Day 1 - Structure

Structure. I knew that would be the key. Implementation was the challenge. And crying. That was another challenge. Not me, but them. Well, mostly them. It's hard to get much done with crying.


With my wife, Emily, beginning her career in realty, it has fallen on me to watch the three little ones. It helps that I'm in the process of launching a business -- we have a little bit of flexibility. Molly is 6; Phoebe is 3; John is 17 months. A challenge? Yes. But a nice one.

So, structure. I knew it would have to start with staying ahead of the curve, so to speak. That meant getting up early, or at least earlier than I have of late. The alarm was set for 6:00 am, a full hour before Molly would typically stir. This enabled me to get down to the treadmill quickly, kick out a quick two miles, and then shower and dress. It's currently still too cold here in Indiana for me to run outside. Yes, I know the die-hards do it, but I'm not one of them. I like a controlled environment. I'll hit a half-dozen or so of the 5Ks after it warms up, but that's because I like to amass t-shirts and have an excuse to eat like Michael Phelps. Not really. It's about accomplishment. If someone had told me 18 months ago that I would ever run more than 20 feet, I'd have laughed in their face. But things change. Anyway . . .


Molly was up first, as expected, followed by Phoebe shortly after. I caught a break on Day 1 because the kids had requested breakfast ice cream, which Emily had to make because I don't know how. I suppose I could find out, but I'm good with not knowing. Emily subsequently left, I got Molly loaded on the bus, and then I woke John from his slumber.


"Good Morning, buddy! Hey, your diaper exploded. Awesome."


After a quality wash and wipe down, I got the boy dressed and carried him down for his breakfast. In the meantime, Phoebe was getting ready for her morning at pre-school. It was Valentine's Day, so she had a party in the cards. I'll keep the rest of our personal V Day event discussions to a minimum but I'll summarize as follows: Cards were exchanged, candy was eaten, flowers were given, and we topped off the evening with a delightful dinner of pasta without sauce because we surprisingly didn't have any, followed by a rip-roaring showing of the all-time classic Kronk's New Groove. Jealous?

Back to pre-school. After dropping off Phoebe, John and I began our errands, which included vacuuming out the mini-van, a trip to Costco, and a stop at the Aunt Millie's factory bread store. John's vocabulary is still limited, but one of his big words is "bread." As we walked into the bread store, his eyes got wide and he started pointing at all the racks. "Bread! Bread! Bread!" This went on for some time. In fact, I worried that leaving would devastate him. Fortunately, it did not. We picked up the girls at their respective schools, and went home for lunch.


The remainder of the day was uneventful. Kids had naps, crafts were completed, Emily came home, and we ate our previously mentioned "romantic" dinner. I will take a moment to note something of Emily's lunch trip to Wendy's. Apparently, they now have something on the menu called the Baja Salad, which from the picture looks like a southwestern type of meal (corn, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, etc). Emily ordered it. Unfortunately, when it was presented to her, she said it looked like the dregs of a chili cauldron sloshed over wilted lettuce. You know when it's real?

In summary, structure worked. And I got a few small housekeeping things done. Now, to maintain it.