One of Those Days

I am exhausted! Today has been nonstop. By the time my Bible Study started at 9:15 I had already deposited children at school, run two errands, returned several calls and e-mail AND gotten an oil change for my car.

I slipped out of Bible Study in time for a meeting at the childrens' home, left there for another meeting before picking the children up from school--then the real fun started!

After snacks and a wee bit of down time, we took K to ballet, then straight from there to a make-up teeball game. Because this was scheduled only a couple of days ago, there were several conflicts among our team members and parents. As a result, I found myself as an assistant coach. I wish I had a warm, fuzzy description of how cute and sweet the experience was...but, seriously, it was painful.

My first role was standing at the dugout getting our players (all four year olds, mind you) ready to bat. This involved getting caps off, batting helmets on, reminding them to leave their gloves on the bench, finding a bat they wanted--and this was all AFTER we had rounded up the wayward ones who often wandered off to find a mud puddle to play in.

When our little Bulldog team took the field I found myself coaching P as he played first base.We rotate positions every game, so this was his first time in this role (and my first experience with coaching). My P has so many wonderful characteristics...but his attention span is nowhere near the top of his list. He truly forgets what he has set out to do the moment anything remotely interesting appears. Playing an action position like first base was quite a challenge, especially when there were so many treasures to be found in the dirt.

Meanwhile R was a very, very frustrated little man. He was not in an action position and it was killing him! There were tears. Then, he decided to take matters in his own hands by intercepting every play intended for P. This led to a sibling smackdown at first until I placed a wailing R, mid inning, on the bench for a little time out.

And K? Well, she was thoroughly enjoying all manner of mud--from the red stuff where she was stationed at 3rd base to the puddles surrounding the field. She was caked in mud from curly head to pretty painted toe. One of the Moms remarked as we were leaving that she was confident K was dirtier than the rest of the team put together. I am certain her uniform will never recover!

As we left the field I had 2/3 of my crew in tears--and I had that full Mommy chest feeling that always leads me to deep breathing and much prayer for patience. There are things that I can 'handle' in my husband's absence...but I learned tonight that coaching is probably not on that list. Those in-the-moment lessons about sportsmanship, self control and 'sucking it up' just felt strange coming out of my mouth. (I actually wound up handing R over to a Dad I trust for a 'guy talk.')

I think most Moms strive to do our best everyday, but truthfully some days you just do what you have to do to survive. This afternoon felt a little like that.

Thankfully after dinner on the fly, everyone was able to get through the bedtime routine quickly and fell asleep even faster. My hot tea and comfy spot on the sofa haven't felt quite so well deserved in a while.