This week should be over now, I think.

It's been a rough one so far, and we've only made it to Wednesday. Here are a few of the highlights. Starting with today:

I picked George up from school and explained to him that today would be our big day to become members of the library again. We had banned all library uses from the Earnest household until we learned how to do it better. It's not supposed to be like Blockbuster where you pay to rent stuff. It's supposed to be free, but it was costing us a pretty penny to be members of the library, so we quit. But I realized we should join again. So we went. Lost library books and lots of money in hand to get our name back on the good list. It's nearly noon and I have three kids with me. Maybe it was a bad plan to begin with, but I'm never one to realize such things ahead of time. I should have had a feeling though as this was the conversation George and I had on our way into the library:

"Mom, what would you do if I ran away?"
"I would call the police."
"No, I mean, what if I didn't want you to find me."
"I would call the police and I would make them find you."
"But what if I had left to go and find a better world. What would you do to me when you found me?"
"I would tell you I was sad that you didn't like us enough to stay with us."
"But mom, it's just that I had to run away to find a better world."
(I think he wishes this week were over too.)

Well, that was the end of the conversation since we got to the front door of the library, but it was a weird conversation that left me feeling sad. So then, within my first three minutes of negotiations at the front desk, one of my girls is crying so loud in the other room that the entire library turns to see who that child's mother is. I will spare you the gruesome details (she had fallen off of something she already wasn't supposed to be climbing), but finally as we are leaving the library, here is what I had agreed to, two books and three movies, got it?! So I had handed that stack to George since the girls were requiring all of my limbs to get them out of the front doors. I get them to the car, turn back to see if George is behind me, only to see him walking towards me with two books and ONE movie!

We aren't even out of the library and we have already lost stuff. No wonder I had canceled our membership for so long! I have to go back into the library tell the lady who already thinks I'm crazy that we have already lost something, and should it be found, could they please just re-check it in for me. It was terrible. After a search of all the places George had been, we find the two stray movies. And of course for the rest of the afternoon no one wants anything to do with the items that were so vital to their happiness while at the library!

That was today. Not that bad you say, such things happen to all of us. I know, but it's just I was already tired from the other two days ahead of this one. But I'm going to skip Tuesday (the day Darin reminded me that there is always the possibility that he should do a 12 month remote assignment) because we can only handle so much wallowing I realize.

But Monday was the worst.

My gym just got bought out and did away with childcare. It was my sanctuary. My 55 minute Hawaiian escape in the middle of my day, and just like that, without even consulting it's members, do away with child care. So now that school has started again I have been on the search for a new place to call, "our gym". On Monday I decided the girls and I would test out the YMCA. I had heard good things about their Kid Watch program, so I thought we should go see for ourselves. I'm getting the girls out of the van and of course they don't have shoes on anymore. I'm climbing all over the van getting shoes on, unbuckling girls, making sure no one runs into the parking lot to get hit by a car, grabbing my purse and running inside. I have a passing thought, "don't lock the doors." That was the thought. But I was so annoyed at the thought, almost to spite myself for such foolishness, I push the lock button on my door, shut the doors and go inside the gym. We enjoy a twenty minute orientation session. The girls get to play on the outdoor playground. It's finally 11, so it's time to go get George, so we head out to the van. I'm rummaging through my purse on the way only to realize there are NO keys in my purse, ANYWHERE. I instantly know that they are locked in the car, and that's why I had had the thought in the first place. Tears are right behind the surface of my eyes. I instantly feel so completely sorry for myself that I just want to melt into the asphalt of the parking lot. I turn the girls around head back inside and have to tell the lady who just spent the last twenty minutes with me that I'm back inside because I'm locked out of my car. Of course, Darin can't be reached, he's in class. We have no other sets of keys at home,

I've lost them all.

George is now in need of being picked up in ten minutes, and I'm fifteen minutes away, IF I COULD GET INTO MY CAR!! I start dialing phone numbers trying to solve all the problems. Anyway, the problems did all get solved, and we did get home as did George. But it still just leaves you asking the question, "Why?". Why me, why today, why at the YMCA?

Anyway, enough already. The Back to School Picnic and ward Chili Cook Off have huge shoes to fill if they are going to try to put a pretty bow on the package that was this terrible week. And it's only Wednesday. I think George has the right idea. And I should re-question him tomorrow about what would HE do if I was the one who ran away in search of a better world....

Until tomorrow, since I know it will come. Good night.