Rookie Mistake

This morning I got up, looked out my window and saw that the predicted snow had in fact, not come. Like usual. Ok, there was a slight dusting on the grass and car areas but the streets were clear. Proceed as normal, I thought.

Rookie!!!!

I dropped the kids off at school then started down the long road to daycare for the baby when my phone rang. It was my husband. My poor sleep deprived husband who has to work the night shift for a few weeks and had only gotten home about 4 hour previously.

“The school called, it’s closed.” He said sleepily.

Shit.

I’m really so embarrassed. Why didn’t I check ONE of the 80,000 methods to divine the school closings?

Daycare, as you might imagine, was also closed. My very lovely husband peeled himself out of the nice warm bed and picked up both the kids and swung by my office to get the baby and take everyone home. I hope God grants him extra-restful sleep this morning. He deserves it.

Seriously, why didn’t I check my email this morning?

I’ll tell you why, because I don’t have time. I have three kids and a me to get ready and out the door. And even though I have two in middle school, I have only been a mom for four months. I still pretty much suck at everything. Which is ok, that’s kind of how this works – skill is acquired over time.

And also – I really can’t stress this enough – there is NO SNOW ON THE STREETS.

Someday we will all be good at being a family. Someday we will not just be making it up as we go. We will have a rhythm, our own traditions, and our own family culture. This, we will know, is what it means to carry this last name.

Someday I will have 40 years of mom-ing under my belt. I will be awesome. And when new mothers ask me how I do it, I will be very gentle with them and remind them that sometimes it takes a few decades to feel steady on your feet.

Just like all the awesome moms I admire have reminded me.

And in the meantime…I will check the school closings list whenever one single flake falls out of the sky.