365 Steps of Life

I'm signing the family up for a new project. Heh, I'll share it with them at breakfast tomorrow. We're going to make one small change for 365 days and see if we can make some our lives run better and more efficiently that way. The first change for today is that I *will* set the timer on the coffee pot before I go to bed tonight.

On the absent-minded (wannabe) professor front, I've lost my car keys. This set is only about the 313th set I've ever lost in my life. I've retraced my steps from Friday, but there's a huge blank spot in the 5-minute interval when I know I put down my keys! Where are they???

Monday morning went okay. It definitely wasn't the way I wanted it to go, but we had less crying. We actually got out of the door by 7:35 (goal is 7:30). Then I searched for my damned keys for 10 minutes before texting Brian with a hysterical message about the insanity of being expected to read Judith Butler one day and keep up with my keys the next. Ridiculous, I'll tell you.

Brian did what he always does - said he'd come rescue me from the driveway where the kids were popping the trunk repeatedly and resetting the trip meter on the car. He stopped by, barely concealed his smirk, and gave me the key from his keychain.

Jayden has this obsession with Brian's car being faster than mine because it's louder (read: needs cold weld on muffler). When Brian meets us after work, the kids always want to ride home with him because of his "super-fast car." Super-adjective, for those who don't know, is four-year-old for "freakin' awesome, couldn't be better." I always pull away first (no kids to get into carseats), and then at some point, I let Brian pass me. The kids wave and yell and then generally trash talk me when I get home seconds after them.

This morning, we hopped in the car and followed Brian out after he gave me the keys. In an effort to salvage my morning, I floored it and zoomed past Brian. (Jayden tends to sob hysterically if he loses at anything, and I didn't have the time or patience for a "sometimes in life..." lesson.) As we passed, the kids waved and shouted. Then I said, "oh, yeah, Mama's car's faster."

Jayden says completely stone-faced, "Mama, no it's not. You just passed Daddy because he had to slow down to turn at that light for work." *grr* What's with this kid? Who made him the world's cynic? Oh, yeah, his wonderfully cynical mom.