7:30 I think Rose comes in to ask about yoga or her new clothes, but I can't open my eyes. I had a bad night. First, I had trouble falling asleep because I'm worried about the board I just joined. Then David woke up at 4:00 a.m. moaning about his hurting feet. I tried massage. I offered ice packs. I offered Tylenol. He just kept moaning. I finally convinced him to take magic special feet Tylenol, and I lay down beside him until he fell asleep. I'm figuring it was growing pains.

8:30 This is really late to wake up. John must be in high functioning mode to have gotten all the breakfasts made, lunch started, and the kids planted in front of the t.v. without me. I don't bother with a shower. I throw my clothes on, check email/Facebook (I can't bother writing how many times I do this in a day. It's an escapist habit, and it's pretty much whenever I am in the house.) and make oatmeal for me.

8:45 The kids aren't fighting me as we head to the door but somehow we are still late delivering Rose to Julia's house. Then David and I drive off to his school. I've brought the baby kangaroo puppet we made yesterday and have him rehearse our play to the song "Get Yourself a Baby Kangaroo."

9:15 David lets me leave. We had a really bad drop off Monday, but the last two days I've only had to listen to two pages of circle time.

9:30 I meet Kate, a friend from high school, and we go for a walk around Green Lake.

10:30 I send a poetry manuscript to a contest and type in poetry notes from yesterday. I don’t have time to lift weights, pay bills, nap, or write poetry.

12:00 I pick up David at school. We listen to Baby Kangaroo all the way home. Lunch goes really well despite my mistaking quinoa for sesame seeds, toasting them and spreading them on my eggplant. Lunch redo. I eat eggplant with miso paste, avocado, and carrots. David eats a hot dog, cereal, and carrots. He got a book in the mail from the Jewish book group, so I read to him about Oscar the Grouch eating the matzah and between pages read Entertainment Weekly to myself. Then I have chocolate for dessert, and he has chocolate ice cream.

1:30 I do the dishes while he finishes his ice cream, then I set him up to watch Spiderman while I take my rest. I have mixed feelings about his sojourn into violent comic shows, but these are the old ones, and the violence is not freaking him out. T.V = my nap.

2:00 The transition out of t.v. does not go well. I tell him to turn it off, and when he doesn't, I do it for him. Misery ensues.

2:15 He recovers and agrees to make carrot cake with me. This is one of our best cooking days ever. He peels the carrots, and we run them through the cuisinarte. Then I measure, and he pours and stirs. He even eats some carrot and asks for his own yogurt as we work, so I don't have to worry about him melting down from lack of snack. (That was the last two days.) We do the dishes together, and he only sprays the floor once.

3:30 The timing is tight, but I suggest we go take a bath together while the cake cooks. We both wash our hair and play with the shaving cream.

4:00 We have a snack, read a book, get the cake out of the oven in time to go get Rose. We don't fight about getting out of the house fast, which coat to wear (or whether to wear one at all), or the myriad other details that can become objects of contention.

4:15 We take the minivan to get Rose from her after school yoga class because my sister asked me to pick up her kids too.

4:30 Managing him in the hall outside the yoga room is crazy. I have to pull him off the old dusty computer. We end up playing clapping games.

4:40 I take all four kids to the playground, so I can chat with one of the other moms. It's all fun and games until Ariana complains that it was too her turn for the slide, David cuts his finger, Rose hurts Jasper by bouncing too hard, and really everyone is tired and hungry and needs to go home.

5:00 We have delicious leftovers in the house, and I don't want them, so I make dinner for the kids, and John figures out what Chinese food we are going to order.

5:30 We do Shabbat, and I go get the Chinese food.

6:30 The kids make bad guy food, i.e. mixing spices with water and other random elements. I leave John to supervise and get directions for the play I'm taking Rose to tomorrow.

7:00 The kids are very snuggly with me and not fighting with each other. Whoohoo! David and I play the fishing game while Rose and I do sudoko, all of us snuggled up. I'm still so exhausted I can barely breath, so I decide not to go out dancing.

7:45 I brush David's teeth forcefully. This is a habit that needs to catch hold. We've also been revisiting the whole spitting thing, and we've decided that since he spits on Rose to get her attention, the consequence is going to be going to his room if we are at home or having her ignore him if we are in the car. Rose is very excited about David's consequences. David is not.

We read one insipid book about cars and one delightful book about Jewish immigration. I tell him a story about George the monkey, whose day seems remarkably like David's day. Then we snuggle in bed two times, and when I come to check the third time, he is asleep.

8:30 I decide for sure that I am too tired to go dancing. John and I watch Babylon 5.