Two Hours Takes Forever on Ice

Hey, I hate ice skating. Took five kids ice skating today. Looks so pretty, the white ice in this heatwave, those twirly girls that you know spend every day on the ice since they were four and loved spangly outfits.

But then I have to skate sort of bent over while Lilly is hanging on me with both hands. Last time we went skating was her first time, and by the end she was skating on her own, on her impossibly tiny doll skates. So I kept trying to shake her off, encourage her to skate on her own, look at Emma and Audrey skating, look at Nathan and Henry. But today she had to hang on me and then once she realized I had a bag of snack food all she wanted was to get back off the ice and eat chips and rice krispy treats. Dammit.

Two hours takes forever on ice. I started promising myself we'd stop at Costco and I'd feed us all pizza and there would be my soda, all the free soda and ice I could drink. It was the only thing getting me around the long icy loop of the rink, the no cooking and soda ahead. Then as it got later I could see that there was not going to be any soda and things got darker and darker.

We got off the ice and suddenly I was just a chauffer, getting the kids home, having to make hamburgers which smelled bad and I ended up giving to the dogs. Then the sun was going down and there was no movie night or anything fun, and then poor Lilly is so tired and she gets in bed and peace is coming because quiet is coming.

I found myself sitting out with the chickens today on a chair like an 80 year old woman whose house has exploded. I don't know what I'm doing these days, this motherhood gig has taken a turn for the busy. There's all these friends over, which is good, but I keep wondering what happened to the simple life, where we all liked each other. School is hurtling at us and I know life will not be the same, we only watched Price is Right ONE TIME this summer. And now Nathan will be at middle school and Emma will be in 4th grade and Lilly starting preschool and no wonder I got this horse. Hey wait, maybe Barry and I can go to the movies at 10 am three days a week. Or once a month.

Anyway, it moves too fast. Even the bad stuff, nothing lingers long enough for me. If you're in my life, linger. Would ya?