Buxton

Yesterday morning I scrambled around to leave the house for the day at 8:50 with all four children groomed and in tow. That is not an ungodly hour, I know. I leave the house at that time every day to drive the children to school, but save for the eldest two children, we are not generally groomed. But this was no ordinary morning. The plan was to take the kids to school, drop Kathryn and David off at an in-home daycare, and then drive by myself to the mall, by myself, to shop by myself, for upcoming birthdays and Easter attire, and then meet a friend for lunch by myself with no children or strollers. You can see why I, myself, might be extry motivated on such a morning.

In addition to the usual routine, the kids had a buttload of stuff they had to take to school for a read-a-thon and there were many important last minute decisions to be made, such as whether to wear Crocs to the read-a-thon or sneakers and whether to take a water bottle for their beverage of choice or iced tea, whether to take a special blanket Gramma Jackson had made or a beach towel to sit on, and of course which books to take to read. I also had the foreign task of packing a diaper bag for a caregiver, extra bottles, extra snacks, an extra outfit, and all the trimmings. I had a couple of items to return to the store and blah, blah, blah. But we made it out the door right on time.

I quickly dropped the kids off at school and was on my way. The horizon of my life was looking brighter by the second as I anticipated the absolute freedom of the day. The stress of several weeks was beginning to abate.

I managed to drive about 15 minutes before reaching for my cell phone for the first time. But, umm, yeaaah, it wasn't in my purse which I knew, as I had dumped its contents out onto the car seat in my frenzied search. And it wasn't in the cup holder where I often put it. I reached for the diaper bag at the same time I remembered I had switched to a larger diaper bag to hold all the extra stuff, at which time I remembered that my phone was in the outside pocket of the smaller diaper bag which was at home. I am not excessively attached to my phone. I often forget to take it and hardly know how to do anything but answer it. I don't even have very many numbers programmed into it, and I don't text or play games. But I needed it today because I was meeting someone at a yet to be determined time and would be awaiting her call. So nothing to do but turn my wagon around and head homeward.

At this time, Kathryn, who was absolutely overjoyed to be going to a babysitter (for real), impatiently growled from the backseat, "Mom, you NEED the Buxton Organizer!"

The phone was, in fact, exactly where I had thought. I snatched it up and was on my way once again. My plans were only altered by 15 minutes and it was a wonderful day! Thank God for babysitters, retail therapy, and good friends. And daughters with good suggestions. =)