Mornings

Mornings are meant to be calm, serene, ordered. An oasis of haven before we walk into the wide world of today. The peace of our homes is taken into our explorations and experiences.

Ha ha ha. Seriously? I woke up to the train, went back to sleep, vaguely heard the alarm. My Dearest and Bestest set a cup of coffee down next to the bed and the smallest person in the house arrived. "Mom, where are my school pants?" asked at volume. "Where you left them." I replied, inhaling the coffee with desperation and delight. "But MO-OM".

Mom has somehow become a two-syllable word in our home.

"Mo-om, I don't know where I left them." Sigh. The same place he always leaves them. On the floor. In his bedroom, or any room. But there is a clean pair of pants in the wash basket. "Try the wash basket, Luke." The latest iteration is that small boy has to get changed in private. I know this is a natural progression, but it is hard to reconcile with the personality that still parades naked through the house bopping to an unheard beat. It inevitably stops in front of my mirror to admire a few of the wilder hip rolls and shakes and give itself a thumbs up big wide grin of approval. So the small boy vanishes into my bathroom to put on his unders and his grey pants. Next crisis. He emerges and says "IRON MY TOP".

At this, I gaze myopically over the top of my cup of coffee. It's now half full, and I am struggling to compute. Er, where is the please? And by the way, it's not even 6.30am.

Skip the middle bit.

Let it be noted that I finished the coffee, Extracted myself from bed. Made 3 lunches. Combed out Miss J's tresses (we could not find the brush again) and did a fancy do, remembered Spring Day and that we had to take flowers for the teachers. Chopped down clivias, ruthlessly sacrificing their annual flower heads to brighten a teacher's day. Wrapped jam jars in bright green paper with hastily scrawled "happy spring day" in kid-writing.

Adam, the Man of My Heart, ironed the shirt at 7.20.

And he who must not be named, lest he object, hopped out to the car with one shoe on and one shoe off, leaving his homework pouch and Class Captain badge behind for Mo-om to bring out to the car.

By the way, in best Cape Tradition, it's cold and rainy. Happens every Spring Day.

And so, Adam, Jessica and Luke left the haven of a serene, cereal-decorated, school bag-littered and mildly upside down home to venture into the wide world of 1 September.

(Bonus for Mo-om: Jessica left her latest Bear Grylls book behind so I can find out what happens next!)