Manic Monday...

Mondays are the best day of the week...says no one...ever. Mondays are like the vegetables of the week. They are necessary...tolerated...some people may enjoy them, but the majority of people, I feel, would agree that if Mondays were skipped periodically, we'd all be okay with it. Mondays after a holiday break? They are the Brussel Sprouts of Mondays; little green balls of yuck that make you grimace. But again, necessary, to get back to school, work, routine.

We live in base housing on Camp Pendleton and I received notification at the end of last week that there would be scheduled water shut offs starting today, with our street on the list of 'probably affected' by the work. Great! In preparation for said shut off, that may or may not happen, I made sure all of our laundry was done by last night. As a result, I now have a mountain to fold...which is nothing new because let's face it, laundry is the NeverEnding Story of adulthood. I'm not sure which is worse, laundry that never ends, or having to think of, then cook, new things for dinner each night...

As it is the Monday after a holiday break, the kids are also going back to school today. But, because of COVID, school will be virtual the next 2 weeks. I'm assuming that this is an attempt to have those who may have travelled/had visitors over the break to quarantine. Which is fine. But fine means I will have my 3 children, plus myself, plus my youngest daughter's nurse, in a house that may or may not have water to flush toilets. As a mom...potty necessities are always on my mind. (Also, as a mom, the word potty, though childish, is just what you say when referring to the bathroom after giving birth to your first child. It's in the parenting manual). So, bathtubs and sinks have been filled with water, just in case. I feel like I'm prepping for a hurricane instead of a Monday morning.

Speaking of school...with a 13 year old, a 6 year old, and a 4 year old...let's just say that my mom super powers only reach so far. Having three different online school schedules means different start times, different break times, lunch times, zoom times...pretty much any time they need to do anything academic, it's all different. So, I've set my alarms. 10 to be exact. And those 10 only pertain to the 1st grader and the Pre-K-er. Since my oldest is in 8th grade, I've chucked him into the deep end of the responsibility pool and told him he needs to keep tabs on the clock and log in on time, each time, for each class. I still check on him periodically, as he is only a teenager, and the call of internet games is hard to resist, but as far as alarms for check-ins, he's on his own.

To add to the craziness that is the first Monday back to routine following our two week holiday break, we are having a new TV that we got as a Christmas present installed today. I met with the installer to escort him on base, then came back and realized I had yet to move the piece of furniture that was in the way of the wall where the TV would be mounted. I quickly unplugged everything, and moved it out of the way.

Then my son asks if he can go play with the dog, who is frantically barking in the backyard, due to the new person in the house that she has not had a chance to give the 'okay' on.

Me: "Shouldn't you be in school?"

DJ: Points to his computer where the screen shows, 'internet connection lost.'

Me: "What did you do?"

S: (My daughter's nurse) "Didn't you just..." and kindly points to the moved piece of furniture where I just unplugged everything by the TV, to include the internet...whoops! So I rush over and bend down to open the glass cabinet door to get to the cord to plug it back in, but my timing, as my husband will testify, sucks, and since I was bending down as I was opening, my mouth met with the corner of the cabinet door.

So, so, so, so (I cannot write enough 'so's) thankful that my bottom two teeth are still in tact. However, the top of them did slice nicely into the inside of my lower lip (and as you can see from the middle picture, I dented my face). So now, with the dog barking non-stop, my 6 year old whining because he's so over school (already), the drill of tools for a TV mount being installed in the background, the baby crying over the loud noise of those tools, an ice pack on my throbbing lip...I wish today was over so it could be any other day of the week except Monday. Did I mention it's only 11:31am?