Have you ever had one of those days when you just want to crawl back into bed and go to sleep for about a day and a half? And you would like everyone and everything to just leave you alone, and for the love of Pete, could they all just please stop fighting and ‘DO WHAT I ASKED YOU TO DO FOR ONCE!’ I guess I’ve reached the point where I’m anxiously awaiting the beginning of school. Even though I know that it will make us so darn busy I’ll want to pull my hair out, and we’ll have to deal with the homework and the practicing and the schedules, but right now, I say, ‘bring it on, baby.’

So, if you need me, I’ll be hiding in my bedroom. The room with a lock on the door. With some music on to drown out the sounds of the bickering, arguing children who are NOT doing the jobs around the house that I’ve asked them to do. I’ll be taking two tylenol and a diet coke over ice with me. And a book. And barring some blood curdling injury screams, I won’t be coming out until lunchtime. I’ll probably be doing something really useful and necessary like folding socks. By myself.

There’s a really foul smell coming from the laundry room.  You know that smell I’m talking about, don’t you?  Someone probably cleaned up some spilled milk, then dumped the towel into the laundry basket to fester and sit for a few days until it could stink up the rest of the pile of dirty clothes.  So I must get every last piece of laundry through the wash today.  Hooray.

It’s 3 in the morning and I can’t sleep.

It’s way too hot in my bedroom, I have a toenail that’s snagging and bothering me, my muscles ache, my husband is snoring, the streetlight outside my bedroom window is too bright, and I’m worried.

I’m worried because I found out tonight that Megan is the only one in her WHOLE group of friends who got put in the AM school track.  She got the teacher I requested, but for some reason they switched her from the PM track (9:15-3:30) to the AM track (8:00-2:15).  My other kids are on the PM track.  Why would they put her in AM?  I’m pretty sure I requested PM, even though on the form it says you can request a teacher OR a track.  How a I going to get them to change her to the PM track and still get her in the class with the teacher I requested?  To borrow a phrase from Megan…”ARRRG”.

So, here I sit; blogging at 3 in the morning because I can’t sleep.

A couple of years ago, when Cole’s flute broke, and we found out it wasn’t a high quality instrument that was worth repairing.  Since it had been given to us by a kind neighbor, we weren’t out anything.  So, I asked on freecycle if anyone had a flute they wanted to give away.  Someone actually gave us a used flute, but it was also broken.  And then someone said they would be happy to loan us a flute.  Who does that?  Who loans out a nice flute to a total stranger and lets them use it for a couple of years?  Well, this guy in Payson does.  He actually has called me a couple of times just to check in and make sure we still have it, but other than that, no contact.  No signed agreement, no rental fee, nothing.  Wow.  Well, Cole has decided he doesn’t want to take band again this year, and we actually have another hand me down flute we can use if he changes his mind, so when he called me yesterday to ask if we were still using it, I figured it was time to give it back.  So, I got his address and phone number down, and agreed to return it to him today.

But I’d like to do more than just return his flute.  But how do you say thank you to a total stranger who lends you a musical instrument for two years?   Cookies?  A thank you note?  A gift card to a local restaurant (do they even have restaurants in Payson, I wonder)?  What do you think?