Friday Five: Killing Time
Have I mentioned yet how much time I have spent NOT enjoying summer?
We've experienced a series of spectacular storms throughout the summer thus far which have kept us indoors/on dry land for days at a time. When we're not dodging storms, I'm driving kids. The "extra" time I have in between shuttle appointments is roughly 27.5 minutes. You would think that "almost" a half-hour would be just as good as a straight 30 minutes, but I'm telling you, those 2.5 minutes that I typically fall short are the ones that really break me. Give me 30 minutes or give me death! That is my new mantra.
1) The thrift store is usually good for killing 20 minutes or so. The kids are easily bribed by the promise of a new book, and occasionally I'll get suckered into buying a game like "Don't Break the Ice" for $0.99. This game is basically 1% actual ice breaking and 99% putting the ice back together. Wheee!
2) Another thing that really kills my schedule are the unexpected waits and the activities that suddenly come up. Eliza will instruct me to pick her up from a sleepover at 10:00 only to get in the car and inform me that she is due at another friend's house across town at 10:15.
As Weston is starting high school and Larissa is entering kindergarten, they both needed physicals. We were scheduled for a 10:00 start time (which I remembered just as I was buckling the kids into the car for a morning at the Farmer's Market. Grrrrrr!) What should have been two 15 minute appointments turned into a solid 100 minute block. Instead of having an extra hour to run a couple of errands, I had just enough time to literally run out of the doctor's office and race to the other side of town to get Eliza from gymnastics. Usually I'm adamant that the kids not randomly touch/play with things in the exam room, but after 20 minutes of waiting, I let Larissa have at it. I was ready to conduct the exam myself at that point.
During the appointment there was a lot of scrambling to figure out whether shot records were updated. The paperwork required to keep five kids alive is astounding. I'm surprised that the dogs' records weren't mixed in there as well. For all I know, Larissa got a shots for distemper and rabies!
3) All this rain has wreaked havoc with the baseball season. There are games being rescheduled at the last minute which makes for a lot of "Keystone Cops"-like exits from our house. Weston has to be at the field 1 hour early for warm-ups, but unfortunately main street traffic in our town makes it virtually impossible to leave and accomplish much of anything in that hour, so I'm usually relegated to the bleachers to catch up on my serious reading while the other kids get completely filthy in baseball diamond dust. (Our summer bath count is up to at least 5,000).
I have my finger on the pulse of what's happening in the world today, let me tell you. (And the world's pulse is pretty damn weak).
Truth: I heard that the typical People Magazine article is written so that it can be read entirely in one bathroom visit. The sad thing is...I don't even have the luxury of that kind of time!! Let's recap: I do NOT have enough free time in one sitting to complete a People Magazine article.
4) Speaking of baseball, Weston has had a rough season. He has been in a terrible hitting slump since day one, and he is NOT the kid you want to give platitudes to. AT. ALL. His team has struggled to gel as well, so basically every game I brace myself for the drive home that inevitably includes phrases such as, "I am the worst baseball player in the history of Babe Ruth (his league)!!)" and "I hate this stupid game", and my personal favorite, "I hate you for signing me up for this stupid game." Ahhhh...the rich rewards of parenting.
Thankfully in the last several games his team has pulled together and Wes has seemed to have found his inner Bull Durham. Tonight he went 3 for 3, including a pair of doubles (whew!) He's really a great athlete and despite the (ahem) bumps in the road, I do love watching him play.
5) I'm not kidding, this is what it's like to be in my car. All. The. Time.
Actually, there's a LOT more screaming and crying and mean words -- they caught on that I was recording them.