Something's Gotta Give

Last Tuesday, a student sat at my kitchen table working on a college application for three hours while I cooked dinner, bathed the kids, and frequently sat down to answer her questions.  On Thursday night, I stayed up until midnight editing an essay on Google Docs for another student while I munched on mini oreos to stay awake (as if I need an excuse to eat mini oreos...)  Saturday night?  Much the same.  They were frantically trying to finish essays for the big February 1st deadline of college scholarships, and my normal rule of "plan ahead" that I preach to my students got tossed out the window.  It was brutal for all of us, and things like housework and cooking fell by the sidelines. 

One day, there was a brief window where Chaim was napping, the girls were playing happily by themselves (awesome),

and I had finished editing the morning crop of essays.  I fished the cleaning bucket out of the closet and headed to the bathroom.  When I pulled out a few rags, I discovered a plastic bag that had three cans of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup!  The same three cans that had mysteriously disappeared earlier in the week when I had tried to make broccoli cheese soup.  I don't know how those cans ended up in the cleaning bucket--if I knew that, I would be a rational, organized person.  As it is, I'm running around from task to task, finding cans of food in the cleaning bucket!  Alas, at that point, I took the cans to the kitchen, dumped them in the crockpot with the broccoli and onions, and frankly forgot about my earlier pursuit to clean the bathroom.

Chaim woke up, the girls wanted to play outside, and the hours rushed by marked only by diaper changes and mini-discussions on why hitting your sister may not be the best option.  Finally, we sat down to eat yummy soup for dinner and everything seemed fine.  It was only when I went to the bathroom to brush the girls' teeth before bedtime, that I re-discovered the cleaning bucket.  And so I did the normal, clear-headed thing any mom would do.  I brushed the girls' teeth, put them to bed, and left the cleaning for another day.  Because when all is said and done, something's gotta give.  Apparently in my life, that 'something' alternates between the cleaning bucket, cheddar and broccoli soup, and my memory.