The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity.

My garbage disposal died in a blazing glory of flames and an awful smell.

It was 11 years old, an impressive age for a dishwasher. I tried and tried to it back to life. I spent hours on YouTube watching garbage disposal surgeries. I pushed that damn red button to reset it at least 100 times, thinking each new push would be a miracle. Somehow my garbage disposal is connected to my pipes for my dishwasher. Apparently, as I have recently found out that- if the garbage disposal doesn’t want to cooperate, that means the sink fills with yicky dishwasher water. I was not going to buy a new one if I didn’t have to. I learned my lesson at my last house, save yourself and your bank account- only buy a new one when you HAVE to.

So, at 3:30 in the morning, I was downstairs in my PJ’s bent on saving the 11-year-old garbage disposal. Needless to say, I did not fix it. But somehow, I fixed the island lights that I did not know that I had, and now my kitchen island glows. It was 6:30 a.m. by the time that I gave it up. Mostly because the garbage disposal coughed on me, and my mouth and hair were filled with last week’s green beans and rice. Off to Lowes, I went, after a very long shower, and I got new garbage disposal. Why didn’t anyone tell me that they were cheap and easy to install? SERIOUSLY? I could have saved myself hours and heartache if I had known that this was not an emergency credit card situation.

February-the month that Kekoa started going back to school full time in person. Almost a year to the date of his extended spring vacation- we are dealing with lunch’s, bus schedules, notebooks, and backpacks all over again. I am not going to lie; I had kind of missed the 1st day of school mistakes that I have been known for. I still stand by the year that I forgot to wash the boy’s clothes for the first day of school; I was sent the wrong schedule. And that year that they all failed to make lunches and I had sent them to school with quarters to buy lunch- that was a classic year! Forget the fact that I have only remembered to take the first day of school pictures 1 year- and that was because my mother called me and reminded me. This year was going to be different! I was prepared. We were eased into school this year……starting with virtual and then having weeks of preparation for the actual first day! I was on my game!

I forgot to call the damn school bus company! Sweet baby Jesus are you shitting me! Thankfully, the school bus drivers are aware that there are parents such as me. Therefore, they will stop when they see a child standing outside with a backpack in -10-degree weather and take them somewhere warm and safe. They also have these fantastic cards that they give the child at the end of the day to give to the moms. It provides us with the phone number, bus number, driver’s name, and very detailed instructions on being a proper parent of a school-age child. Even with 6 months of preparation, I failed on another first day of school. But this year, I got two fails because of the first day of virtual school- Kekoa and I couldn’t remember the 4-digit passcode to unlock his computer. We had to factory reset it. That put us back 2 hours, and I had to call the school and tell them why we were late getting to the dining room/classroom to log on.

February also started the Taji 100 challenge. 100 miles in February of intentional miles, along with my 2021 challenge of 2021 miles in 1 year. Interestingly, I was willing to spend $70.00 for a challenging t-shirt and web access to track my miles. (Like the free ”Map My Run’ app wouldn’t follow them just fine), but I had a heart-attack over buying new garbage disposal? $70.00 is a lot of money for a virtual challenge, so I was getting my money worth. The first day of February, I woke up ready to go- let’s get this! As I was having my morning coffee getting mentally prepared, I did the math- 3.60 miles a day. Shit! February is the shortest month of the year! I forgot about that small piece of the pie when I spent $70.00. I am going to have to actually put effort into this challenge. Maybe I should write to my boss and tell her that I am taking the month off to dedicate my time to the $70.00 challenge?

But in my mind, this was going to all workout. Kekoa was going back to school, and I could work from my treadmill on my smartphone. No one at home to judge me. I was going to get skinny, get 100 intentional miles, still work, and drink lots of coffee. This would give me time to work on my book in the morning and at night when everyone ignored me after dinner. Reality? Kekoa learned that he can still ‘go’ to school if he doesn’t ‘go’ to school. It took me until Friday to realize that he was checking the weather report, and if it was too cold, he would miss the bus and log on in the dining room. Smart kid. Then I heard him passing this fantastic tip onto his classmates during health class. I think I may be getting a phone call next week from the school board and other parents. Another reality check, walking/running 4 miles a day (I rounded up to have a least 2 rest days this month) makes you very hungry. I have not gone grocery shopping because Kekoa is supposed to be in school eating their nutritious food. All I have are Oreo’s and Little Debbie snacks. I have gained 5 pounds in the last two weeks.

Its Saturday. Time to get my life back on track. I need to go to the grocery store and get fruit, veggies, diet pills. I need to get my hair cut because I have been too lazy for the last 9 months to do it. I need to vacuum up Puppy Polar hair because I have been too lazy to do it over the previous 3 days. I need to clean the bathrooms. I need to plan dinners for the rest of the week. I need to get in another 4 miles. I am swamped, so I think I will make another coffee and work on my book.