Dear Monday: Just to be clear, I didn’t issue a challenge or anything.

Yesterday was…well, not my favorite day. Oh, nothing horrible happened. Just a series of no good, horrible, very bad things. Like I kept stepping in proverbial gum, or getting it tangled in my hair, or something.

I was looking forward to Monday. Not the work-thing, or the getting-up-way-earlier-than-prefer thing, but certainly the putting-the-weekend-behind-us thing. The weekend wasn’t terrible, except that Bee and I both had the 24-hour stomach bug. Oh, and Gracie got in trouble – big time – on Friday, so it kind of resembled juvey hall at my place.

Did I mention the week before break that Gracie was failing science? Well, she was. Almost. She had a 66 in science – one of her strongest subjects! –  because she has this habit of pooping out before the end of the practice CBA tests and only half-heartedly answered the last few questions. I know the passages they have to read for the state competency tests are long, and the length of the tests is a bit much, but really what the problem was is that Gracie figured she’s a smarty-pants and she doesn’t have to try too hard. And also, she’s the smartest, so if she’s not also the first one done, something is wrong with her identity. Sigh. So her teacher and I both talked to her several times about slowing down and checking her answers if she finished before everyone else. So Ms. G. sent home a 66 on her progress report as a warning. Lesson learned. Or so we thought. On Friday Gracie’s teacher texted me to say that Gracie had missed the last several questions on her reading test, and that despite being told several times beforehand to show her work and explain her reasoning, Gracie just circled multiple choice questions as fast as she could. She was finished first. And declined to recheck her work. Another sigh. So with my blessing, Ms. G. sent home extra tests for Gracie as an extra assignment. I promised to talk to her again and to withhold any playdates until they were done. That was before I showed up at daycare and found out that Gracie had tried to grab a toy from Bee, and when Bee wouldn’t give it up, punched her sister!  Just !!!  I mean of all the typical little kid issues I have to deal with, getting physical has never been one of them!

Thus, the juvey hall atmosphere at Casa de Katie. And the kid who wasn’t in trouble was busy hurling. FUNTIMES!

And then came Monday.

Yesterday morning Gracie bolted her breakfast, stood up to brush her teeth, and turned green. “My tummy doesn’t feel good,” she moaned. What to do, what to do… I knew Bee and I had just finished with that particular problem, but I knew Gracie wasn’t exactly looking forward to school – she had cried through her extra assignments and then all over again when I told her she had scored a 66 on one and a 75 on the other because she wasn’t choosing the best answers. So there was stress, perhaps, going on and, like me, Gracie feels all her stress in her tummy. I reassured her that now she understood the trick behind choosing the best multiple choice answer and she would be fine. When that didn’t help, I told her she could always call me from work if she didn’t feel good.

She called me at 8:05. I told Ms. G. that I had the same bug over the weekend and once I was sick I had felt a lot better. I told her that if Gracie still didn’t feel good in an hour, she could call me back. Meanwhile, I raced through the most important tasks waiting for me at ThePlaceThatShallNotBeNamed and put my colleagues on High Alert that I might have to get a sick kiddo. I figured I’d be getting another call after lunch. Except it came at 10:30. Sigh.

Gracie and I actually had a pretty chill afternoon. I came up with a better incentive for getting an A or better on her practice tests (extra bedtime) and don’t you know Gracie scored a 100 on both of the ones her teacher sent home with her. We celebrated with a Shark Week marathon. (Guess what I found out is on Netflix?! Holla!) Maybe Monday was turning around!

And then we went to daycare to pick up Bee early – although not so early that Bee’s teacher wouldn’t have time to help Bee finish her homework because I’m just guessing there’s less shouting that way. I found out my favorite teacher at daycare, the aftercare teacher, is leaving. Because of course she is. She was the lone bright spot about the daycare. I understand she needs to focus on her own kids and being home in the afternoon means having a different schedule, but what about meeeee? Okay, I kid. But I decided I was ready for Tuesday, please and thank you.

Oh! And then while I was trying to relax at the end of the day, a friend texted me and said that there are changes a-coming at ThePlaceThatShallNotBeNamed. Changes that kinda throw everything out of whack. Blergh. Our jobs are okay; it’s just going to make everything much more complicated. Because of course. It was Monday, after all.

Oh well. At least I am not in a place where it is snowing for the 800th time this season. And at least it is Tuesday. One day closer to a long weekend filled with books, reading, and laying out on the patio in 70° sunshine. That’s my happy thought and I’m sticking to it.