Plans to be great...

Whenever my man goes on a business trip I have great expectations for when he gets back.  I plan to have a clean house.  I plan to have fed, clean and rested children.  I plan to look nice and maybe even have a romantic night in store.  I love the wonderful images I have of myself getting all the usual done and even more to make his return, as Fancy Nancy would say, extraordinary.   During his recent business trip, the last few days, I convinced myself I would paint a couple walls, in a couple different rooms and even decorated our new, almost completed, family room.  My man is finishing up a built-in wall system project.   Oh, hell.  To be honest I also thought I would plan a surprise get away for Father’s Day to the Black Hills or go to the local sports store and look into bikes for him, the kids and I.  Obviously I think too much of myself.

The second he was gone I found myself at home with three kids and our usually summer schedule.  The summer schedule is a lot like the way I image my time during his business trip,  grandiosely planned, with plenty of room for, as Katy Perry would put it, epic failure.  We have swimming lessons, tutoring, piano lessons, library, play dates, Art Club and camps.  Sure, this might not sound like a lot if you do not have kids, but when it is just me driving from point A to point B with three kids and a screwed up nap schedule it is, as Dora the Explorer would say, muy dificil.

So, three tutoring sessions, a piano lesson, a violin lessons, three swimming lessons, two play dates, one Art Club meeting, five swim passes bought, one evening at the pool, one wall painted, most the laundry done, dishes done and undone again, I am wiped out.  My plans for my man went about as far as the usual, plus one or two shopping trips with cranky children to learn that rugs can cost a lot!  In fact one rug is $6,000 dollars!  Ha.  The sales lady assured me I could clean it easily - when I told her I did not need a $6,000 scraping post, or puppy pad in my living room.  She eventually said, “what about 1200?”  Yeah, right.  I brought the kids home, no rug, no coffee table.  My man will have to like my cleaning the house and painting a couple walls.

By the night my man is supposed to be home ( ie now) I am watching the clock, checking my phone and mumbling under my breath “why the hell hasn’t he called YET… I thought he was already supposed to be here… I bet he got LOTS of GREAT sleep while he was gone… “  I have laundry left to do (I did not get it all done), dishes in the sink from yesterday (I did do my best with the dishes – but the thing about dishes they JUST NEVER STOP), I am tired (two of these lovely nights at least one child was up till midnight and one of these night all three were), I look worse than when he left (I have not had shower and I am sure I have a couple more wrinkles), and I am debating what to throw at him first – the over tired kids, the dishes, the laundry… oh, or the mini ant invasion I just found –can I add him making dinner to that?  The only romance tonight will be me with a long island, headphones and a bathroom door that is locked and barred.

Happy Wednesday!  Yeah, Middle of the Week!