The raindrop landed on my head. I had known it was going to rain, and I had my jacket, but I didn’t pull up my hood. It was just a few drops. I liked it.

When I turned back I felt the wind that had been at my back. It wasn’t as nice on my face. My lips started to tingle with the cold of it. Almost home.

I thought of the day ahead and relaxed with a sigh. Nothing to gear up for today. A quick look for a flower I wanted to shoot, and another quick trip to the store to pick out a birthday present for the party tomorrow.

Tomorrow three out of four kids would have a day off from school and we could all sleep late. The one start time that still remained to be dealt with wasn’t until 9. I could handle that. No problem.

A sigh escaped. Thursdays were different. The beginning of the week had taken it’s toll and by now I was tired. The 5am wake up calls to sit in the quiet and write were some of my favorite times, but also completely unsustainable. By the end of the week I usually moved that writing time to mid morning, when there were other people awake and wanting things of me. I bought the time with movies and promises to be out of the office soon.

Today would be no different. Only instead of buying writing time, I considered buying some napping time.

I scrounged some breakfast, freshly out of my normal shake mix. I’d go back later and check to make sure it had shipped and would arrive soon.

“Momma, I’m too sick to read this morning.” He said that a lot. Some days he loved our morning rituals of chores: bath, reading practice, making his bed, brushing his teeth etc. And some days he tried the I’m too sick card. Sometimes it worked, but today would not be one of those days. He was fine, just trying to get out of his jobs. Any previous inconsistencies on my part led to a few days of escape attempts on his part. I expected it.

We read, and decided that would be it for a bit. Nap time had come early. Daniel Tiger was met with excitement and I drifted off. He woke me to start the next one, and the next. After that the dvr was empty and we had to find something else. By 11:30 I still wasn’t ready to be awake, but there were those few things we had to do before the older boys were dropped off by their bus.

“C’mon Buddy. Let’s go to the store.”

“Are we going to buy the birthday present?” He was up for anything at that moment.

“Yep. And some flowers I need for pictures. You ready?”

“I want to get my umbrella first.”

“Okay.”

He loved his umbrella. He’d had one a year ago, that he promptly stepped on and broke. He asked for another right away, but I never bought one. Umbrella’s don’t get a lot of use here; folks just pull up their jacket hood and get on with it. But he persisted, and finally he saw a rainbow umbrella he loved enough to spend his own money on.

By the time we got back home the rain had started in earnest. It was pouring now. A new movie went on while I got the flowers figured out and experimented with the light and angles I wanted. I wasn’t going to win any parenting awards with all the screen time he was getting.

I was still yawning, fighting the urge to lay back down. The headache that had been slowly building finally showed its full strength. Uggh. Another reason to go back to bed.

I shot the flowers, arranging and rearranging them, adjusting light & angles. I’d do more tomorrow, once they’d opened up a bit more.

Tonight would be nice. Nowhere to be and a long weekend. I thought about dinner. Surely this would be a good night for something more than cereal.

“How was your day?” The boys were home, dropping their backpacks and shoes by the door.

“Fine.” They heard the movie and went in the kitchen to find something to eat. The long weekend meant no homework to worry about tonight. We could turn on the fire and snuggle under blankets all afternoon if we wanted. Or at least until one of them started kicking the other.

I tidied up my desk. Enough for today.