by Crystal Cook

Created on: February 17, 2008

My Daily Grind

It's 4:30 a.m. when I awake and attempt to open my sleepy eyes. I can't see anything, all is black and I can't move. I'm paralyzed from my shoulders up. Intense panic begins to set in. I feel trapped and suffocated. Just before pure terror consumes me, I take the sleeping baby off of my head and tell myself to stop being so dramatic.

I slide out of bed in slower than slow motion, partly because I am too stiff to move and partly not to awaken the youngest of my blessed offspring. As I stumble my way into the bathroom I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I wonder if those are dark circles under my eyes or if they are the result of the mega battle Batman had with Godzilla yesterday.

Batman can fly you know. Yep, that caped freak plowed me right between the eyes as I was innocently kneeling to gather laundry. I made one of those mommy rules when my vision returned. From now on, super heroes, their sidekicks and their enemies were no longer allowed to fly in the house or they would be sent to prison for an undetermined amount of time. The kids knew what that meant. They would go into the garage and probably never be seen again.

Feeling quite certain it wouldn't make much of a difference in my overall appearance anyway; I decided not to worry about it and made my way back to bed. I snuggled in knowing I was free to snooze the morning away. There was no school and that meant I didn't have to wake up until I was good and ready to. My moment of rest lasted exactly a moment. I'd forgotten kids have some sort of biological clock somewhere within them set to go off at the crack of dawn on weekends and holidays. This time it was set for 5:00 a.m.

I slid out of bed again and told them to play quietly so mommy could sleep for a little while. I knew before I said it that I was deluding myself but it was worth a shot. It's 6:30 a.m. when I again regain consciousness. It's the mind numbing blaring of the television stealing my slumber. I yell for the children to turn the blasted thing down and they yell back "Why?" I so very much dislike that word. "Because you're gonna wake up the baby!"

It occurs to me as I watch a soggy little diaper running from the room I should have kept my big mouth shut. The television is soon quieted and I begrudgingly arise to prepare breakfast. I notice the absence of one hungry little mouth, I knew she would sleep late, I heard the pound puppies making a jailbreak around midnight.

After the corn flakes had been poured and the

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