Number 19 on My List

Two days shy of my one-month blogging birthday, I’m beginning to realize that it’s awfully hard to find time to blog about being the mother of two teenage children if one is in fact the mother of two teenage children. Certain responsibilities and activities seem to push and shove their way to the top of my to-do list, leaving poor unassuming little “post blog entry” lying there neglected like a tiny box of shriveled raisins left in a plastic pumpkin once full of Halloween candy.

So I’m not making excuses. Actually, I am making excuses, but they’re good ones. In the last 72 hours, I have:

1) Attempted to bake a savarin with Ben for his French class.

2) Re-attempted to bake a savarin with Ben for his French class, after the “dough” for the first one remained liquid despite the addition of copious amounts of unauthorized flour.

3) Eaten part of a savarin that stuck to the non-stick pan.

4) Phoned 28 junior high school students, each of whom forgot to remember to sign up to rehearse for the upcoming talent show I am co-chairing over the next three weeks, and politely asked them when they’d like to practice.

5) Traveled to Wal-Mart (please God, forgive me, but I really needed to save 30 minutes by going there, even if my shopping trip tacitly supported the exploitation of some poor Chinese girl) to buy the makings for a William the Conqueror costume Ben must have for school in two weeks (you’re right -- that is before the talent show is over). Yes, he will be graded on the quality of both his design and execution. No, he does not know how to sew.

6) Responded to phone calls and e-mails from some of the 28 talent contestants who realized they couldn’t possibly rehearse when they said they could rehearse because they had a conflict they had failed to write down in their student planners.

7) Found the perfect college for Billy.

8) Looked at Billy’s calendar and discovered that he has committed to so many activities over the next few months that the only time he could possibly fly to perfect college for a visit this spring is March 10.

9) Perused school calendar and determined Billy has mid-term March 10.

10) Received e-mail requesting that “we” sell $400 worth of ads to help pay for musical in which Ben and Billy will appear next month.

11) Assigned the sale of part of these ads to Bob.

12) Attempted to complete 30-hour work assignment in order to pay for college, perfect or imperfect, for Billy.

13) Learned how to put a link within my blog to someone else’s blog (see “Only the Lonely Notebook”).

14) In preparation for cleaning woman's visit, put away papers, boxes, bags, books, coats, and crap lying on top of our dirt, as well as clean clothes that had been sitting in laundry basket since cleaning woman's last visit two weeks ago.

15) Sat down to write blog entry approximately 90 seconds before power went out.

16) Sat in dark and cussed.

17) Upon return of electricity, switched to battery-operated laptop. Signed on to blog.

18) Put down computer to run upstairs and rebalance banging washing machine.

So here I am, ready to get down to work. The washer has finished its load; the house is clean and quiet; the distractions are all gone.

There’s just one problem.

I’m so tired I can no longer type.