Habit Forming - Day 2

Well, that was quite a day now wasn't it?!?

Last night I started thinking through my bed time routine a little more. Last night my routine consisted of:

• load the dishwasher
• clear the counters
• pick up the toy mess in the family room, dining room, kitchen and living room (the kids do "clean up" before they get ready for bed, but they don't do a stellar job yet)
• check my calendar for the next day's appointments
• prep anything I would need for today and put it at my "launch pad"
• choose my outfit
• got ready for bed

I think it worked out nicely and I am doing the same thing tonight.

Now for how today fell apart worked out:

• Showered and dressed by 8am
• Both kids up, dressed and fed 9am
• Installed gate at bathroom hallway entry (so I can open the door for ventilation in there to prevent mildew from overtaking the shower, but keep the toddler out of the room so she doesn't drink the toilet water)
• lunched at home with the children
• nap for both kids
• planned dinner and executed that plan
• grocery store run to return night time diapers bought in the wrong size and pick up 2 things needed for dinner (accidentally used the ingredients in other dishes the other day)
• Bathed both children (with Mr. Amen's help) and got them both asleep before 9pm

That doesn't sound too bad, except that the plan for the day included attending Daily Mass and Homeschool Group. Those things didn't happen. Just after 9am my parents called and said they were coming over. My dad is renovating our half bath for us, free of charge (it is seriously ugly - before and after pictures will be provided) so I feel that I should just be here when he is here to help him with anything he needs, feed him, and get him water. So since they were dropping by unexpectedly, I didn't haul the kids out the door to Mass. Which means we also missed homeschool group.

But I think it was OK because while I was here visiting with my mom, Mr. Amen texted me and said he was expecting a package of shaving supplies from UPS today or tomorrow. Innocent enough, but the control freak in me needed to know how he had paid for these expensive shaving supplies. So I logged into our bank account to see if he had paid cash or used a credit card. I am so glad I looked at our bank account because I saw that our mortgage payment, which I set up manually each month, was deducted TWICE from our checking account. So our account was overdrawn. By a lot. But we have overdraft protection, so my credit union kindly transferred the money from our savings account to cover the overdraft, then politely charged us a fee to do so. Now our checking account had a very circular balance, as in $0.00.

Well, that about caused me to go into labor.

I logged onto the mortgage company website to see what the heck had happened. They had a message that they were experiencing problems with their payment site. So I called, but they said they were experiencing technical difficulties and disconnected me. So I tried contacting the "virtual assistant" on their website, but no one was available to field my questions. So I told my parents we had an emergency and I put the kids in the van and left for the nearest branch location of the bank that holds our mortgage.

The lady that helped me eventually was very kind and honest about what had happened. She actually just read me the email they received telling them what happened and what was happening to resolve it. Seems they accidentally processed the file twice and over 35,000 of the bank's customers were affected by this mistake. We should have the money back in our account today or tomorrow. And if I submit a bank statement showing the overdraft or NSF fees they will reimburse us.

So that little adventure, threw off our schedule a bit and threw me into a tizzy.

Which I recovered from by eating ice cream as the children napped.

Which caused me to experience intestinal armageddon the remainder of the afternoon.

Which made me want to eat comfort food.

Which made me choose this incredible recipe for dinner.

Which I made despite the fact that it was in the 70s and sunny today.

Which was delicious and amazing and perfect and everything I had hoped it would be and got my day right back on track.