of those days that I would have been better off staying in bed.  Actually, ANY day would be better spent in bed in my opinion, but that’s beside the point.  The error, I believe, was in the planning, not the execution.  I knew I had to have the house picked up and get in the shower in time to go to the grocery store, come home, unload said groceries, go to the elementary school to pick up my daughter, and be home by 11:30 when 5 ladies were scheduled to arrive at my home for Bible study.

I thought I allowed enough time.  I left the house at 10:10, thinking that surely I could be back home unloading groceries within an hour.  But instead I found myself in the checkout line at 11:10.  Still, I thought, no problem.  I can get home and get the groceries unloaded before people arrive.

And then reality called — DING-A-LING!  Hello!  YOU STILL HAVE TO PICK UP YOUR DAUGHTER AT SCHOOL!

How can a mother forget such a crucial piece of information?  WHEN SHE DOES THIS PICKUP AT THE SAME TIME EVERY DAY?

Suddenly it felt very warm.  My mind started whirling.  Who can I call to pick up my daughter?  I tried phoning a neighbor, but there was no answer.  There is no one else I know who does this kindergarten pickup.  I decided that I would just move as fast as I could and apologize to everyone in my wake.  I arrived at the school at 11:30 to find the pickup line still in full swing.  Usually by 11:30 there are only stragglers left and I can drive right up to the curb and grab my precious cargo and go.

Turns out the Valentines Day party made everyone late, and not only was I not a straggler, I had to wait my turn in the car line, adding another 5 minutes to the whole process.  I arrived home at 11:40 to, surprisingly and thankfully, no cars in my driveway.  Immediately I started carrying bags of groceries into the house as ladies began to arrive.

Trying not to appear as flustered as I felt, I invited them to start eating their lunches while I put the perishables away.  I calmly made coffee, made my lunch, sat down, and started to open with prayer when my 2 daughters appeared by my side, asking for lunch.  Since Alice didn’t appear from the next room and offer to make a couple sandwiches, and because it’s Friday the 13th and THE BABYSITTER WASN’T ABLE TO MAKE IT TODAY, I asked someone else to start asking questions while I removed myself from the table long enough to throw a few peanut-butter sandwiches together.

As I stood at the counter spreading peanut butter on bread and fighting tears of defeat, I prayed for composure.  How I long to be one of those people who can handle these sorts of situations in stride.  I can’t.  I just wanted to crumple into a heap on the floor and give up — exactly what people are looking for in a Bible study leader, right?

God is good and I managed to get lunch on the table and return to the study with my composure in tact.  I had just taken over leading the discussion when my 3-year-old piped up from her perch beside me at the table, “Mom!  I wanted peanut butter on my sandwich!”  I took a look at her plate to find two pieces of bread with nothing to hold them together.  Now if that isn’t the perfect metaphor of my day, I don’t know what is.  Evidently I should have been praying for my sanity along with my composure.

We managed to salvage the rest of the bible study, and as soon as everyone was gone, I breathed an enormous sigh of relief.  But no sooner had I let down my guard did my daughters start begging me to cook with their Easy Bake Oven.

Now, if you don’t know this about me already, I detest the Easy Bake Oven and its teeny-tiny packets of a teeny-tiny amount of mix which needs a teeny-tiny bowl and a teeny-tiny amount of water and creates a teeny-tiny amount of batter.  And I have to watch as hives break out over every inch of my body as 6-year-old hands mix and stir and lick and fill the teeny-tiny cake pans with an insufficient amount of batter.  In other words, the Easy Bake Oven is a labor of love.

I contemplated the project ahead if I granted my approval, and then I contemplated the computer that I had neglected all day calling to me from my office, and then I contemplated the fact that my daughter spent half her day in school and the other half playing Webkins while I entertained the ladies of my church.

And I agreed to do the Easy Bake Oven.

I set them up and then pointedly looked the other way, cleaning up the kitchen as they mixed and stirred and licked and finally spread the batter in their pans.  While they were occupied, I remembered the box that had been dropped off on my doorstep earlier in the day.  I hauled it into the kitchen and dug the scissors out of the recesses of my junk drawer and broke into the box to find two bottles of African wine — a red and a white — for my review blog.

And a light shone brightly and the angels sang.

At least there was a silver lining to an otherwise crapfest of a day.

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23 Responses

  1. This sounds EXACTLY like a day I would have…it felt almost eerie to read it! I hope you are sipping, I mean reviewing some of that good stuff now!

  2. Jo-Lynne–if those women know you well enough to share a Bible Study with you then they love you and did not even think to blink an eye at your frazzled-ness. We all have days like that, and while it would be great if they were not in view of other people, that is rarely the case. In fact, you allowed yourself to be vulnerable and that speaks to your quality as a leader of a group like that. None of us is perfect after all.

    And I wish I could share the wine with you. My day was great, all things considered, but I could stand some wine anyway.

  3. I am sorry you day felt rotten. But I loved the ending!

    And I do have to say that your no-peanut butter sandwich made me laugh. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one that does things like that!

    Happy Weekend!

  4. I’m laughing so hard! Not at your bad day. I empathize with you on that. But about the Easy Bake Oven. You’ve convinced me that should we ever have a girl, I will not buy her one of those. I thought the ridiculously big and complicated train set that my son always wants me to help put together was bad. Now I’m thinking not so much. Nope. Not so much.

  5. LOL. I’m roaring… a light shone eh? 🙂 I can so relate to, well, the whole thing. lol And good for you for leading a women’s bible study. And I completely relate to falling apart at a crunch time like that! I’d be in tears too if I had to haul in groceries and try and remain pleasant to a bunch of ladies. For some reason I have it in my head that a hostess should be calm and focused on her visitors… weird. Like that’s EVER been me!

    Hope tomorrow is better! 🙂
    Cathy

  6. Are you spying on me or something, because that sure sounds A LOT like my last couple of days. Have to run here and there and everywhere, but this store doesn’t open until after I’m already supposed to be home…need to call them back, sign this homework packet, buy Valentine’s treats, help him with report…and on and on it goes!

    I bet your bible study gals could relate too…;)

  7. Oh dear, I can empathize. I’ve been loaded up on pain pills all day. So it hasn’t been any better over here. I’m glad everything eventually fell into place for you though. Enjoy your wine. 🙂

  8. Girl – you make me laugh! We had an easy bake oven too (operative word HAD) Some day you can get rid of it and will never had to eat from it again. It is a pain isn’t it. At least there was a light at the end of the tunnel :}

  9. Hey, What a day. I am so sorry. Just kept thinking man oh man when will it end?

    PS = I still have to re-enter all my above info when Ihit this blog but on reviewsings I do not – it always remembers me.

  10. Oh the irony. You prayed to be a woman of grace and composure under stress and you WERE! To say YES to the EBO after a crazy day and afternoon was a big ole stamp of grace from God!

    And if there was a Facebook Group of “Easy Bake Oven Haters” I would SOOOOOOOOOOO be on it!

  11. Oh, such answered prayer! I love that ending to your yucky day.

    I just went through that similar thought this week. How can I keep doing all that I do? Something had to give this week. Of course, then I added something else, but it does not require me to get in my car and be somewhere other than my house.

    Hang in there – things will look up!

  12. You detest the Easy Bake Oven as I detest Play-Doh. In fact, my kids are making a mess of my floor and freshly cleaned table with the itty bitty pieces they break off, as I type this. I feel your pain. Hope you enjoyed the wine!

  13. That sounds like Hubby’s day today. Rough, but working out in the end.

    I have a hard time with the Easy Bake Oven too, I would love to just do it all, and let her have the rewards. If only it worked that way!

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