One of those mornings and evenings

• I was walking the children to school yesterday morning.   Most of the mornings that is something Jan does after which he combines with a walking outdoor meeting/call.  But he's starting to pick up job related travel again so I walked the children which I find great if I work from home.
  
  The children took their bike/step so we are progressing well and I enjoy our swift pace.  It is the first time I need to walk them to the new back entrance that due to construction works become the sole and only entrance of the school for 1,5 years. This means we have to walk an extra 500m / 8 minutes with a steep climb to get there. 
  
  At the entrance I give them both a hug and kiss and walk back.  I cross so many children and parents that are walking up a little later than me and I wave and greet. I actually enjoy the morning walk before I start working as it boosts some energy.
  
  And then I am almost back home after half an hour when my attention goes to the strap hanging on my shoulder.   All of a sudden I realise it is not my purse since I take my purse less and less along, but Beertje's school backpack.   Damn it, I walked home with Beertje's backpack that I was carrying for him!! It takes another second to realise that his lunch is in it and that I have no other choice but to return again.  I wonder if Beertje has realised already that he's without his bag at school and what he is thinking.
  
  So I turn around, at a faster rate and walk back down.  I cross some of the parents I crossed before, now they are on their way back and they frown curiously when they see me walking up again.   I signal to the backpack and we all laugh.  Yeah, I can see the humour. And fortunately enough I didn't have an early morning meeting to attend so logging on much too late isn't the worst catastrophy.  I wave to more parents again and arrive at the school gate where I can hand the backpack to a passing teacher who is very relieved that this type of things doesn't only happen to her.
  
  And then I can climb up again  and down again...this time on my way home for real. The morning rush on the streets seems already a bit over. Way to go and hit the 10000 steps easily today. At 9 AM I'm already with over 4km walked.  I was well awake to hit the work floor. 
  
  
• The evening before, first evening of solo parenting in over a year, Kabouter yells "oh no Rodin just shit all over the hallway floor. Eeeeek" ...as he flees back into the hygienic safety of the living room. 
  
  Damn he was right. Damn I was the only adult at home to be able to deal with this as delegating it to the children didn't seem like an option. Ugh, damn, yes. 
  (and it was our fault...Both Jan and I had such rushed calendars this week and a bit of miscommunication among us, so we've apparently failed to clean the litter box for a few days. Well Rodin is teaching is that we shouldn't repeat that.)
  
  
• At bedtime we realize that the next morning  (that morning of Beertje's backpack) the day of the youth organizations and all children part of a youth organization wear their uniform to school. But of course Kabouter's scouting sweater disappeared.  It can nowhere be found at bedtime.   Kabouter clearly has other priorities than searching while I am pissed off since I hang it up neatly the week before so somebody took the sweater away.  While I tell him he'll go to school without sweater, I can't stop searching: in the laundry, under the sofa, in the bathroom, in the suitcase of the Ardennes, in Beertje's wardrobe etc  until I find it in Kabouter's room under a pile of stuffed animals. 
  I was happy and angry at the same time when I found it. 
  
  When I pick him up from school, he comes announcing he lost his scouting scarf that afternoon...the one I warned him about.   He didn't think it was a good idea to untie it at lunch time at his best friend's suggestion but went ahead anyway to collect nuts in it in the large school garden.   And then he had no clue anymore where it ended up and he had searched everywhere.  Man, that gave him a big lecture in public, while his little brother took the time racing through the garden and showing up with a dirty scarf he retrieved from a playground tunnel.    Ugh, boys.  
  
  
• Work wasn't all too good either, with some unhappy customer throwing the most rude curses to all of us repeatingly.  I also got feedback that one of my recent emails where I had tried to force a decision and some progress on a stuck situation in a direct and actionable style had landed negatively with the direction.   It triggered some good reflection and conversations, I offered excuses and explained and all is fine, yet it was so frustrating and disappointing that good intentions land so wrongly when you don't expect it.   Bleh,  of all of the above, the latter upset me most and stuck around for the entire day.  

But it's weekend now and we have no plans which are the best weekends!