Let Them Eat Cake

It's the night of the first day of school, and I am utterly exhausted. You know how much I looked forward to school starting, right? Well, I hate to admit it, but today was hard. Things didn't go perfectly (gasp!) In fact, this photo from breakfast is a great depiction of how the day went:

Like these breakfast burritos, the first day of school was a bit of a mess but salvageable. 

(After burning the burritos, I cut off the burned part of the tortilla and chopped them up to make breakfast burrito "bowls" and then presented them to my kids like, "Ta da!" and then, of course, they didn't even touch them).

Turds.

One harsh reality of this school year is that I have kids in three different schools. Getting them to and from those three schools is a full-time job. I will be in the car forever and for always, especially when dance and other activities start up. Daisy could take a bus that picks up a half-mile from our house, but that would require us to be up and ready about 30-40 minutes earlier each day than if I drive her to school, and I would have to drive her to the bus stop anyway, because I'm not letting my 13 year old daughter walk half a mile to a bus stop in the dark. So it just seems more feasible to drive her to school. Plus, Nicky took the bus his first year of junior high, and it was a pretty regular occurrence for the bus to run late or not show up. Carpooling could maybe be an option, but I feel like I need to have control over the arrival and departure of everyone going to three schools because if I'm left waiting five extra minutes for a driver who may or may not be showing up, it will cause a domino effect. Also, not very many people who live by us go to the same schools. Our community is very dispersed, so for most carpool scenarios, either I or the other person would have to go pretty far out of our way to make it happen. 

Today I decided that Nicky will have a car the second he can drive.

Which means I should probably get a job, but I can't because I'm too busy driving. 

After over two hours of getting kids ready and off to school (it took from 6:30-8:45 to complete the morning process), I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know how to function. I came home and plopped on the couch and let out a really ugly moan and waited to see if it restored my energy. 

It didn't. 

Eventually, I dragged my butt off the sofa and tried to be productive. I did a load of dishes and a load of laundry. Then I went to my in-laws' and picked a quart of raspberries. I got chicken marinating for dinner, picked through our garden, and picked up a prescription. I cleaned half our fridge, and then it was already time to pick up kids. In between it all, I snuck to Jimmy Johns for a Pepe and to Maverik for a Vanilla Coke (I'm experimenting with "occasional" soda drinking - confirming, once more, that I can not restrict my soda intake. I want it all the time or never. There is no middle). 

At the end of the school day, I picked up Eva and Zoe, who had a bizarre short day. Then I picked up Nicky and took him to golf practice. Then I picked up Daisy. Then because I'm losing my marbles, I started driving back to the elementary school to pick up Eva and Zoe and then remembered that I'd already picked them up. 

(Other evidence that I am losing my marbles: I have left groceries at the self checkout at Smith's twice in two weeks. TWICE. Yesterday I almost ran the van into a gas pump. And I keep dropping things. Heaven help me).

Tonight after dinner, I felt like I really needed to destress with some chocolate cake. I had a zucchini I'd picked from the garden earlier, so I decided to make a chocolate zucchini cake. The problem with craving cake is that you can't have a hankering for cake and then just have cake - unless you own a bakery or live next door to one or have a kind neighbor who happens to show up at your door with chocolate cake right as your craving sets in (which did not happen to me tonight). You also can't put your faith a store bought cake at random. If you're craving cake, you need to know that the one at the store is the one you need. I couldn't take my chances on a store bought cake that isn't tried and true, so I had to bake one myself. And that, my friends, takes hours. 

Like I said, you can't crave cake and simply have cake. 

Cake takes patience!

So here I sit at 10:30 pm on the first day of school, waiting for the cake to finish cooling so I can put the frosting on and eat a piece. And then guess who's serving cake for breakfast tomorrow? 

I thought I could make it at least a week into school before I started having cake for breakfast, but alas, I only made it a day! 

Things will settle and get better. The first day (or week) is always tricky. In the meantime... cake.