Until, at 10:32am, I received a call from the school.
I freaked out a little bit when the school secretary asked where Spencer and Josh were. So I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Um, they're sick. With the flu. But they'll probably be okay tomorrow." She accepted this, wished them well, and hung up.
I was mortified.
HOW IN THE WORLD DID I NOT KNOW MY KIDS WERE SUPPOSED TO GO TO SCHOOL TODAY?!?!?!?
Seriously, this would NEVER have happened to the me of five years ago. Not even four years ago. (Three? Probably... stupid hormones and additional children.) ((Let's be honest. Are we all not a little surprised this didn't happen sooner?))
Also, how lame am I? They're sick? Why couldn't I have come up with something cooler, like "We're in Indy marching for civil rights because we believe in racial equality!" Followed by "Oh, and I have to pick them up early from school tomorrow because I also believe in good oral hygiene."
Well, I probably wouldn't have lied, and probably would have packed them up and taken them to school, but my friend Misty - who lives 2 hours away - was almost here for a visit. How could I send these kids to school when their good buddies were almost here?!
So I went downstairs and explained to the boys what had happened. Spencer was ecstatic and amused. Josh was mortified. We then all checked the school lunch calendar, and sure enough, there was lunch posted for the day. On the calendar. That I look at every time I open the fridge.
I am totally rocking this mother thing, am I not?
So then I did the natural thing that any mother would do: I started teasing them for playing hooky. Then I had to explain what "playing hooky" meant. Then I teased them for turning into truants. Then I had to explain what a truant was. Then I left them to their computer games and wondered how my kids had turned out to be so square... (Answer: their mother.)
The extra funny thing about this that my good friend Kanien is always trying to get me to take my kids out of school. We are kinda opposite in this way: she's willing to take her kids out for anything because she's a super-fun mom, whereas I had heart palpitations taking Spencer out of school for his birthday lunch last month. I don't know what it is, but I just never take them out of school just for fun! If I do take them out it's for lame things like dentist and doctor appointments, which I always schedule at the very end of the day so they miss the least amount of time possible.
I'm such a nerd.
Well, I was already in deep, so I emailed each of the boys' teachers, told them they were sick (and about the dentist appointments tomorrow - and apologized for that), and asked to have their schoolwork sent home with their friends.
Then Misty and her kids showed up and we spent the day chatting and playing. I had every intention of taking a picture of all of those kids together but it just never happened. Again. (Seriously, when am I going to get my act together?!)
Around 4pm the homework was delivered and the boys got to work. They didn't even complain or fight, which was unusual!
It only took them about 30 minutes to complete, and that was with a lot of chatting. Which makes me have to wonder how much they're really doing at school each day... (It also makes me feel a lot better about taking them out of school for a week in May for DisneyWorld, which I had really been feeling bad about. Not anymore!)
By the end of the day even Josh could see the humor in the situation. Everyone was behaving themselves, and as I was upstairs folding laundry I could hear all four kids playing so nicely downstairs together. It made me so happy! So I decided to top the day off with dinner out, kids' choice. (The fact that I wanted to play hooky from making dinner didn't have anything to do with it.) ((Yes it did.))
The kids chose Dairy Queen because, according to Josh, "It is fancier than McDonald's and Burger King... but maybe not Wendy's." According to Spencer, "Dilly bar!!!"
So off to Dairy Queen we went. Lance pouted because he didn't get to play hooky today.
It was one of those rare evenings where all of the kids pretty much behaved themselves and were darn cute to boot. Tessie was in rare form, at one point looking at her wrist and then telling me, "My watch says it is 3 o'clock."
"I think your watch is wrong," I replied.
"Yeah, it must be," she reasoned.
Later, she gave me a crazy-cat-lady look and said, "I'mmmmm not craaaazy! Look! My spoon is flying!"
Three-year-olds can be a hoot.
We all enjoyed our ice cream and declared that playing hooky - when done right - was pretty great.
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| Momma's unwitting truants. |
3 comments:
I'm giving the weather some of the credit for well behaved kids. M & T got along together quite well today. Sunshine therapy!
I love what you said about how the years-ago version of you wouldn't have done this--that's totally me! Hard to keep your sanity when you're juggling all this stuff--I'm honestly amazed that we haven't yet had a week where I just completely space everything (knock on wood, since I still have another couple of decades of school to go).
Don't feel guilty about pulling them out to go to Disney World--elementary school is a good time to do it! Middle school makes me nervous, so I am totally capitalizing on our last couple of years of academic freedom. If it makes you feel any better, I pulled my kids out for a week in September to go to Florida, and I'm pulling them out for a couple of days in February to go skiing (and yet I share your paralyzing feelings about doctor & dentist appointments! I either schedule them SUPER early and then have a grumpy kid to deal with, or I schedule them during lunch. Can't wait until I don't have a napping baby and the after-school appointment world opens up...).
And what I meant to say is that I think family memories trump classroom time, even with wonderful teachers. The first time I ever asked one of my kids' teachers about it they were SO reassuring about the value of family time and broadening experiences.
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