A mother's day

Just a day as a mom.

I breakfasted with Tessa, packed her lunch, and drove her to Pascal's house to pick him up for our carpool. We went to school together, and while Ms. Coghill got the students ready for the day with their morning routines, I sharpened several hundred pencil crayons. (Really. This is exactly as exciting as it sounds.) Then, time for reading groups - two groups of squirrely, excitable little kids struggling to figure out if "hat" and "map" are rhymes, and if "hand" and "lamb" rhyme, and whether the picture is of a fan, fat, or can.

Leaving school, I saw a little girl come in from recess and land flat on her face - ouch! - on the pavement. I ran to her, scooped her up, checked in with her teacher, and carried her (she was small) to the nurse's office, where we wiped her up, put an icepack on her forehead, and I talked to her as she calmed herself.

Then, home, via PCC to pick up milk, maple syrup, and a few other essentials.

Now, cleaning up breakfast dishes, trying to ignore the mountain of laundry calling me to be folded, and prepping the basket of books to return to the library.

Pick up at 3:15, then straight to Jessie's birthday party. Come home from the birthday, make dinner.

It's a mother's life, and it just sounds so bland and flat when I write it like that. There are moments, certainly, when I think that the tedium will overcome me, and I long to stretch my mind or to focus on my own selfish desires....but still, it is worth it.

Today Tessa will told me who argued on the playground, and who told a funny joke, and what she did that made her proud. And I will know her school friends in the stories from my visits, and this will warm my heart.

And I will find an hour to work on the book, and maybe to even sit on the couch and sip coffee for a moment.

It's not always exciting, but it's my life, and I've fought hard for it. There is happiness.