The car seats were all buckled into the wrong car, the baby got out into the yard and ran around in the snow with her footy jammies, the car doors were iced shut, kids hadn't eaten breakfast......
It being 7:30 in the morning, it being 15° and trying to leave the house with all seven kids , I thought those were going to be the most challenging moments of the day!
We were a few minutes late for School Número Uno, made it on time for school number two, and a couple blocks from home and a few kids lighter the suburban, a.k.a. 'Burbee', started thumping, and bumping, and driving really rough. I put my hazards on and limped home, already thinking of how to reconfigure my day around a broken car and more kids than would fit in the other car. Sage was in St. Louis for work, so I was on my own.
I was filling in for someone at work and had to be there at 9:20, so at 9 I went out to start Sage's reliable little car to warm it up {so the baby wouldn't scream all the way there because her hands were cold....welcome to the best parts of winter, little one}. To my sinking heart, there were no beautiful sounds of engines turning. There were no sounds at all. The silly car was dead as a door nail!
Not admitting defeat I called a friend a couple of blocks away to see if I could borrow her car. She said of course, so I bundled all the kids up, unbundled Magnolia, changed her fresh little poop, rebundled her up, limped Burbee over there and took her minivan, barely making it to work on time.
After we changed cars, visited awhile and then limped Burbee back home {wondering how much permanent damage I was doing to her}, we had some lunch, and I called my pastor over to jump the car for me. Because I'm 37 years old and I've never jumped a car before. {{what?!?}} ....and after reading a HowTo on the inter-webs, I was afraid I would blow up both cars and melt my face off with my ignorance.
Still. Nothing. No noise at all.
During this time, Juniper happened to helpfully climb out of and unknowingly lock Burbee, with the keys in the ignition! so inside I go to scrounge around for a spare key. Yes thank you Lord, for once, FOR ONCE!!! something is where it's supposed to be! {small victories}
Auto Zone decided the battery was down for the count, and $119 later, a new battery was expertly put into Sage's little car.
But still, I didn't have any way to get the big girls home from school because there are eight of us and only six seats in Sage's car. I made a few Facebook queries and got rides home for the big girls. More small victories. This day won't beat me down!
Magnolia usually naps from 1 to 2, sometimes 2:30, but in the last week she has figured out how to climb out of her bed {LordHelpUsAll} and it wasn't until 2:15 that I finally got her to sleep! Which meant, if I woke her up at 2:45 to pick up the elementary kids, she would've only had a 30 minute nap! Enter another friend, who sweetly offered to bring the kids home to me. Relief! {and Mag slept until 3:45! for anyone who cares}
Now, I still had to go for my regular hour of work from 4:30 to 5:30, so I left the key in the mailbox for the big girls and we bundled up and headed out again. And then. I forgot that the left passenger side door was still iced shut, and went to open it to get Juniper out. Lo and behold, would you look at that? the handle broke right off into my hand!
I actually threw my head back and laughed out loud, LOL, L. O. L. like a complete bat-shit crazy lady.
(I'm sure I looked a little like this, the real-life version of my Halloween costume this year)
The rest of the evening, some taco soup from the freezer, some chores, a movie on a school night! diapering, teeth brushing, One fish – Two fish – Red fish – Blue fish, rocking, singing Twinkle twinkle and Jesus loves the Little Children, rubbing backs, saying prayers and tiptoeing out.
That.
That was all the perfect ending to a not so very perfect day.
