I think Kevin Spacey won my heart at this specific moment:

It’s been one of those weeks.

You know the ones.

Where all aspects of life converge at once with the apparent goal of seeing if they can push you over the edge.

But you’d be proud of me.

I mostly kept my calm.

See?  Like this.

Yeah it was one of those weeks where:

• work went non-stop with overtime (fun and challenging, but I had to be “on”);
• show and tell item this week was “something with a “T” sound”, which is harder to find in French than you’d think (when you remove all the items she’d already brought in previously for show and tell).  We finally went with “étampes” (ie: a stamping set) and I THINK all the pieces came home again;
• there were evening activities to rush home for;
• I realized mid-week that all our home phones had stopped working (which was actually kind of peaceful in retrospect);
• my 4-year-old was in a bit of a funk all week and hostage negotiation demands seem to escalate every morning as we pressed up closer and closer to “Miss the Bus deadlines” (ie: I need cereal with no milk and a yogurt.  No. Not that yogurt.  Mommy I can’t wear THOSE pants.  I need to brush my hair.  NOT YOU.  No I need a HIGH PONY TAIL!!!!  Those are the WRONG SOCKS etc….).  I’d note this all happens while also getting the 19-month-old ready (as an aside I will be SO HAPPY when snowpants season ends);
• when grocery shopping finally happened, it was at circa 7:00pm on Tuesday; the entire mall was out of diaper genies refills (I linked to a picture there for any non-parents in the house tonight); and even the car order guy gave me a talkin’ to because, after waiting for him for about five minutes, I just pushed the door open, walked in, found my groceries in their storage area and started loading my car, which is apparently (and obviously) a health, safety and insurance issue.  I was too tired to care and basically told him so.  His face was sort of priceless;
• my 4-year-old got me up more nights than not as we seem to be having a potty training regression week that has also seen me featured even more prominently than usual in the starring role of “Our Lady of the Perpetual Laundry”;
• she is also currently make-up obsessed in that if I don’t keep an eye on her she disappears into the bathroom and starts playing with my make-up and trying to apply it.  Cleaning up her experimentation with a mascara brush, and dark eye shadow contributed to one of the almost missed busses this week (on the upside, at this rate, by the time she’s seven she’ll probably be able to teach ME how to properly apply eyeliner and do “smoky eye”);
• by about Wednesday it looked like a bomb had gone off at home;
• a few other little dramas were carrying on in the background; and
• when I finally got around to locating a store that sold diaper genies (on Thursday)  I was ready to measure that success as comparable with things like “Completing my Graduate Degree”.

It’s weeks like this that were the most unexpected thing about becoming a grown up.

I didn’t expect all this …. minutia … all the time.

I know it’s par for the course as a working parent with young kids, but I just didn’t think there would be that much of it.  All the time.  Continuous notes home from school; keeping packed lunches for school varied enough that they’re eaten; finding time for grocery shopping; leaving work in time to make daycare pickup; somehow exercising and eating well in there; and finding time for anything that isn’t just the daily grind.

Some weeks, I pull that off like a champ.

This wasn’t one of them.

And these are the weeks that I’m TOTALLY there with Kevin Spacey and his desire for the least amount of responsibility.

If there are any of you out there feeling likewise, here’s a virtual hug:

That said, I think it’s time to end this pity party because there are moments in there that are truly magical.

I got to read Alice in Wonderland to my two girls at bedtime tonight (which is one of my favourites), and it is obvious my youngest already likes it.

Every now and then my eldest comes out with the most thoughtful gestures.  We were in the car earlier this week and she informed me that she can’t wait to grow up so she can come to work with me and “keep and eye on me.”  Good to know she cares.

And my husband?  Yeah.  He rocks too.  This afternoon was my first down time all week.

He watched the kids.

And I took a four-hour nap.

It was GLORIOUS.  And I suddenly feel a bit more human and ready to take on the world once more.

———-

This post was written for Finish the Sentence Friday.  This week’s prompt was: The most unexpected part of being a grownup is…

Check out some other thoughts on the subject here: