School has just opened for my kids today, and I am still suffering from birthing pains. I get nightmares even during midday naps so I have no choice but to acknowledge that I am in a panic.
The kids were more excited than usual, though. It usually takes an ambulance siren inside the house to wake them up at 6AM, and I have to nag every second for them to start moving, but this morning the alarm went off at 5AM, and they were off to take a bath - without hot water, miraculously - while I vainly tried to go back to sleep. Even the youngest was ready to go 30 minutes before the transport service arrived.
I still have 20 pieces of long folders to cover tonight - because the pre-covered ones cost ten pesos more than the do-it-yourself - and I still have to check that all the school stuff and boxed toiletries that have to be brought to school tomorrow for the three of them are complete according to the list the school gave out. My elder daughter has no uniform to wear as she has outgrown every piece she has and I couldn't find someone who could finish all three sets in time for today. And oh yes, I have to adjust the hook in my younger daughter's skirt, as well, as she has grown a bit, too.
In short, I am so abashedly unprepared, so caught up was I in enjoying the freedom of not having to rush home every evening to supervise homework and reviews, that I forgot days zip by with the speed of light. We haven't yet gone to all the museums the kids wanted to visit. And we haven't taken that 10-hour train ride to Bicol.
And now we're here, and in the excitement of the moment I neglected to check my cellphone this morning and so I failed to see the announcement that preschoolers need not go to school today. The kid had been picked up, and I was already on my way to the office when I knew, so I just called home to say that she should be home anytime.
After two hours she has not come home yet, and I felt like I was having an asthma attack when I couldn't get in touch with anybody at home and in school. It just so happened that I just changed my cellphone and I kept getting a wrong number when I had been dialing the correct ones. When I had figured out what I was doing wrong it turned out that a few mothers didn't get the announcement in time either, and so the kids were allowed to socialize and play in the classroom for a couple of hours before being sent home.
So all ends well, and I hope everything goes right tomorrow. By the rate this day went by I am going to need the Independence Day holiday on Wednesday to recuperate and locate my bearings. I am bringing home these cute pastries from Bread Talk - Mr. Beans, filled with sweetened mashed red beans, and JJ Baby, filled to the ears with chocolate - for the kids' baon, but more to bring me a little comfort and some spirit of positive thinking. I hope I can smile like they do, soon.
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haha. oh, the travails of a young mother. there aren't enough hours in a day.
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There aren't. And what I can't understand is why projects at the office have to take on emergency status at this time, too. I've been wanting to take a week off but I couldn't. Oh well, this, too, shall pass. ;-)
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