One Morning a Week...

The inimitable Braja, from everyone's new favorite blog Lost and Found In India (and if it is not one of your favorites, it soon will be) approached me with this lovely little idea to share our mornings, in tandem posts, giving our readers a glimpse of what life is like on opposite sides of the Earth. And opposite in almost every way, I suspected....

I immediately thought about my average morning which finds me playing possum in bed while my husband wrangles the kids through the morning routine and out the door to the bus stop. I only emerge from bed at that juncture to ostensibley watch over the Animal, but in reality just turn on the tv, pour myself a cup of coffee and retreat to my office to check my email for comments and start the daily surf through my favorite blogs.

And then I thought about what Braja's mornings might be like in India. I imagined her rolling out of bed without an alarm or children crying, perhaps annoyed by the sound of nearby workmen or a godforsaken wedding party still clamoring at dawn, but probably just waking because her circadian rhythms dictate that is time to rise. She would then head to her marbled kitchen where her husband has left the kettle already warm on the stove for her tea, which she would brew in blessed silence, perhaps reading the paper or proofing one of her posts to pass the minutes until the water boils and the tea finishes steeping. I see her adding honey and milk and then retreating to her office to check her emails and start her daily blogging rituals, too, but sighing that she really should be doing her sun salutations instead...

I can't wait to read her post and see if I am even remotely close to right about her morning. :) I also almost dread to compare my boisterous, seriocomic mornings to her more exotically located and presumably more peaceful ones, but life is an adventure, so here it is, in all its kid-centric glory:

I rolled over and noted that the partially obscured by some bedside detritus clock said it was 6:twenty-something. It almost registered that that meant we were late getting up. The absolute silence in the house alerted me to the fact that everyone must still be asleep (a rarity at 6 am in our house, I assure you) and prompted me to immediately fall back asleep, too. A few minutes later the Animal started to whine and I knew that the short moment of silence I had been too sleepy to appreciate was over for the day. Daddy-007 sighed and got up as I pulled the covers higher and rolled away from the closet light he had clicked on.

A short while later I got the call, "Amy, I need some help down here!" Usually, I get myself downstairs about 6:50 to help with the final throes of the morning routine, making sure that the kids are properly outfitted for the weather and have their backpacks, kisses and "I Love You's" before the head to the bus stop with Dad at 7 a.m. Today I was late to the scene and found bedlam already on the scene. Capt. Chaos (CC-the eldest, 9) was ready to roll, but his sidekick, Destructo (the 7 y.o.), was on full ADHD-Alert and could barely stand in one spot long enough to pick his nose, much less manage getting on snow pants, coat, mittens, hat, and boots. (And forget the backpack, it wasn't where it belonged by the door, so it may as well be in India with Braja for all the hope he had of finding it.) Daddy-007 was at the end of his patience and was currently sidetracked with helping the Animal back into his undies and pants after his morning "pooh-pooh", so I helped reign in Destructo, holding his chin so he could make eye contact with me (thus ensuring he was listening) while I explained that he needed to stop moving so we could help him with his gear. Thankfully he slowed down, only dragging himself away a couple more times to lap the downstairs in search of god-knows-what before finally getting the boots on (as seen in the picture) and out the door. Sigh. I trudged immediately to the TV and let the Animal choose between The Magic School Bus and Meteor: Monster Truck something or other, and then turned the volume way down before going to get that morning magic mug o' coffee. And it wasn't there. We had forgotten to set up the machine to brew the coffee the night before! I was too tired to even be upset about it and just turned on the tea kettle to boil.... And then tripped over Destructo's backpack which happened to be lying in the middle of the kitchen floor. How he doesn't crash into the walls running around that blindly, I'll never know!

I'll end it there, as I'm sure you are traumatized enough. And now I can finally scoot over to Lost and Found In India to check out Braja's post which I hope you will do, too. Enjoy! And if you've been lurking about, please leave a comment!! I am often overwhelmed with my kids and need more reasons to ignore them and go check out your blogs and respond to your comments!