Have you ever had those days where you are so proud of yourself because things are finally going smoothly. You are finally managing to get things accomplished on your To-Do list. You feel like you are winning at life. Then something ridiculous happens and you wonder how you are still sane. There are those days where if you and your kids are all alive by the end of the day you count that as a win because sometimes you are just trying to survive this crazy chaotic life. This has been my experience as mother/stay at home mom…especially recently.
It is summer break here in Southern Indiana which means it’s s that time of year when the kids are home all day everyday and think they need 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 2 dinners, and 27 snacks in between! I swear my kids have multiple stomachs. That being said, it also means the start of summer activities, camps, summer sports, etc. This past Sunday we sent our oldest son Carter to camp. He was there from Sunday to Thursday. Today (Friday) we sent our youngest son Liam to the same camp. He is only old enough to go to Overnight camp. Carter is old enough to take the church bus with the other kids since they were staying multiple days. Liam however had to be dropped off directly at camp since he is only there overnight.
Our morning went a little like this. Our alarm goes off for my husband to get up for work. My husband and I are laying in bed talking about all the things I need to get together before I drop Liam off. He asked me what time I needed to leave so I checked google maps to see how long it would take to get there. It’s about a 45 minute drive from our house. He asked what time check in was and for some reason I though it was 5:00pm but I double checked to be sure. NOPE!!! It was NOT 5pm it was 9:00am! Somehow I managed to look at Carter’s check in time instead of Liams. They have all the different camps check in/check out information on one page and Carter’s was right above Liam’s info. The saddest part is I checked that list multiple times and every single time I was looking at Carter’s camp info instead of Liam’s. To make matters worse, it was already 7:11am, I didn’t have Liam packed yet (I thought I still had time), and all three kids were still sleeping.
Needless to say, I flew out of bed like a crazy person, yelling for the 3 kids to wake up and get dressed, get myself dressed, and pack Liam’s bag. I’m not sure how, but I managed to get the kids ready, myself dressed (that’s about all I had going on for myself), Liam’s bag packed, everything loaded, and on the road in 35 minutes. It definitely helped that I was able to just throw Carter’s toiletries bag in Liam’s suitcase. Thank the Lord for McDonalds mobile ordering. I was able to pull in and pick up the kids some breakfast before leaving town. By the Grace of God we somehow managed to do all these things and STILL arrive at camp 20 minutes early (and yes I drove the speed limit).
The day before I felt like I was killing this mom thing because I was able to complete all my errands with 2 of the kids (we had a lot of stops to make) and pick Carter up from church on time all by myself because my husband was still at work. Fast forward a few hours later and I feel like I’m about to loose my mind and can’t believe that I made such a silly oversight which would’ve made my son miss camp. Part of me is so proud of myself for actually making it in time but the other part of me is having some serious mom guilt over the “what if”. So here’s to all the mama’s and papa’s out there wearing the typical multiple hats that parents tend to wear and juggling multiple schedules… YOU ARE AWESOME!