It’s been the kind of day where at 4 PM you’re wondering if it’s time to put the kids to bed yet.

It was the second day on the job for me. I made the mistake of logging in a half hour early, before I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes or even had a cup of coffee. My co-workers saw me on and it was training time! Right then and there. I learned a bit more about the systems and procedures and it was all good, but it meant that I was distracted as the kids walked out the door to get on the bus for school.

As a result, Cody forgot to get his lunch into his backpack, or his school books for that matter. In fact all he managed to get into his backpack was his sister’s Gameboy. I noticed the lunch and books sitting on the counter.. The books were just reading books and he had money in his lunch account, but I didn’t find out about the Gameboy till much later when he was home from school.

After work I got busy cleaning the house and doing some laundry. I always hate it when I get behind on cleaning/laundry because the whole family seems to take advantage of the mess. What’s one more sock on the ground? Who cares if coats are hung up. It’s easier to wear when it’s on the floor of the closet, right? The recycling papers and plastic I asked one of the boys to take out last night made it as far as the laundry room garbage. They didn’t think I’d notice if they stuffed it all into that tiny garbage and carefully covered it with a piece of paper. Finding various clothing items including MORE (how is this possible??) socks, toys, cups, spoons behind the couch was only adding to my joy.

When the boys got home from school, I promptly reminded Cody about making sure he had his books and lunch as I went through his backpack to see if he had homework. Right away I find some watercolor paints and an “FYI” from his school. This is Cody’s first ever FYI. (FYI’s are when you do something wrong at school that parents need to be notified about.)

As I read it he was standing there, head down but looking up at me with sad guilty eyes. He took his sister’s Gameboy to school, and the aid found him at recess trying to paint it black with the watercolors. His story was his sister didn’t want it anymore and he felt it should be black (it’s pink). The note also said they were sending home the Gameboy with Casey.. but Casey did not have it. This resulted in a quick call to the school, a chat with the principle, then me running to pick up said Gameboy before Melissa noticed it missing. Fortunately the black paint came right off with zero effort.

As I am writing this, my best friend in the world somehow just knew I was having one of THOSE kind of days and shared with me this video. I laughed my ass off. It was exactly what I needed to lift the mood I was in. Thank you, Cathy-friend. I love you!

The Mom Song