Who Moved My Cheese?

With 8 "snow days" in January and several "late-starts" and "early-releases" from school, lately my life has been in total upheaval. When I wake up in the morning I don't know if I am going to be getting everyone ready and shuttling them off to their schools. Or if I am going to be sequestered in my house with my three children trying to fill the next 12 hours with enough activities and entertainment to keep us all from driving each other crazy. I don't know if I am going to be visiting the dentist and then doing a long over-due grocery shop. Or if I am going to be rescheduling my appointment for the fourth time and then looking online for ideas of what I can make with lima beans, peanut butter, and ramen noodles (because that is pretty much all we have left in the cupboard).

All this chaos on a day-to-day basis has reminded me of a book I was made to read 10 years ago BC (Before Children) when I was a working woman. It was called "Who Moved My Cheese?" It is a parody about adapting to change. The book tells the tale of four mice in a maze and how they respond when their "cheese" has been moved. Some mope around missing their cheese and cursing the "cheese movers". Others choose to move on, looking at it as an opportunity to discover new cheese elsewhere. (This is a book that corporations give to employees before major re-structuring or down-sizing to deter whiners).

I actually thought the book was pretty cheesy. Literally and figuratively.

But now I feel like I am trapped inside that cheesy book.

I wake up expecting things to be a certain way...and then no cheese! Ok, one snow day is no problem. Hey, I love being home with my children! Let's go play in the snow! Day Two, no sweat. Let's make cookies and put on a puppet show. Day five...umm, really? Another snow day?? I guess we'll have a Dora and Diego marathon. And then we'll go scrape the ice off the drive way. YAY! Day Eight...are you freaking kidding me?!? God, take me now! I await your loving embrace.

Don't get me wrong, it's not the time spent with my children that is driving me crazy. (OK, maybe just a little bit!) But more so, it is the fact that our normal routine is being disrupted day after day.

And the truth of the matter is that I do a pretty good job losing my cheese all by myself, without any help from Mother Nature. I have the best of intentions, but I am often scattered and forgetful. I often walk into a room, unable to remember why I went in there. And I am always losing things. Either because I put something somewhere while I was distracted and I have no recollection of it. Or because one of my children found another home for it, and he has no recollection of it.

Maybe I should write my own book, "Who Moved My Keys?" I doubt it would be a best seller, but it might help me locate these very important items. Which I can't seem to find. Which I might need. To drive my car. If it ever stops snowing...