a week in the life: a series in seven parts

wednesday

• micah slept through the night from 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. (he only woke once, before i went to bed, and only needed a 10 second pat to fall asleep, so i don't count that as not sleeping through the night.) even though i could have slept until 7:00 a.m., i woke up at 6:30, as i do without fail these days. i'd rather have the sleep, but if i can't have that, it's nice to read the paper and drink a cup of coffee before the kids get up.
• i made julie lunch, got micah dressed, got the kids breakfast, made trixie lunch, pushed trixie out the door and into the carpool, took a shower, and dropped micah off at school. home by 9:15, i set about accomplishing the following list:

1. call jo re: la leche league meeting tomorrow and to confirm playdate this afternoon
2. write a letter to the redevelopment authority about our urban garden
3. call peco about the double electric bill we received this month
4. go through stacks of stuff
5. send email re: a presentation i'm making during services on sunday
6. send email to ceo re: capital campaign goals at trixie's school
7. send quick bread recipe to someone at church for use in meeting i'm co-leading
8. schedule interviews for several candidates to the board of trustees at trixie's school
9. bake quick bread
10. do laundry
11. call mari
12. review document prepared by a colleague related to church presentation
13. clean kitchen
14. clean kitchen
15. clean bathroom
16. take the rug to the cleaner (micah spilled a beer)
17. call a mom at the nursery who asked me to switch co-oping days
18. call or email my bro and sil about winter holidays
19. pay parking ticket

• items completed are in blue.... i guess that's about half, sigh. three hours flies by so fast.
• at noon i picked up micah, we got some pizza and met jo and sophia at the playground. we haven't seen them for far too long, so that was fabulous.
• at 2:30 we picked up a., the little girl i took care of the last two years. she's in preschool now, but we pick her up early on wednesdays to avoid a really long day, and so micah and i can have some time with her. then on to the school to pick up trixie and chauffer the car pool kids where they are headed.
• 3:30 to 4:15 the kids watched some pbs kids and jumped on my bed while i checked email and began composing this post.
• 4:15 a. accidentally poked micah in the eye and things deteriorated quickly. we went downstairs to read stories.
• 4:30 julie arrived home, half an hour earlier than usual, and took the kids out to ride bikes. i lay on the couch and read about barak obama in a magazine, then joined julie 15 minutes later with beers.
• at 5:00 i could no longer stand the way the older boys on the block were playing at execution-style gun violence with a fairly realistic-looking play dart gun; the way a group of young black men who routinely smoke pot, drink and listen to loud music were hanging out on the stoop, watching the kids without comment; or the way that micah was watching the whole thing with rapt attention. we all went inside and read stories.
• k. came to pick up a., and micah and a. had nursies while k. and i commiserated about a couple of really troubling households on the block that are making things feel really unsafe. she, her husband, and a. are white, and are in the process of adopting an african-american child. we ruminated about the fact that we always believed that our neighborhood was an ideal place for us to raise black children, but sometimes lately we're not so sure...
• the time got away from me, and sudenly it was 5:45 -- just enough time to heat up some left-overs before julie had to leave for a volunteer phone-calling gig with moveon.org.
• micah was asleep by 7:30, trixie happily engrossed in a website associated with the warrior cat series she and the twin boys down the block are obsessed by (they trade books back and forth daily). i got in the bath and finished reading about barak obama (i continue to be pretty impressed by him).
• i traded places with trixie and while she lounged in the bath, i read her a bit of the hobbit, which is taking us an inordinately long amount of time to get through. we're enjoying it a lot, but it's not a harry potter-esque page turner.
• 8:45 trixie is tucked in bed.
• waiting for julie's return, i accomplished a few more things on my list (in red). also followed up on some emails.
• 10:00 CSI New York.
• 11:00 bed.