Remember how excited I was to get reading for classes? Well, I, um, didn't do it.

I was GOING to do it yesterday, while the kids cleaned their bedroom (which honestly is not fit to be a human habitat - it's only saving grace is that they never bring food or drinks in there, so there isn't any rotting or molding going on). They haven't cleaned it since before their play, which was almost a month ago.

But one of Thing One's friend's mom called that something came up for her on Friday night, and could her daughter please please please come over. I said of course, in line with a feeling of Single Mother Solidarity that I have, "and we may as well make it a sleep over." At book group on Thursday, one of Thing Two's friends begged for a sleepover, and we left it vaguely as "some time this weekend" but once Thing One had something to do, I thought I'd couple the two so that I didn't have a whiny kid who was feeling left out of the good times her sister was having. so on Friday, I had the 4th graders, and the 2nd graders were elsewhere.

The 4th graders were fantastic. They played a game in the living room while Beloved and I sat on the couch and read, then they watched a movie while Beloved and I hung out in our bedroom, then they went into the Disaster Zone and chatted in bed until around 11:50, when they turned out the lights, opened their door, and went to sleep without comment, complaint, prodding or difficulty. I woke up around 9:30 a.m., and had to STRAIN to hear the television - they were watching the special features from the DVD. Then they made pancakes, and played a wee bit on the computer. When the friend's mom came, we chatted for 30 or so minutes while the girls sat mourning the end of their Time Together.

Meanwhile, the mother of the friend that Thing One was visiting called, and said that first of all, the 2nd graders weren't done being together, and second of all, her 5th grader wanted to hang out with my 4th grader, so let's all go to a museum as a family. i said a-ok. This probably would have been the perfect opportunity for me to say, "I have two days' worth of reading for three classes to do, so I'm really not available." Instead, I said, "sounds great!!!"

We got home from the zoo (!!! Plans were changed en route) at approximately 4:30, and I let the girls watch a movie sent by their paternal grandmother. They said, "Mommy, won't you watch with us?" and I said, "I have school work to do." and they said, "awwwwww!!!" and i said, "listen, i have to get it done, and if it's not now while you watch a movie, then i'll have to do it tomorrow while you're wanting me to do something ELSE." They, being my daughters, said, "do it tomorrow! do it tomorrow!" So we watched a Fairy Tale.

Then we had a fantastic dinner, and a post-dinner session of reading (not school reading, but rather blog reading -- I did actually open my Corporations book, and I even read 3 pages, with a highligher, and notes in the margin and everything), drawing, and listening to music, sheparded the girly-q's off to bed, and enjoyed the later evening hours with my Beloved.

This a.m. I woke at 10:30 (agh!!how will I ever get to sleep early enough tonight to have a good morning at my first class??!!) and pretty quickly turned to helping Thing One make chocolate chip cookies for a party she's going to this afternoon. Now it's 12:46, and I'm not showered or dressed, and I need to leave to walk her to her friend's house in an hour.

I will have to dedicate the hours of 2:30 to 5:30 to reading, b/c tonight we're having some Oscar festivities.

This does NOT bode well for my quarter. I should have done the reading while the kids were in school last week, rather than try to fit it in on the weekend. I really never read on the weekends. Isn't that a good way to think of this abysmal failure? Fortunately (2 things), 1) first class assignments are pretty short; and 2) I looked up the room assignments, and I have at least 2 of my classes in a classroom that I thought were used only for 1st year classes, and is my favorite room in the world. It even gets internet.

posted by Zuska @ 12:16 PM

0 Comments: