Date-Night Demise

I was so proud of the way I had organized daycare for the summer this year because it seemed like I was arranging things to allow everyone to have that luxury, time. So Monday mornings, both boys are going to daycare, allowing Mama to write. Tuesday mornings, Jabber goes to daycare, allowing Monkey and Mama to go to Mothersong and hang out together. Wednesdays everyone is together, ready to go to the beach or library story time or whatever fun events we can cook up for ourselves. Thursday, Monkey goes to daycare so Jabberwock and I get some time to ourselves. And the part I was most excited about? Friday afternoon Date-Night, when both boys would go to daycare in the afternoon, and David and I would have four precious hours to ourselves!!! (OK, I realize it's not night, but Date Afternoon sounds a little less titillating, you know?)

Today is Friday. The boys are at daycare. Why am I sitting alone in my living room blogging and stuffing my face with jelly beans instead of hiking Hawk's Ridge or watching Indiana Jones or any of the other ideas we've been entertaining all week?

Because David's on a job interview. A job interview for a job which would require him to work regular hours, which would mean that our Friday Afternoon Date-Night would no longer be an option.

Sigh.

Drat and double sigh, because I typed a huge entry here, with lots of very deep philosophical questions answered comprehensively and stunningly beautiful prose that would have brought tears to your eyes and made you beg for an encore. Then I tried to add some photos, and I lost the whole shebang when my computer crashed. Then I thought I'd go back yet again to my Dell wish list and click Add to My Cart, but alas, the computer was really, really crashed. Then David came home, positively glowing with prospects of this new job possibility, and we decided (unwisely) that hey, we could still make it to see Indiana Jones, what the heck. Off we went.

Fast forward to the lead-in to what has to be the climax of the movie. I look at my cell phone and see, oops! We were supposed to pick the boys up from daycare in two minutes. On top of that, apparently I'm the kind of parent who leaves her kids with someone and doesn't add that someone's phone number to her cell phone. Niiice.

Reluctantly, we leave Indy and company in the midst of armrest-clutching tension and jump into the van. We then get (minorly) lost trying to find a road that cuts across town to the other side where daycare is. David notices, as we reach approximately the exact middle of nowhere, that the fuel light is on. Eek.

So went our very first (and probably last, by the sounds of that interview; David goes in next week to work a few hours on a trial basis) Friday Afternoon Date Night (afternoon). I can't say it was just like it was when we were young and free, but the hugs at the end of it all were pretty sweet, too. The screaming all the way home in the car seat wasn't so hot, though.

All right, now I'm going to attempt to post the pictures from yesterday when Jabberwock and I started on his bedroom mural. At his request, we're converting three sections of wall on one side of his room to a Minnesota wilderness landscape. There's a sketch there of the four of us in our happy little canoe, a moose taking a swim, and soon there will be a black bear cub up in that tree. The tree will turn into a Norway pine, once I look at a few real Norway pines so I can get the branches and needles just right.

All in all, this week worked out really nicely...a completed short story, a mural started, a Mothersong adventure, library story time, and even a bit of a date with my wonderful husband. What could be better? :)