Less squandering. More participating.

I had one of those mornings.

The kind where you get up too late, and then you are scrambling and you just can’t catch up.

Where you are trying to fill out the permission slip you should taken care of the night before and then making the lunch for the kindergartener you should have made the night before and then while you are doing that one of the kids is licking the stick of butter on the counter and the other one has thrown a stack of 100 paper plates down the stairs because, well, why not?

And then you didn’t get to the laundry and the fashionista can’t find the perfect pair of socks and then you hear a knock on the door and it’s only 7:40 and there’s only one person who knocks on the door that early, and one of the kids yells, “MOM! THAT GUY IS HERE AGAIN!”

So braless, you answer the door and beg The Man to give you just a few minutes to call and make arrangements to pay your electric bill before he shuts off your power.

And then while you do that someone else yells, “MOM! SOMEONE POOPED IN THE DOWNSTAIRS TOILET AND IT WON’T FLUSH AGAIN AND I HAVE TO GO REALLY, REALLY BADLY!!!”

Yeah.

One of those mornings.

And I think the post marathon high has faded and now I’m venturing into that post marathon blues period.

You know, when you are so geared up for something, and then once it’s over, you feel a little lost.

So once all the school-bound kids left the house and the madness wound down, I tried to check some things off my to-do list.

I gave Number 6 my iPad.

“Go play some games.I need to get some work done,” I told him.

Number 7 had found a box of markers somewhere and was coloring all over her hands.

It wasn’t the walls, and she wasn’t bothering me, so I just let her keep going.

“Mommy? When you are done with your work can you watch me play my game?” Number 6 asked.

“I don’t know if I have time for that right now,” I told him.

I was annoyed from the events of the morning. I really just wanted to be left alone.

I sat down at the computer.

I had a bunch of emails to reply to.

I got back to one person.

The next person had also sent a message to me on Facebook, and before I could email her back, I had to reread the message.

30 minutes later, I had still only replied to that one email.

But I had seen some dude at a Bulls game propose to his girlfriend, had taken a couple stupid Buzz Feed quizzes including one about 80’s rock bands (which I totally got a 100% on) and another about what state I should really be living in (North Dakota???), and had seen about 497 pictures of every friend I have with children ranging in age from 2 – 24 months in different pumpkin patches across the country.

And then, I saw this:

Ugh.

I had just told my 4-year-old I didn’t have time to sit next to him on the couch but I had found plenty of time to look at about a hundred disturbing pictures of some Russian chick who calls herself The Real Life Barbie.

(Don’t Google it. It’s twenty minutes of your life you’ll never get back.)

So I got off the fucking computer, and I took the kids outside.

We went exploring.

We collected flowers and leaves.

We laughed.

And then I got really crazy and broke out the paints.

It was only about an hour.

Nothing over the top. Very simple.

But we had a nice time.

There wasn’t much fighting or crying or whining.

And later, during nap time, I still got my work done.

So the next time I tell my kids I don’t even have five minutes to sit down with them, I’ll do my best to lay off the squandering.

Either that, or I’ll scroll through Facebook until someone posts a sappy picture that reminds me of how much time I’m wasting and to get the hell off of Facebook.

Look cute while you manage the chaos. Click here.