Frantic Morning

Saturday was another wrestling tournament for our team, and it was WAY over in Hillsdale (this is -according to mapquest -1hr and 37 minutes away). I got up early, got my husband's coaching clothes ironed, warmed up some breakfast for my son, and decided I was going back to bed. They were leaving our house at 5:20 am to make it to the school to catch the bus. But I didn't have to leave till 7, therefore, I should have time to sleep for another 45 minutes before this long long day ahead of me...

6:00 am - Get up, make more coffee, get in the shower and start some laundry.
6:20 am - getting out of the shower, two missed calls from the husband... uhoh...
6:21 am - digging through all our football paperwork looking for contact numbers for one of our wrestlers, the little 85lb kid that missed the bus, and the number my husband had didn't work.
6:25 am - found the number, called hubby back
6:30 am - hubby called back, needs me to get keys to the school, open the school and locker room for this kid, and then give the kid a ride to the tournament. Ok... only I AM STILL IN A TOWEL from my shower.
6:31 am - called my dad, to make sure I could get keys to the school.
6:33 am - called the kids dad, who missed the bus, made arrangements to meet him at the school.

So now I am freaking out... Not only am I now almost 15 minutes behind the schedule I had for myself, but I'm still in a towel, and now I have to stop and get keys and then drive 8 miles in the WRONG direction to unlock the school and pick this kid up, and then try to have him to the tournament in time...

So as I'm yelling at Robby (who I had forgotten about till this time) "Get up, Get up, Get dressed... Hurry we've got to go!!" I'm also pulling on my clothes, trying to at least put a little makeup on and pull my hair up, no time to dry and style, calling my friend who was supposed to meet me at my house to let her know plans have changed and now I will be running a tad bit late... and I am mentally cursing out everyone and everything that has thrown my morning into a tailspin, and I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet! I am mad at the kids' dad for not getting him there in time, mad at myself for going back to bed, venting that my husband won't just leave the kid behind (not that I really would even do that - but at the time it seemed like a viable option). And, this is the SECOND time going to this tournament across the state, that I've had to pick up a wrestler who has missed the bus.

7:02 - I'm out the door, calling the dad again and saying I'll be at the school in 10 minutes.
7:03 - getting the keys from my dad
7:05 - called my friend to tell her the new plan, then realized I DIDN'T BRUSH MY TEETH!
7:14 - unlocking the school and locker room
7:19 - on the road to pick up my friend since there's no point in her driving to my house now...
7:32 - picked up friend, and had to ask her to borrow a tooth brush since I forgot that little bit of importance during my morning rush!
7:37 - we are ON THE ROAD! Only 37 minutes behind schedule! Tournament starts at 9am... Cutting it close.

As I finally start to breath, I realize that maybe there was a reason for this whole fiasco. This kid, whose family obviously has needs bigger than mine, and who was so polite and apologetic the entire time, maybe he just needed to not be on the bus that day. Maybe he needed to be at the tournament and I was making a difference in some way. I started to realize that instead of venting and mentally screaming at everyone for ruining my morning, that maybe I should be grateful that I was able to provide safe transportation. I always believe there is a reason for everything. I may not ever know what that reason is, but there was a reason. Maybe it was just another one of God's ways of "thunking" me on the head with a nice little wake up call to show me that life isn't about me and that calm morning cup of coffee. It's about Him and helping others. We are put here for a reason and we have to allow him to show us what those reasons are, whether we ever understand them or not.

At the end of the day, we made it there about 10 minutes late, but the wrestler had a bye first round and didn't miss any matches. He ended up taking a 3rd place, and he had a nice big medal to bring home. The team squeaked out a 1st place, just 8 points over the 2nd place team. This wrestler did make a difference in that aspect. We couldn't have snagged first without him. And most of all, I survived the frantic rush of it all. My son took 1st as well as the team. No one cared that my hair didn't get done, and I learned a lesson from it all... I would say that the frantic rush turned into a really good day!

12.x 12 Shadow Box

My mom gave me two pictures - of my dad and my brother some 27 years ago, and of my brother and my nephew last summer - a 12x12 shadow box and a phrase she wanted me to handwrite... It's for my brother's 30th birthday. She needs it tomorrow... I used the CTMH Wings paper. I actually tried stitching - first time ever. I almost feel like it's missing something but not sure what.

Some Scrappin' Time

I'm up to 26 double page layouts for the year! That's with onlyone all day crop in there, which accounted for 16 of them. That's good for me. I hardly ever find time - make time- to scrap when I'm not at a crop. It's hard to come up with "nice" pages. I'm always working on sports books, and right now I'm on my oldest boy's wrestling season, and it's hard to find anything to coordinate with that! The pictures aren't that good because I left them in the page protectors so I could show the use of the small flip-flaps, so there's a glare... But, here they are:

Then, I was also able to work on a couple Valentine's cards today as well... It's a tri-fold card pattern that I've used a few times before...

Down Time

I realized yesterday that my brain does not function when it is not in "rush rush let's go" mode. I had a half hour of down time yesterday. The kids were at practices, husband was at practice, work was done for the day and I didn't have to start my volunteer duty till 5:30. I had 30 minutes before I had to leave the house...

What to do, what to do?? Well I decided that since my sister had just loaned me a new book on her Kindle, so that I could try it out and decide if this ereader concept was for me, that I would read. So I did just that. I sat in complete silence and read for 30 minutes. I was feeling proud of myself for not rushing around and trying to do a quick clean, running to the store, or any of the other little things I could have found to cram into that 30 minutes. So then I packed her Kindle up, and headed into town to work the middle school concession stand, prior to my youngest son's wrestling meet later that night.

I get to town and I'm sitting in the truck listening to the end of the song, because again, I'm NOT RUSHED for a change. Then it HITS me... I forgot EVERYTHING important. My coffee, poured fresh and in a to go mug, sitting on the table, and my son's wrestling bag with everything he needs - shoes, headgear, UNIFORM... ugh! It was all ready. All I had to do was grab it on my way out the door, but NO, I was so relaxed from my 30 minutes of down time that I think the "To-Do" section in my brain froze up from shock of not being used.

So after calling and making sure the other mom could cover for me since I now was again in RUSH mode. I had to drive the 8 miles home, grab the stuff I forgot, drive the 8 miles back into town and then of course, I was almost 20 minutes late. And just when I thought I was doing so good... That is when I realized, that my brain does not know how to operate in non-rush mode. Or maybe non-rush mode is so out of practice that it doesn't know how to operate correctly anymore. I don't know, but feeling proud of myself for relaxing for 30 minutes - which I cannot even remember the last time that happened - was shortly lived as I was soon mad at myself for having to waste the gas to drive home and back, be late, and ruin that good feeling.

So maybe next time I'll just save the reading for my normal, few minutes before bed allotted time, and continue to use those spare 30 minutes to try and check of the remainder of my to do list. I could have - got gas, grabbed a few groceries, folded laundry, maybe scrapbooked a page or at least got a layout started, done abripperx (only takes 15 minutes), ran a few miles, etc... the list goes on. Or, if I want to try enjoying that gift of down time, maybe next time, you know - 5 years from now, when I get that 30 minutes of free time. Maybe I'll remember to sit in the car and read after I've safely loaded everything needed for when my 30 minutes is up!