*pant pant pant pant*

I've just come of the most hectic two week stretch I can remember. I am sure there have been other Hell Weeks in my past, but I am so fuzzy after this running around like a crazy laller laller laller laller freak I can't think straight.

Let it be known that I'm in for a long couple of decades.

Here's how it went. I had daily school for the older two, swim lessons in the morning each day for my youngest, and then evening swim lessons for the other two. Add in riding lessons for me (Tuesday) and my oldest (Wednesday, sandwiched between school and swimming) and a couple of special projects due at the end of the week. Then, you add in the fact that my son doesn't want to stay in aftercare any longer, so I have pickup twice, an hour apart. We blew off music lessons and a community theatre performance because there just weren't enough hours in the day.

You know, I used to scoff at those moms who spent all day in their minivans, conducting family business by cellphone while driving from school to sports complex to ballet studio and back again. This morning, I feel like I was seriously initiated. Pulled behind the supermarket and jumped into the gang. I keep rubbing my eyes and checking the bumper of my van for the "Mom's Taxi!" bumper sticker. It's not there. But it could be.

Lucky for me, the swim lessons are over, and although next week promises to be busy (two field trips to chaperone, open house and an ice cream social) I feel like I've become accustomed to the frenetic pace. I just don't know how long I can sustain it. I might be the only parent on the planet eager for summer vacation to begin.

If you are ever, say, loading your groceries into your van, and you find yourself surrounded by a pack of PDA- wielding, coffee mug-holding moms balancing a cell phone between their cheek and shoulder, with a diaper bag on one shoulder and a duffel of sports gear on the other, it's best to just surrender. They just want to toughen you up for the gauntlet ahead.