7:20 David crawls in bed with us. Luckily, John takes first shift, so I get to lie in bed a bit longer.

7:50 Rose announced last night that she wanted to make pancakes this morning. Which means she wants me to help her make pancakes. It goes well. I manage to convince David to get dressed before he eats any.

8:40 The client who cancelled for this morning emails that she actually can come. I skip the shower, skip unloading the dishwasher, skip making the rest of the kids' lunches (John covers for me), and find my one of three professional outfits.

8:55 I drive the kids to my sister's house where we join the walking school bus to school. The walk to school involves trying to keep David from annoying Rose while trying to keep Rose from rejecting all David's overtures of affection. At school, I help David return all the "just right" books he's borrowed. Then I rush back to my sister's, get the car and drive back to school.

9:40 I am one of five parents volunteering in Rose's class to read. I read The Mysterious Benedict Society, which is a fabulous book. My only complaint is I have to sit with nothing to brace my back against. I need to solve that problem because I read in one of the kid's classes every Friday.

10:10 I rush out of school, drive home, change into the work outfit, sweep up the crumbs, wipe the table, put away the most egregiously messy looking toys, get out the laptop, eat a banana, and brush my teeth.

10:40-12:40 I tutor a new student. Like all my recent students, she is coming back to school after thirty years. She is trying to learn computer skills, research skills, and writing skills simultaneously. Not surprisingly, she is overwhelmed. Also, not surprisingly, she doesn't understand a lot of the terms her professors take for granted. A summary is not, for instance, three interesting quotes from three different articles. I am disappointed at the end that she feels I did the work. I guided her, but I didn't do all the complex paraphrasing; she did. Wednesday, a student left feeling completely confident and overjoyed. That's what I want every time.

12:40 I have another student scheduled for 1:00, so there is no way I can put together my regular salad of multiple canned veggies, salad, hikema, and hard boiled egg. I make a tofu spread sandwich with artichoke hearts and cram it down while skimming Entertainment Weekly.

1:30 My student arrives. Her being a half hour late has given me a chance to make up her bill. I never thought I'd be able to be so careful tracking my hours and invoicing, but thanks to my friend Cecile getting me started, I'm actually doing well. We know how much I like to waste time; invoicing is a great "not real work" activity.

3:15 We actually finish all the edits to her paper. It's the twenty page behemoth in which I have a learning curve too. How do nurses want their objectives written? Can you start a sentence with an acronym? (No, as I thought.)

3:20 I drive to my sister's house, leave the car there, and rush to school. Why all this driving halfway? Well, we live up a big hill, and we value walking. We also value walking with my sister. Ergo, the halfway drive. I pick up Rose and David and hang out with the moms on the playground discussing where and when we are going to go dancing again. When it starts to rain, I walk the kids back to the car.

4:30 On the way home, I have outlined everyone's jobs for the afternoon. I have to unload the dishwasher, unload the drain wrack, reload the dishwasher, load in David's classroom dishes that our family has agreed to wash every week-end, start cooking the artichokes, and reschedule the student meeting I have for tomorrow. Rose has to practice the piano, pack for the birthday party sleepover she is going to, and wrap the present. David has to listen to his book on tape using the headphones, so he doesn't disturb Rose practicing. All, amazingly, goes well. Rose wants my constant attention as she practices, but I not only manage to get the artichokes going but pick some delicious dinner out of the freezer to defrost. John, as regular readers know, is the cook in the house, but he had nothing planned for tonight. I took the initiative to reheat the fabulous Ethiopian chicken he had made.

5:15 John takes over dinner prep and I flit about.

5:30 We eat dinner.

6:00 John reads to the kids, and I write this.

6:40 I drive the birthday party carpool picking up two of Rose's friends on our way to the party.

7:30 I do the dishes. I strongly consider just doing half the dishes, but it's always a good idea to do more than you think is your share and step up when you can.

7:50 I do David's bedtime routine part 1.

8:10 slump on the coach and watch Dancing with the Stars alone and Deep Space Nine with John.

10:00 random business emails.

10:15 going to bed early.

Paid work: 3.5 hours.
Exercise: 36 minutes of walking in twelve minute chunks.
Writing: 45 minutes.
Poetry writing: zip.