Shattered Reverie

I was over at my friend, MeiLei's, house the other day, August 6th to be exact. Her three girls, ages 8, 6 and 4, were running through the house fighting, yelling, making demands and the 4 year old was eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich (open-faced with her fingers) while getting the peanut butter all over her mom's MacBook. Add to this chaos the fact that they are living in their house during a major kitchen/living space remodel.

Mess, stress and 3 kids out of school. I could literally see MeiLei's hair turning grey and the steam starting to pour from her ears.




She turns to me with the look only harried stay-at-home mom's get and says, "I can't wait until school starts. Only 9 more days. Thank GOD!"



"What day do you guys start school?" (Our kids are in different school and often have different start dates.)


"Monday August 25th," she replied.



"Um.... I really hate to tell you this, but you have way more than 9 days left."

Edvard Munch's The Scream

I swear, this was TOTALLY how she looked when she figured out she really had 19 days left to survive.

Sorry, MeiLei. I should have left you in your T-9 and counting reverie.