CEO of the House: Let's Enjoy Today

by Laurie McDermott

Just when I was drastically beginning to regret my decision to NOT send my children to camp every week this summer because I wanted to spend every waking moment with them, I noticed the date on the calendar.

"Only nine more days till school starts again!" I shouted with glee to the kids in my kitchen who'd been whining that I'd let another day slip by without planning some extravagant 'adventure' for them. My oldest boy, Ty, took a sip of his milk and said, "I want to clean out my closet today." Everyone, including me, stared at him as if he'd suddenly sprouted weeds on his head. Ty looked at us the same way, "Mom, you said we could have a garage sale and that I could sell my stuff and keep the money." "What a great idea! Who wants to make some money?" I called out to the troops thrilled I'd have extra-enthused hands to help organize and clean today. "YEAH!" shouted the entourage of little voices. I was beyond excited, and like I'd been advised from watching Oprah and those design shows, I was going to get my house organized and make some cash at the same time. The next eighteen minutes were heaven as I watched my kids go hog wild, ripping through shelves of dusty items, separating toys into boxes marked "KEEP," "SELL," "GIVE."

Then, suddenly, it stopped. "Mom, I'm hungry…." "Mom, can I have a playdate…" "What's on TV?" "I thought we were getting ready to make money at our garage sale?" I asked as the eyes I spoke to darted to look anywhere but at me. "But I'm hungry." "I'm bored." "I thought "Dora" was on?" My help was over. Faced with the miserable task of having to clean up a massive mess that less than an hour ago, hadn't even existed, I literally flopped down on the couch. It was at that moment my husband, who stops home for lunch once in a great while, walked through the door. His face was of shock and horror, "Ah, are we moving?" The little voices were in unison as they jumped up and down at his feet, "Daddy! We're having a garage sale! We're gonna make a million dollars!" As the troupe set off to the kitchen to have lunch, I lay on the couch alone, breathing in and out, wondering what to do next: Get up and go forth solo with the garage sale or blink and hope powers like Samantha Stevens on Bewitched overcomes me and puts my house back to normal. I blinked. Nothing. I blinked again. Hard. When I opened my eyes a blurry face appeared and I jumped. "Honey? Are your eyes okay? Do you want some lunch?" It was my husband hovering over me in an annoyingly mother-in-law way shoving a P & J sandwich at my head. Taking the sandwich, I sat up so thankful my husband even thought of making me lunch. My kids were eating and together my family sat having a dinner moment on this sunny afternoon mid-week day. I was so happy; it was then I announced my brilliant idea. "Daddy, why don't you take off the rest of the day today and go with us to the beach?" The consensus was unanimous. Dad was worried for me, "But what about the boxes and the garage sale?" I shrugged my shoulders and smiled, "It'll all be here when we get back! Let's enjoy today."