Call Weekends

My husband is on call this weekend which means he may or may not be home while the kids are awake.  He has a presentation to give this morning which means rounds and other call duties need to wait.  Best case scenario he'll be home for dinner.  Obviously after all these years I'm used to weekends like this and it's not a big deal - except I created a bit of a challenge for myself around lunch time today.  These are the days I wish I had family in town to just be an extra driver.  Here's the schedule for this afternoon

12:00 Everyone leaves for Little Hugger's dance class.  Little Reader to be in her soccer
          uniform
12:15 Little Hugger's dance class starts
12:25 Walk Little Reader over to her piano teacher's house (one block from the dance
          class and the only reason this will all work)
12:30 Piano lesson starts
1:00 Pick up Little Hugger from dance class and walk her over to piano teacher's house
1:15 Little Reader piano lesson done, Little Hugger starts piano lesson
        Drive Little Reader over to her soccer game, watch for a couple of minutes before
        driving back to piano teacher's house
1:45 Pick up Little Hugger from piano, drive back to the soccer field, and hope to catch
         the end of the game
2:00 Soccer game is over and we can all relax

Now I realize this is fairly typical for suburban parents and like I said I brought it on myself (well the soccer game was not part of the original plan, but I told the coach she could do it).

I think once we're all done we'll head to the library as I have a couple of books to pick up and they always like going there and then I'll have to take all 3 to the store with me to pick up stuff for dinner.

Part of what will keep me going through the crazy couple of hours is that next week I have scheduled a day off for myself.  I planned it awhile ago as I booked a long overdue haircut (it's been almost two years since I last got it cut and that was not by my favorite hairdresser - he had moved salons and I thought I had lost him).  He resurfaced and I am very much looking forward to a solo trip downtown to get my hair highlighted and cut, and then to top it off I just scored a Groupon to 1154 Lill.  If you're from Chicago you probably know of this store - they make custom handbags in a bunch of different styles and you can also design your own. I've always wanted one but have been too cheap to get one (and I don't often make it to Lincoln Park).  This morning I saw the Groupon and the fact that they also have a store at 900 Michigan which is very close to the hair salon.  It was meant to be.

 I've got my eye on the Gaby style and this is one of the options I came up with.  I usually carry a backpack as it's easier with holding little kids hands when we walk around, but I have been wanting something for those times when I don't need the big backpack.  I'm going to play around with the color options a bit more and try and make it more fun but since I wear jeans so much I think something blue would be good.