“Jonny, put your shoes on!” I yelled up the stairs to my 3-year-old son. Currently there seemed to be so much going on.

“Mommy, I want a snack. Can I have an apple cut up?” That was Millie, the 5-year-old. How can I say no? We rushed through breakfast because my alarm had gone off late.

Maybe I should rewind a little.

…

I woke up to Jonny poking my face with sticky fingers; my alarm softly jingled a moment later. It seemed Millie had helped Jonny by giving him a piece of Christmas candy since I wasn’t up yet. Now I had some gooey red stuff on my face—probably strawberry. I glanced over at my clock: 7:24.

7:24?

7:24!!??

Oh my word!! We were supposed to leave for Kindergarten at 7:45! I had 21 minutes to get 3 kids in the car!

I think I forgot to mention Josie, the 5-month-old. She was sound asleep in her crib. No wonder I had not waken up yet. She usually woke up sometime around 6:30, bright eyed and ready to start the day. Teething had our schedule all messed up this week, but I had lucked out this morning with a still sleeping baby, or so I thought. As I quickly and quietly got myself ready, I heard it. Then I smelled it. Josie suddenly had a full diaper. She was happy, but there was no way I could put her in her car seat like that. As I changed her, the screaming began—not just a scream of unhappiness, but the scream of hunger.

“Jonny, go have Millie pour you some cereal. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay, Mommy.” He tumbled down the stairs his usual way.

Once I got down to the kitchen it was already 7:40–only 5 minutes until go time! Millie had been pretty self sufficient so far. She had made herself some toast and a glass of milk. Her milk pouring skills still needed improved, but she had managed to get most of the milk in the glass. She was eating happily but slowly like usual. Jonny was pleasantly eating dry cereal along with more Christmas candy, but he was eating and he was happy so I let it slip this once. I quickly made Josie a small bottle; she would have to wait a little bit for a full meal. Thankfully, she gulped it down in time for me to have 2 full minutes before we needed to leave.

“Jonny’s peeing!” Millie pointed in horror to the puddle forming below his chair.

I had forgotten to check where Jonny was with the potty situation. He was potty trained and in big boy underwear, but I still had to remind him to make it to the potty in time in the morning. Today that had slipped my mind. I had been too busy dealing with the Josie poop explosion that anyone else’s potty needs were second in my mind.

“Go upstairs and put new underwear and pants on, and I’ll clean this up. I’m sorry for not reminding you, but it’s okay,” I threw paper towels to the pee puddle and added a few good sprays of surface cleaner to get the worst of it. The rest would have to wait.

It was 7:45!

That brings us to now.

…

“Jonny, put your shoes on!” I was strapping Josie in her car seat,”Millie, do you have your book bag ready?”

“Yep! Mommy, I want a snack. Can I have an apple cut up?”

I managed to cup up half an apple, just in time for Jonny to come down the stairs with his shoes on—and no pants!

“Jonny, where are your pants?!”

“I don’t have any in my room.”

Oh no. The laundry. The utter bane of my existence.

I quickly ran to the laundry room and grabbed the first pair of pants I saw.

“Here you go!”

“These are Millie’s pants.”

I had accidentally grabbed the pink flower pants. My girl would have looked great in the 70’s.

“It’s okay, you won’t be getting out of the car. Just wear them so we can go, please.”

I managed to get everyone out to the car. We were late by five minutes, but I would say we did pretty well considering. On the way I noticed Millie playing with the alarm settings on my phone. Hmm….