My day started inauspiciously: The Boy had carryover upset from an incident at school that was compounded by pants troubles, and #3 had clothing struggles (my boys do not like to transition from shorts to pants, tees to jackets, sneakers to sandals in my experience) this morning that caused tears, yelling, and tardy slips (not mine).
As a side note, I’ve been struggling with how to communicate about my mothering here. The Boy is now almost 12 and is developing his own online personality. I want to be authentic about my experience and challenges, but I also feel like it’s somewhat inappropriate to write a lot about him. I’m still figuring out how to write about my experience while respecting his privacy and experience.
After a nap (mine), the day got better. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to finish watching The Amish: Shunned on Netflix. It was good. Like any Midwesterner who has spent any time in the country, I find the Amish fascinating. From what the film reported, it struck me that the Amish and the Mormons are similar. I’m a lapsed Episcopalian who veers between agnosticism and atheism. Religion is a cultural phenomenon to me, not a habit of daily life.
I left the house to attend a meeting before school pick-up, but the meeting was postponed so I trotted over to my local Starbucks to do some organizing work for my various projects: training for my local PTA units, reviewing website design and CMS tools for schools, and re-scheduling my in-the-weeds volunteer gig for tomorrow.
At 3:30, my real work for the day began. I fought traffic to take The Girl to her guitar class, then fought traffic back to school to pick up #3 and The Boy after their soccer class and pick-up football game, respectively. Then fought traffic back to pick up The Girl from her guitar class (I was 1/2 an hour late, poor kid). Then back home and back to school for an LSC committee meeting. It was a lot of back-and-forth in the car.
When I got home from the committee meeting, I started laundry, read Divergent to The Girl, read books to #3, (I’m reading To Kill a Mockingbird to The Boy, and #3 and I just finished The One and Only Ivan as our read-aloud) and tucked everyone into bed.
Chicago Mama 