Keepin' it real... cranky.

This morning was practice.

Sucky, awful, horrendous practice… but practice, nonetheless.

In an effort to be the first in line at the dealership to get the oil changed in my van, I was up at 5:45 this morning to shower, get dressed, blow-dry my hair, and slap on a little makeup (hey, some of those service guys are really nice, and I didn’t want to scare the crap out of them with my puffy eyes and ‘right out of bed’ hair. They deserve better.)

After I was dressed, I managed to get all three kids out of bed with minimal trouble because, of course, the crumb-crushers have to go with me to get the oil changed. Much as I’d like to leave them at home whilst I run errands… well, the state of Texas (specifically, Child Protective Services) frowns on that particular practice.

So, it was with much fanfare, turning on of lights and music, and pulling back bed covers that I greeted my children this morning. They weren’t appreciative of my enthusiasm. Then I discovered that the words, ‘fresh banana bread’ took a little of the sting out of the early morning wake-up call.

Miracle of all summertime miracles: 6:30 a.m. found us downstairs… dressed, hair combed, shoes on, and munching on the bread that I made yesterday with the two brown bananas that had lived the good life on my kitchen counter. Granted, the kids’ eyes were only half open, everyone was pretty cranky, and it’s a good bet that nobody brushed their teeth… but baby steps, people.

It was practice. Practice for a certain Tuesday that is only three weeks away. A day that I am, on the one hand, looking forward to in eager anticipation… and on the other, am dreading for it’s early morning, chaos-infused, adrenaline-hyped arrival. The first day of school.

And now that we had the chance to all be up waaaay too early this morning in a little 'back to school preview', I think I’m going to really appreciate the last few weeks of summer.

Just a few more weeks of sleeping in a little, having lazy mornings with too much ‘Suite Life of Zack & Cody’, and letting the kids eat a ‘whatever you can find in the pantry because Mommy is still in bed’ breakfast (fruit snacks? Sure. Potato chips? Of course. A Twinkie? The breakfast of champions, my friends.)

So, admittedly, it wasn’t too daunting a task to get all three kids up and out the door this morning, but I had that banana bread to fall back on. If I’m going to make it through the first month of school, I better have a plan in place. A plan of attack. A plan of organization.

A winning plan.

Um… save me those bananas, would’ya?