T Minus Ten Days Until I Take Over the World
School starts in less than 10 days.
This is the year my youngest, Belle, will start Kindergarten. Which means that, for the first time in seven-and-a-half years, I’ll be doing my own thing, Monday through Friday from 9:15 to 3:20.
You heard me. That’s six hours sans kids!
Lately, I’ve been engaging in my share of fist pumping and stage whispering, “I’ve made it!” to my mom friends. But I also know, that while this is a celebratory time, I need to get down to business. There are projects that have been waiting more than half a decade for me to finish.
Over the past several years of child bearing and rearing, I’ve been fond of pushing things to the side and saying, “I’ll do it once Belle hits the big K.”
Well, the Big K is just around the corner and I need an attack plan.
Here are some things that desperately need doing:
-Begin and complete baby books for both Milo and Belle
-Finish writing novel and get it published
-Mop floors of house’s entire lower level, keep mopped
-Maintain a higher level of home cleanliness than previously thought possible
-Research and buy new range. (If you’ve ever seen the scene in Little Miss Sunshine wherein the van’s horn will not stop bleating pathetically—that is our range in vehicular form)
-Replace carpet, which still boasts uncleanable spit-up stains and God knows what else
-Put more effort into current part-time job
-Volunteer one hour per week in each child’s classroom
-Exercise every week day
-Recover sanity (I know it’s around here somewhere)
I realize that this is an ambitious list, and that six hours per day is not like, say, sending the kids to military school. But other moms have told me that ushering your last baby off to all day K opens up a place in you that you’d forgotten was even there.
Come September 8th, I just have to be sure to stay on task. To not get stuck reveling in my freedom by laying around the house, eating scrambled eggs and watching Ellen all day, justifying it by telling myself, “I got two kids to grade school. In one piece even. I deserve some extra cholesterol and talk TV.”
I can be disciplined for the sake of regaining control of my life. I can.