slice of life

SOL 24: laundry

G wet through his overnight diaper. Again. I strip the bed and gather all the laundry from his room. I walk to McK’s room and grab hers along with all visible yellows. Those things need to be cleaned. It all gets tossed into our giant front loader washing machine. It’s 9:30 AM.

I hear the musical notification to let me know that the load has finished and toss it into the dryer. A takes the kids on a walk to the park and I run to the grocery store for my weekly shop. When I open the door from the garage, I can see that A has started the laundry from our hamper. The kids’ laundry remains in the dryer. It’s noon.

I pull a clean yellow from the dryer for McK and the kids go down for a nap. A and I snack on some cheese and crackers and we each work on finishing up a few small tasks. I settle in to watch a show before we leave for dinner with Great Grandpa. The laundry continues to sit. It’s 4:00.

We get back from dinner and the nightly bustle begins. The kids run around with their second winds. We try to organize for the week and so I make the laundry switch. G is off to bed and McK starts her bedtime routine. The kids clothes go into their laundry hamper and our first load finally makes its way to the dryer. I toss the rest of our laundry into the washer and leave everything to sit in the laundry room. It’s 8 PM.

I finally sit down to start the big fold. I drag the fox embroidered hamper to the living room and fold all their tiny clothes. I shout to Aaron to grab our clothes from the dryer and make the last switch of the night. He announces that I never actually started the washing machine an hour ago. Of course I didn’t. I fold everything I can and wait for the never ending cycle to end. It’s 9:45.

I am writing for the 2019 March Slice of Life Challenge

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SOL 21: spring break eve

It’s the end of the day. One child is in bed and the other is stalling with requests for the bathroom, her song, and just one more hug. I am emotionally exhausted. This last push before spring break has taken its toll on me. My house looks like a tornado went through it. G-man has discovered the joys of the Tupperware drawer and McK has every doll she’s ever played with on the floor.

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SOL 11: Art

But I don’t wanna go to bed. The sun is still up.

Daylight savings time is killer on a toddler’s routine. She gets out of her bed every 10-15 minutes until close to 9:30. Tomorrow morning is going to be awful. I need to wake her at 6:00 AM when her little body still thinks it’s 5:00 AM.

Come morning, I bribe her to get out of bed with the promise of some TV before we leave…as long as she gets a move on.

It’s not time to go to school, Mama. It’s too dark outside.

She’s right. Just last week the sun threatened to burn a hole through your eyes when we pulled from the garage. Leaving home in the dark has a certain kind of eeriness about it…so much more so than coming home in the dark.

Along our way to school, the sky begins to brighten and we can see the trucks hauling their cargo beside us. It’s a new favorite game of ours.

What’s in that truck, Mom?

I think it’s a whole bunch of balloons.

And that one?

It must be macaroni and cheese.

It’s a fun game that began one day when she saw a large salad painted onto the side of a semi as we traveled our familiar route.

Look. God is painting the sky this morning.

When I look at the horizon, my heart stops. She’s right. It’s so beautiful that it could only have been created by God.

I think my Angels are helping him. They like to paint.

These are such wise words from a child who has never really spent a Sunday morning in church. Although we talk about God and she unfortunately is all too familiar with angels, we don’t attend any sort of formal religious services. We pray pretty regularly a simple prayer of Thank you, God, for…and please keep safe… Of course, we talk about our Angel Grandmas–we have all too many of those. Although we are fortunate to have many Grandfathers, we are light on Grandmas as they have all been called to heaven much earlier than anyone could have ever anticipated.

My Angels are good painters. Do you see all that pink, Mama? That’s my favorite color. They know that. They are painting for me.

I’m sure they are, Little One. I’m sure they are.

I am writing for the 2019 March Slice of Life Challenge

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