As the days slip by quickly, flowing swiftly like water in the creek near my house after rains, I don't seem to have time to pause and take a breath at leisure.
It seems like an endless cycle of well known, familiar chores keep me moving like a programmed robot. This is life with school going children. There are routine chores - making breakfast, packing their lunches, driving to school, making their evening snacks, driving back, making dinner, helping with homework, driving them to their games, dance practice, tuition, shopping, cleaning, laundry, gardening, planning meals and snacks,the odd doctor's appointments, meeting with the teacher, playing with the kids, maybe going for a little walk or sitting on my computer to write up such blog posts. There are regular school excursions from which they might need to be picked up late. Make sure everything is ready for tomorrow before turning in earlier than the kids to go to sleep. Teenagers apparently do not need as much sleep as I do. Waking up early to start over the next day again. Occasionally waking up in the middle of the night when I can hear them coughing or sniffling with a stuffed nose or a moaning with a sore limb. Give some medicine or massage while half asleep and get back to bed.
Sleeping in late on one day of the weekend if there is no early morning match to go to, or going to a eat out or a visit to the temple or a friend, rarely. Holidays are a bit different but even busier, to keep the kids busy and engaged, to take them to their friend's houses or the movies or shopping or bowling or a footy match. Now they want to do things with their friends, so I run a taxi service.
They want something 'different' to eat during holidays or on some days.Trying to work out new recipies that their palates can accept and enjoy can be challenging.
This is the routine, if everything goes fine and nothing breaks down - the car or the tap or the oven or the computer or printer.
One cannot seem to remember what we did which day, which month or year, unless of course, something different and out of routine happens. Some injury, or illness, or something breaks down, a big spill in the living room or on their good dress, some last minute drama, some quarrel between the kids or a sudden burst of laughing and sharing of something funny, a bit of sad news from family or friends breaks the routine. The car might break down, some vandal spray paints it while parked outside, there is an incident in the neighborhood and the police show up, there could be heartbreak with the daughter's friends or the teacher being 'not understanding', some trouble with the kids' learning or disappointment at something, son has not the right size and type of clothes to wear at the last minute as we are about to leave (he seems to be growing at the rate of an inch a day), when the kids are hungry after they have eaten all I made going by their usual appetite and they want more, so we rush across to the shops to get some fast food, fast. Or on a hot, hot day, I forget to get ice-cream by the time they are back from school and I do a sudden run.
It is these unusual occurrences that make lasting memories that I can recollect at the end of the school year, or after many years have passed. I am sure I will miss this when this blur is gone too.
This is life!
Copyright (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
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