1 Day

Every morning Juni darts down the hall, climbs into my bed and and asks for chocolate milk and Tom & Jerry. He then proceeds to ask me "Mommy. What we doin' today?" ad nauseum until I answer him with an itinerary for the next 18 hours.
Some days I have a full day of activities scheduled, other days it's errands and work, and occasionally it's just lounging around the homestead. Regardless, Juni wants to know. So I decided to randomly pick a day and record just what I did, so Juni can some day get a feel for what his life was like at 4-years-old.
Juni snuggled into my bed at 6:15 this morning. Yep. 6:15. Not really my time to shine. But by 6:30 we were downstairs, sippy cup filled to the brim with chocolate milk, Tom and Jerry barely audible on the television, and me stirring three heaping spoonfulls of sugar into my coffee.
By 8 am Jasen had made his daily morning call, reminding me of everything he and I had to do, and asking me to do about 10 more things. I did what I do every morning. Tell him I'm tired, I'm working on it, and that yes, I will do whatever favor you need if you will just not call me for another few hours.
By 10 a.m. the house was clean, Juni dressed and me finally awake.  I'd also invoiced a job, printed out the financial report to date for the company, checked my personal email and answered the business emails. I'd also built a train track with Juni, helped him feed his fish, changed his sheets and convinced him to not build a train table in the middle of my bedroom, but instead to drag two tables next to Jasen's side of the bed. It's the little things, really, like watching Jasen have to crawl to his side of the bed that give me the most pleasure.
The heat index was in the mid-90s, so I shoved my thunder thighs into the longest pair of shorts I could find, pulled my hair up and headed to the barn.
I found myself wrestling a full roll of silt fence into the back of my 4-runner along with 5 heavy-as-hell and even more awkward bundles of wooden stakes. I was also regretting the sandals and white shirt I wore, and constantly expecting a snake to lunge out of the grass and scare the crap out of me. I fought about 100 yellow flies, and lost the battle. Five got into the car, and I'm thinking about 13 got a great brunch off of my ankles. I also noticed a pumpkin patch from last year's discards and am pretty stoked about the gigantic pumpkin I'll get to carve.
An hour later and I pulled up at the site. Jasen and Mauricio were drenched in sweat and hungry for lunch. Unfortunately, loading the materials meant the seat next to Juni had to house the 34 pounds of pure junk that was resting in the back. Jasen and Mauricio were too hot to move any of it, so I drove down the road with Jasen next to me, Juni in his carseat, and Mauricio in the very back. The entire car smelled like fresh sweat. Not a bad smell, but not real appetizing, either.
The best part of lunch was seeing the smile on a man's face when he heard Juni answer me "yes, ma'am." Point Mommy.
After lunch it was off to the local art store for supplies, the ice cream store (more for me than Juni) and to Juni's great-grandparents house, where I proceeded to try and force 24 hours worth of food down their throats in 3 hours.
Jasen's grandparents are 86 and 81 and completely hilarious. I spent the afternoon begging Buddy not to look for the scissors for another minute, explaining to Gang-Gang that she gets her hair done every week and that yes, I did remember who and where the stylist was, begging Juni not to jump off of the couch and break a bone, and listening to both of them tell me the same stories over and over. I love it.
Their house smells like grandparents. My Granny and Grandad. I took a little cat nap on their couch, and dreamed about Granny and Grandad's house. It was wonderful. With the smells of old people and bacon in my nose it was almost like being at Granny's again. But I digress.
I left their house at 3:30, picked up a payment, deposited it in the bank, called Jasen to tell him that yes, they did underpay us yet again and that yes, they know it and yes, honey, I'll stay on top of them. I picked up toiletries for Jasen and Juni, some candy for Vans care package and lollipops or Juni, since the bank didn' have any.
Juni fell asleep in the car, so I woke him just in time to pull into the parking lot at his Tae Kwon Do class. Mom met us, which was a nice surprise. I spent the next 45 minutes watching Juni spar with a kid 6 inches taller and two belts higher than he, and felt that familiar churn in my tummy. He loves karate class. I'm not so much a fan of the punching and kicking, but I get it.
That night I sliced okra, bathed Juni, cleaned the kitchen, found the cool Thomas You Tube videos, fixed a boo-boo, helped with yet another train set, and guilted myself for not recording more of Juni on DVD. I also figured out exactly what line items our check was short on, sent an email to the company, explained the financial printouts to Jasen, and worked on a project I'm creating for my sister.
After a little Project Runway and watermelon, I'm here, trying to type quietly in bed, and regretting the watermelon choice. I've also just remembered what I forgot to do today: find account numbers for the financial planner, answer some of my personal emails, order some things online, call the estate attorney, contact the corporate lawyer, begin my letter to the DBE and put away the laundry. Damn it.