Today Felt So Easy

And I still had to pick The Girl up early from her school, collect the boys from their school after the final bell (no time for the bus home on Thursdays) and take all three directly to Thing Two's speech therapy lesson, followed by a quick run home for the boys to change clothes and then an hour of soccer for both.

Sadly, all of this is status quo for Thursdays during the winter and I have the routine down by now.  The difference today was that Thing One did not have basketball practice tonight (thank the court gods) so I did not have to have him change into basketball gear in the soccer locker room and eat a sack dinner on the way to practice, which starts 30 minutes after soccer ends in a town 15 minutes away.  Going directly home from soccer and staying there felt positively civilized!  And not having to pack bags of dinner and basketball gear and bring them to soccer made my afternoon a lot less complicated, too.

Himself has gotten into the habit over the years of calling me when he is about ten minutes away from home on his return trip from work.  That way I can have his dinner ready when he gets here, and he can eat quickly and then spend the maximum possible time with the kids before their bedtime.  When that call came in tonight, I actually stopped for a second and looked at the phone...it's been so long since I was home when he got home that I actually can't remember when it last happened.  Sometime before basketball started in December, for sure.  That's what three kids' worth of after school activities and parental juggling will do to a schedule!  (This is also why we make a point of eating together on weekends.)

It's a sad state of affairs when "only" two consecutive after-school activities feels like a walk in the park, though.