By request.

I got a really sweet comment this morning, basically asking where I’ve been and why I haven’t been writing much lately.

I blame having a tablet. Because I don’t like typing long on it, but it’s better than dragging out my laptop.

Also, I haven’t been living very much of an exciting life. Not much to really write about. But here I go anyhow.

Sunday night, Matt left to go to Washington DC for a conference. I then decided that a Sunday night was the best day of the week to go grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. With four kids. I’m not really sure where my brain left off at, but either way, that was dumb. When we went to check out, the register broke when I went to pay, and Audrey started to cry because someone looked at her funny and we had to wait for a few minutes for the manager to come over and allow me to pay for my groceries that were all packed up. Mae was dancing in the aisle blocking people’s way out and after asking her to move ten times, Luca yanked her over, she hit her head (lightly) and Luca profusely kept apologizing and Mae kept profusely crying, and I wanted to rip my hair out.

And so set off what was going to be an awesome three days of single parenting.

See, when Matt goes away on business, we’re lucky if we even get five minutes to FaceTime. He is on a completely different schedule and usually has to schmooze clients at long dinners that typically involve drinks. Such a rough life, for sure. But either way, Luca is typically the kid who ‘suffers’. I put that in quotations, because yes, he takes it the hardest, but I find he uses it as an excuse to be a non-listener member of society. He’s a smart dude and knows it.

Monday morning went well enough. I managed to get all the kids up, fed, dressed and even made them fun lunches. Mae, Audrey and I went to the Y after lunch so I could lift with my boss. The girls took a nice long nap, I got the kids off the bus. Claire and I went over her school work and she did her homework; spelling, math and independent reading. Luca lay on the floor rolling around with his blanket. The girls woke up, we went to the gym and I taught RPM. Came home, ate taquitos and they were all in bed by 7:30.

Audrey was having a rough time, of course, because 1.) she misses Matt when he’s gone, even though she hangs off of me every chance she gets and 2.) she has molars coming in. I found that Center Stage is on Netflix (OH YES IT IS) and watched it in bed, in between going into Audrey’s room to try to FOR THE LOVE OF GOD go to bed. She finally stopped around 10, when my movie was done, too.

Tuesday morning was full of excitement for Luca, because he had his class field trip to Shenot’s Farm in Wexford. I woke them up, they all got dressed and the same routine, ate, lunches made, hair done, shuffle off to the bus stop. Except, Audrey got up early and had to join us. That was enjoyable, especially since she was running on little sleep the night before. I knew my day was going to be awesome.

We went to the Y again, then I put Audrey down to nap, and let Mae stay awake to wait for my mom to pick her up for a sleepover. We watched the Little Mermaid. The kids got off the bus, Claire did her homework, Luca talked my ear off about Shenot’s, Claire and Luca went outside to play with the neighbors and the world stopped for a brief moment when gasp! the kids’ favorite person, Collin, came over to play. (He’s my neighbor’s grandson. Sweetest, kindest, most adorable kid ever.) I let them stay and play with him, and I took Audrey to the gym so I could teach RPM. It takes a village, people.

We got home, they ate oatmeal for dinner and was in bed by 7:30.

At some point during the day on Tuesday, a friend of mine posted to my Facebook wall asking if I was planning another spinathon any time soon. My heart sank, because just last week I was thinking about the families we had helped the year before, and how I hadn’t planned on doing anything this year.

I wanted to, it wasn’t that. It was that, our gym was bought out, as I mentioned previously, and the new owners, while open to hosting a charity spinathon, I asked for April. They just switched over, and I didn’t want to bombard them so early in ownership. So I assumed any charity would be on hold until April.

Upon seeing the post, another friend of mine chimed in saying that his friend has a studio and would be happy to host a spinathon. I quickly emailed my contact at the health center, and she immediately responded saying, “Let me talk to my staff and pick out a family, thank you again!”

After some back and forth with the studio owner, we nailed down a date and both excited, I had a spinathon.

I’m still awaiting any information about the potential family, so an Amazon.com wishlist will be forthcoming, but for now, November 16th, we will be having another seven hour spinathon. Already I have 6 crazies signed up for all SEVEN hours, and since this is a small studio, they only have 10 bikes. I’m in the process of trying to borrow some spin bikes (mostly to dead ends) but if not, it’ll be a small, but successful event, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Wednesday morning came and Luca wasn’t having it. I had to physically drag him out of bed (and from a loft bed, that isn’t easy nor fun). He cried during breakfast, cried while getting dressed and brushing his teeth, cried while putting on his sweatshirt for the bus stop.

He immediately stopped, however, when we walked out the door to go up to the bus stop, because Matt Facetimed us.

Audrey and I went to the gym so I could teach BodyPump, and when we got home, it was so beautiful out, so I put her in the wagon and took her and Sadie for a walk. We got back to the house, and Mae was back. Mom had come back with her boyfriend’s truck to load up her elliptical to bring up to my sister’s house. Our basement is being renovated right now (because as of a few weeks ago, it had been cinderblock and gross,) and when done, we won’t have room for both the elliptical and the treadmill.

Mae was grumpy, to say the least, and our usual 1 pm nap time got bumped up to 12:20 because we needed a break from each other already.

Both she and Audrey woke up sometime after 4.

Matt got home in time to get the kids off the bus, and from what I saw, it was immediate leg hugs and he came back with Luca in his arms.

Again their favorite person, Collin, came over, along with another neighbor, and they played outside for hours. Matt climbed the tree, the kids ran amok, and we took walks with kids in the wagon up and down the street.

If this is the last bit of summer we will get, I’ll take it. Because last afternoon was awesome.

Today is Rosh Hashanah so the kids don’t have school. Mae had dance, Claire played at a friend’s house, and then ended up having neighbor kids at my house, and now I’m enjoying a little quiet before I have to wrangle everyone for Claire and Luca’s dentist appointment. After that I teach in East Liberty and finally, FINALLY Matt will be home like normal and I maybe will take the night off.

Maybe.