The first day...
of the last week of summer. Martha heads back to the high school next Monday. On top of my usual undercurrent of misgivings about the high school, I realize this is the last week I’ll be able to walk out of the house and go to 8:00 am Mass without making sure Martha is up and going (she’s just not a morning person!), bundling up and heading out to scrape ice off of the car and coaxing it to start, driving the nerve jangling detour through the high school and then over to church. OK, so the boots, mittens and ice scraper will come a little later. But I’m preparing now.

And I may be taking a job for a few hours every morning. This is perfect. Just enough extra work to help make ends meet. Rick has already agreed to do math and science with the boys in the morning and then I’ll get back in time to do the fun stuff. Perfect except that it starts at 8:30. So there goes the usual 8:00 am Mass routine. I’ve already negotiated with Rick to assure that I can get to 6:30 Mass once or twice a week. All I need is someone here to make sure Martha is up and going. Then I can take her to school.

If it appears that I’ve over-thought the school logisitics it’s because I’ve been through this before. When Chuck was a baby I would go to 6:30 Mass, then use the car phone (we had a car phone!) to call home and check on people’s progress. This is still not adequate cause for me to run out and get a cell phone. At this point I may in contention to be one of the last people over the age of 8 without a cell phone. C’est la vie.