This was, by far, the most challenging Monday I’ve had in a long time.

Sure, everyone complains about Mondays; I’m no different.  But, my complaints usually don’t have much behind them other than my reluctance to start a new week of chaos.  I typically get over my “case of the Mondays” without much drama, but then today happened.

We started the day with our typical morning madness, scrambling to get everyone up and ready and out the door.  Of course, as soon as it was time to drop off the kids, the sky opened and rain started to pour down. So, I arrived to work a little on the damp side; while unfortunate, I would have been happy if this had been the worst of my Monday saga.

After about twenty minutes of staring at a fuzzy computer screen, I was completely puzzled as to why my contacts had not “settled”, and blamed my growing headache on the lovely, stress-induced cold I am not enjoying at all.  Then, it dawned on me that I never put my contacts in before leaving the house this morning. What?!?  How does one do this?  My tired, farsighted self didn’t realize my eyeballs were naked until it was too late for me to run home and grab my contacts.  So, I somehow made it through my work day, but I could only do so by sitting about two inches from my laptop screen (try typing like that one day…good times).

Although I was on a tight schedule after work, I had to stop at home to fix my vision issues.  My plan was to stop by the post office, go to the bank, pick up the kids, and get to church for the first night of VBS…all in about an hour and 45 minutes. Ambitious, no?

I have never been so happy to put in my contacts, and since I was at home I decided to prep my bank deposit before leaving for the post office.  Only, I couldn’t find my bank deposit.  I somehow managed to pull an Uncle Billy and forget where I put my bank stuff!  Ugh!!  My checkbook plus the cash Addie collected for Team Alex was missing, causing immediate panic on my part.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t replace the cash (and I absolutely would have!), but my checkbook was going to be more difficult to replace. Beyond that, I do not like losing track of my stuff.  I was irritated, my head hurt, and I was way behind on my schedule, but I headed off to the post office anyway.

Of course, there was a huge line and there was no air conditioning, but eventually I finished that errand and tried to focus on where I could have left my banking items. Then, it occurred to me that I had everything out of my bag at work when I was searching for a mirror to check for contacts; I realized that I must have left the envelope in my desk.  Back to the office I went; but, not before I was delayed by TWO trains.

Fortunately, I found the deposit locked in my desk drawer (HUGE sigh of relief!!) but by then it was too late to stop at the bank, so I headed off to get the kids.  By then, I was going to be very late for my volunteer shift at VBS, but I kept trucking on.

I was so over Monday by the time I got to the kids, but I loaded them up to head to VBS (although my achy head pleaded with me to just go home).  Through screaming kids and traffic, we somehow made it to the church, and eventually got everyone settled.

Then, with the kids herded off for a bit, I had a moment to stop and take a deep breath, more than eight hours after my difficult day had started.  It was a loooong breath, I’ll tell you.  I got to stand back and watch the kids enjoy VBS; singing, dancing, crafting, learning, making new friends.  It was the perfect remedy for a bad mood.

We hit a couple more bumps on our way home, but the kids are now settling down into bed and I’ll have an hour to myself before falling into bed.  Here’s hoping tomorrow is not so brutal.