Catching my breath

I’m lucky to have a quick moment to catch my breath. It’s always like hitting the ground running coming back from a trip. The trip is wonderful. The landing can be a little rough.
Sunday evening, we got back home around 10:30pm. We were exhausted and jet lagged. The kids were asleep. We got ourselves to sleep. Up at 6am to get us all off to work/school. Our dining room and living room are all taken apart. The paint job was such a success. The rooms are brighter and sunnier and neater. But nothing is where it’s supposed to be. It all makes for feeling discombobulated.
To make matters worse, there was a school meeting at 7pm that I wanted to attend. So we get the kids home at 6pm. I ordered pizza on the way home. I stop by TJ’s to get milk and end up just getting food. Mostly doing it blind since I’ve had no time to figure out a menu. But it’s nice to have a stocked frig. I’ll muddle by. Eat pizza. Say hi. Then out the door to school. But no one is there. I wander around. The event got canceled and I didn’t get notified. Ugh! Wish I could have stayed home.
So today is my catch up day. I got to ride my bike for the first time in 2 weeks. It felt great. There’s joy in home and my own schedule. The girls were even excited to go on the bike. They love riding down hills. Laura wants me to go fast up the hill. It’s fun to listen to Sara explain to her younger sister about gravity and Mom’s lungs. Laura threw a tantrum when she couldn’t take taggies to school. They’ve been dragged across 4 states worth of germs and need some cleaning. That caused gnashing of teeth.
I had 7 different places to go to pay bills…full day K, afterschool care, support the PTA, daycare, cafeteria, gym class, mom’s group. My checkbook got well used. I went out and forgot my wallet! Talk about discombobulated. Still it’s lovely to see all the cherry blossoms that have bloomed over the week we were gone. It’s great to ride through my neighborhood. It’s nice to have a day to catch up and plan. It’s nice to have a friend miss me while I was gone and call me to get together. It’s fun to be reading the pcusa lectionary for lent. I get bits and pieces from the reading, but it’s bits and pieces of God and he blows me away. Many blessings in this day.