When the alarm went off, I thought in my sleep it’s not possible. And it wasn’t. It was 5:22am and the alarm company to Tersiguel’s was calling to let us know the fire alarm was going off. F*CK ME. I laid in bed and thought, this is it. Can we survive a fire after everything else?
Thankfully it was just a faulty something or other, and the alarm company was concerned when they couldn’t get a reading. I didn’t go back to sleep.
I got out of bed at 6:25 like I do every day. I made 4 cups of coffee that I wouldn’t get to drink until 7:50 when the kids and I climbed in the van to go to school.
I let Gale out, fed Gale, loved Gale, but not as much as she deserved because too many other things were happening.
I got the uniforms together, got the school lunches out (that L&L packed last night because back in January I put my foot down about them packing their own lunches) because both kids were staying after school, on a regularly scheduled half day.
I made breakfast. I reminded the boys to brush their teeth for the 900th time. Separated them as they argued in the bathroom over nothing. Told them “Uniform time.” LT go to it, L2 ran around naked for 5 minutes, at which point I yelled from my bedroom, “get dressed or get a spanking.” He came in my room with just tennis shoes and said, “I’m ready.”
Sure you are.
I got him in his uniform, helped LT with his tie, and cleaned his eye glasses. Grabbed my coffee, phone, work bag, and tote and we headed to the car.
It’s freaking international women’s day, and here I was mentally making a grocery list and kicking myself for not getting the boys’ pjs in the laundry because there were no more clean.
I ran a quick errand for school. I ran to work. I calculated that there was no way to get the 19 hours worth of work I had to do in 22 minutes. I grindded out the start of my tax season to do list.
I rolled out to volunteer at school. It was a good thing seeing L2 participating in serving the community. After all, it’s the very type of person I want him to be, but I was done.
With coaxing and bribing, L2 agreed to a trip to Trader Joe’s. I could have delayed, but there was nothing for school lunches tomorrow, so there was that.
He was very helpful, and because I knew he didn’t want to go, but was being a team player, I said yes to mango cream pops, cheddar rockets and blue tortilla chips.
We got out in record time and hauled it back to school where we picked LT up from art lessons.
It was the kind of afternoon that you thank Mother Nature for the amazing weather. The days are getting longer, and I was willing to let the kids play outside for as long as they wanted. And it all went to hell in a hand basket.
LT was behaving like jerk, picking on L2, and then it escalated to a new level when his father told him to go to his room. I will spare you the details of the next 60 minutes. I will say this, I knew in the shit, I wasn’t alone. Other moms had paved this road for me, and in my heart I was never so thankful for those women. Women I admire and taught me well, and support me as a mom.
I was scrambling getting the kids favorite dinner on the table, only to have to deal with disciplinary action in the background. In the mayhem Chef asks, “do the boys need baths?”
“Heck yes! Oh shit, I forgot they have no clean pjs!” I scrambled getting a load in the washer, got dinner to Chef and L2, and had a long talk with LT.
Afterwards, I had a mess to clean in the kitchen, but first I had to unload the dishwasher. And that’s when I stood in the kitchen thinking about the meaning of this day.
I could have so easily thrown in the towel. Thrown a temper tantrum while my kids enjoyed a rare evening with their father, and I was cleaning, but I didn’t. I needed serenity now.
I thought of all the women in this world treated like chattle because they are women, uneducated because they are women, judged by their looks before character because they are women, judged because of race, financial status, sexual orientation and their faith, valued less in the workplace because they are women.
I thought of all the women that forged a path for all women when doing so would get them killed, stoned, raped, tortured, possibly all of the above.
I thought of the women that gave and give a voice to the voiceless, gave and give hope to the hopeless, gave and give a stepping stone for all women to move forward.
I thought of women like me, moms digging deep each day to show an example to our children of what a woman in this world is capable of: a fortune 500 CEO, a supreme court justice, a teacher, an author, a mother, and more, and how she should be treated. And to show our children the types of people we hope they grow into.
When it was all said and done today, I blared the 80s music in my kitchen, had a dance party with Landon, and made a sour cherry ice cream float.
I did exactly what I tell Chef each day when he asks, “I survived, and so did the kids.”
I never want a woman’s value, worth or existence questioned because she is a woman. God gave woman the strength to hold the weight of the world, to bare children, to raise them, and to love fearlessly and endlessly.
To all the women – you are so loved. So, so loved. You are valuable. When you look in the mirror, if you see nothing, know this, the rest of us see you, love you, admire you, support you. WOMEN – keep persisting and keep on keeping on.