Can I buy a weekday for a hundred, please?

I lost the standard-issue, five-day week. Kept the boys in utter chaos today by continually suggesting that tomorrow is, in fact, Saturday. Ha. Just one of the many joys of having me for your Mother, I suppose.

And it doesn't look like their week is going to be much better tomorrow. Poor kids - I actually feel for them. (Though not enough to cave.) You see, James' birthday gift arrived this afternoon. He is STOKED. His brothers are stoked. (It's a link cable for the video game thingies.)

Really, I'm okay with it. And I even allotted that they would probably blow an entire afternoon trying it out. Pretty much free range. The one-and-only stipulation I put on this whole stoopid thing was that their school work be done before they could use it.

Well, they picked it up tonight after Scouts. And tomorrow they will learn an important lesson: when it comes to scheduling, listen to your Mother.

Since I had to be at the dentist at 10:30 this morning, we left at 9:30. That gave us just enough time to eat a bowl of oats (in a glass, so you can pretty much just drink it down), dress (kind of - I didn't really enforce the "going to town" guidelines), grab our books and leave. We're slow starters.

I had them take their math, Latin, and reading. I didn't even ask James to take his math, as he needs to start a new chapter. They had two hours in the lobby to get it done - more than ample time. Everything was lined up, explained, and ready to be done. When Zorak arrived, I told him, "They have their math, Latin and reading, and they know what needs to be done." They knew we had to hit Sam's after the dentist, and then they had Scouts tonight. That was the only time available to them to get their work done today. I was pretty upfront about the importance of this.

I hadn't been in the chair 30 minutes, when I popped out between sessions to see how things were going, and the lobby was *empty*.

Husband. Children. Diaper bag. Gone. All gone.

The receptionist told me they'd "gone for donuts".

"Wow, they must have worked really hard to get done that quickly." I thought.

But, no. No, as a matter of fact, James got *nothing* done. John got "a little" done. I think Zorak got bored. He's awesome with the kids, on all levels. He's just a stellar dad, and a fantastic guy. But he doesn't really get stuck in businesses with them for prolonged periods of time, and I think that's one of those things you only get the hang of through painful repetition.

And so, off they went.

They did bring me a Krispy Kreme hat. That was nice of them.

But I'd have preferred page or two of work, at least.

However, I didn't throw a rod, because they're little - and it's somewhat unfair to expect them, at ten and eight, to say, "Can we finish our work first?" when offered a free ride to the donut shop. I do get that. (And I wore the hat to Sam's, to show my filial affection and solidarity, even.) But... the work still needs to be done.

So tomorrow morning, while the link cable is calling to them from the shelf way up high, they're going to have to finish today's work on top of Friday's work, before they can veg-out on the video games. I hope to make it as easy on them as possible, and we do have some fun lessons planned. So. It will be either the world's fastest day, or the world's longest. We'll see.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy