On the run

Going to be another one of those interesting evenings, dependent for its success almost entirely upon whether or not Miss Reba is able to claw herself away from her work on time or not.

Oldest Girl is supposed to play at homecoming tonight with the rest of the band—she has to be at school at 5:30. Tiny Girl has soccer practice at 5:30 at the Catholic church’s field, and it gets over with at 6:30. Middle Girl has soccer practice at the soccer park, starting at 6:30.

As you see, there is some overlap here. This is not A Good Thing.

If all things work out exactly on schedule, Miss Reba will leave work at 4, drive to Paradise On The Cahaba, pick up the three youngest at school around 4:30, drive to the house and pick up Ashley (who in the intervening time has been tasked with filling up two water bottles and assembling socks and cleats and shinguards, in addition to making sure she has her clarinet and music) at around 4:45, get the backpacks in the house, let everyone drain their tiny little bladders, throw the equipment and junk and children back into the van, drive back over to the middle school, let Ashley and her clarinet out sometime before 5:30, drive the couple of blocks over to Holy Infant and drop off Cat right at 5:30, at which time Daddy is supposed to be there to receive the handoff of both Cat and Rebecca, then Mom will turn around and head back to the game to keep an eye on lurking teenaged boys, and potentially one Little Boy who likes to tag along with her so he can look at the middle school cheerleaders because they make a big fuss over him because he’s so cute. Not that I’m jealous.

After taking the handoff, Daddy had intended to sit in his chair and read a new set of periodicals he purchased when he had to go the grocery store at 9 o’clock last night after getting home from church, but Dad, being increasingly at the mercy of his tiny, walnut-sized brain, forgot those magazines and so will be forced to just sit there like a lump and watch his little girl wander around. Then he will pack up the girls and head over to the real soccer park, where Middle Girl will be a tad late due to the conflict in timing, but where there is such a thing as a place to get some vittles and such like.

Along about 8 or so, we’ll pack up again and go home, where I hope with every fiber of my being that the large pile of children will not be faced with the prospect of homework, and will instead be able dunk themselves and degrime and go to bed. Yeah, that would be nice.

Just got off the phone with Miss Reba a few minutes ago, and she said she was going to get to go on time.

We’ll see.
posted by Terry at 3:49:00 PM