Sunday Evening

After dinner and cleaning the kitchen, I began to fantasize about laying in my bed. I didn't want to sleep. I wanted to relax, recline, lounge, surrounded by my books, today's unread newspaper, pens, paper, laptop, remote, all within easy reach.

But first, I had to supervise the boys completing some overdue tasks like straightening up their rooms. I had my no-nonsense drill sergeant persona going and we were making some progress when my parents phoned. Hoping to divert my focus, Secret answered the phone, had a short chat with his grandparents where he sweetly asked them to get him a debit card (thankfully, they declined) and then handed the phone to me. When I initiated a conversation, the boys ran off, later claiming that they thought they'd done a terrific job on their rooms and had legitimately been excused. I finished my phone call and lassoed them back to the tasks at hand.

After the rooms were minimally tidied, Sport was directed to get in bed with the book he is supposedly reading for school. Through no fault of his (at least that is what he said), he couldn't comply because he couldn't find the book. Following a successful search and rescue, Sport got in bed with the book. Gleeful, thinking I was close to my own goal of climbing into my bed, I celebrated by folding a load of laundry that had been in the dryer for the entire weekend. As I finished, Secret Service approached and confided that while riding his bike through a small pond earlier in the day, his shoes had mysteriously become wet. Another hunt commenced, this one for Secrets' old pair of shoes. Another success! We found both shoes (don't you hate it when you can only find one?) and put them in a prominent place so that Secret could easily locate them tomorrow.

I could feel myself getting closer to being able to relax in bed. On my way, I let the dog outside to do his business, the woman I carpool with texted me to organize this week's driving, I mediated an argument between the boys about whose turn it was to have the dog sleep in their room, moved clothes from the washer into the dryer, filled Sports' humidifier, and got Secret a box of tissues. Every time I turned around, Sport was out of bed for one reason or another. I tucked him in three times, eventually issuing an ultimatum that if he popped up again he'd go to bed 30 minutes earlier tomorrow.

Finally, I was in my bed. Unfortunately, it was time to go to sleep.