Where's the start over button?

Have you ever experienced a day where everything went wrong and you repeatedly wished you could take it back and start all over again? Either that or hurry and get to bed before something else bad happened? That was our day today.

It started out with Ru and I at odds with one another. Never fun. Getting to church on time is an issue. It's become a bigger issue with me having to get two people ready. I have to start the process a good hour before I need to just to account for a feeding, diaper change, spit up disaster, etc. Getting up an hour earlier than you need to is never fun when you've been up two to three times already throughout the night to nurse. You've also got to add in the fact that everything takes longer when you have to haul the boy with you wherever you go. Showers, for example, can drag on when you're constantly having to open the door and remind the guy you're still there, sing a few bars of his latest favorite tune, and make silly faces. It never fails... I can have K's diaper bag all ready, clothes out, breakfast all but cooked and just when I think I've got it all together and am ready to walk out the door, Kyle will decide to be either hungry or go poo. So mornings with a specific departure time can be rough.

We had one of those mornings and got to church over halfway through the service. It was questionable if we should have even gone. Then, after running an errand that took at least twice as long simply because we ran into friends, we ended up having to go back to church to pick up something we had forgotten to get while we were there. On our way home, I was calculating how much time I had to feed Kyle again, make a meal for 10 people and get back to Irvine for a 5pm dinner. It was going to be tight. Thankfully, I had set out everything I needed on the stove and counter top the night before (see how it is?). Sure enough, right when we got home Kyle was ready to eat and as soon as he was done, I was racing around the kitchen trying to catch up for lost time. Just as I'm starting to work up a sweat, Rudy reads an email from someone in the group saying that the dinner had been canceled and oh, has Mindy started cooking? Hope not. Can she just make the meal later this week? Well, not really. I can't re-freeze meat and can't really afford to buy all the products again. You know, when money's tight you can't just pop out a huge meal every week. (I'm already signed up for another main course for 20+ people at a Christmas dinner party.) With lack of sleep, shot nerves and now all my planning and preparation gone to waste, I feel like crying. I hold it together though and start plan B.

I call some friends and leave a message, inviting them over for dinner. They don't call back for a while, so I decide to freeze the dinner for the postponed date and make another meal for us. I realize I don't have two key ingredients and rush to the store (Kyle's sleeping and I'm rushing to maximize my time). When I get back home, the friends have called and yes, they will come. Now I'm making the new meal that takes another hour all the while stopping to feed Kyle and trying to keep him entertained. The meal makes for 16 people, so as I'm scaling things backs and improvising where needed, I mistakenly put the pasta in the pot 45 minutes too soon. Now, I'm picking out the pasta one by one while Kyle decides to have a massive, up the back blow out. I feel badly because I had put him in his jumper (thus squishing things) after a quick diaper change when I should have waited for the second round and not rushed the little guy. So now Rudy is washing Kyle in the tub, the meal is not yet ready, no table set, etc. and the friends arrive. I leave the food on the stove for the 3rd or 4th time in a row to clean poo off of clothes, the jumper and changing table. Just when I return to the stove, our friend's daughter decides to join in the spirit of things and poos in her pants and purposefully drops the log on our living room carpet. Thankfully, we notice her contribution before stepping in it and add that to our clean up list.

At this point, I decide to laugh and relax. What else can you do? Good thing these friends are laid back and fun to be around. We eat a good meal, for being repeatedly forgotten, and play a few games before they leave. Kyle goes to bed pretty easily and we enjoy peace. Now, I'm off to bed and thankful that tomorrow is a new day.