One day at a time

Day 16: There’s a mom for that

Today brought a little bit of everything.

The morning started off like every other Tuesday and Thursday, sort of, but there were a few hurdles thrown in the mix this morning. I got up early to get to work before the chaos I knew would erupt within the first hour of everyone else’s day.

Brooke had a doctor’s appointment first thing, but it wasn’t conventional. She received a phone call from our family doc around 8:30 a.m. – the time we had scheduled her visit last week, before these changes to medical practice came into play. Thankfully her appointment was only to have some medications refilled, so a brief telephone chat could do the trick.

Immediately afterwards I had to drive Kevin to his office because his car is in for repairs, and stop quickly at the store for milk before getting back to work at home.

The school kids were into their assignments when I returned and Hannah proudly showed off her work in a photo to send her teacher while Christian was head-down in his math world, Brooke was reading a short story for English and Alyssa took on some of this week’s science. It was quiet, peaceful even, as they worked and I was able to be productive.

Then it was time for their outside play or exercise, and with the weather as miserable as it was this morning, they all opted for indoor activities. Alyssa headed to the basement for her personal workout (“Don’t you dare take photos of me, I don’t even want you guys to see me doing this”).

I became phys-ed teacher/coach mom and pushed Christian and Hannah through a 25-minute HIIT workout. The Boy is slowly learning good form for push-ups, planks and squats – and as days go by, the level of whining is diminishing ever so slightly.

Hannah, meanwhile, is expert at following along with the routine until it bores her (with HIIT, that happens after the first of three interval sets) and she starts making up her own moves with crazy antics and contagious giggles. I don’t care, as long as she’s still moving.

They had a half hour of music before settling back in to more schoolwork, and Christian wanted to scan a math assignment he’d done by hand to turn it in via email. Enter IT tech mom.

It shouldn’t have been so difficult – everyone else is able to connect to the printer with their computers, but my poor boy is working on an ancient laptop with an outdated version of Windows. I inserted the disc (we still had it, and that was miracle enough) with the printer software, but his computer wasn’t up to the task and after nearly half an hour of waiting, it stalled out.

Too bad – I thought I’d have him up and running, and a little more self-sufficient for future assignments. He compromised and found his own way by taking a photo and emailing it in from his phone.

We're learning to roll with the punches around here and that's a good thing, because if we didn’t we’d all be laid out by now.

At lunch, I had three baby birds begging for food, so chef mom made salad for four – not for Hannah, because “salad is boring” so she opted for last night’s leftovers.

I’ve been a referee today, when there was fighting (largely the five-year-old’s stubbornness at play) over Wii Music – by the way, that old game is awesome at keeping them engaged with musical endeavours and fine motor skills when they’re tired of playing their actual instruments, and it’s something they can all do together.

There have been appearances from dictionary mom, mom the maid, editor and encyclopedia mom, and mom: detective extraordinaire (I can find anything just by looking; it’s incredible).

After the school bells have stopped ringing for the day and my work is done, then I can just be Mom – and that’s my favourite.

Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca

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