SuperMom - Misnomer or Possibility?

Some mornings I leave the house feeling like SuperMom - got up, got ready, unloaded dishwasher, did a load of laundry, cleaned the living room, planned for supper, wiped down a bathroom, swept the kitchen floor, remembered to give the dogs water, got the kids up, got them ready, stayed patient, organized snacks and toys and backpacks, left the house 10 minutes early, with a fully-charged Blackberry safely on my hip and a fully charged laptop safely in my bag, dropped the kids off at the sitter, and got to work with plenty of time to stand in line for a London Fog on the way by.  Phew. I am SuperMom!  Feels great!  When I get home everything is in order!

Some days I come home and SuperMom keeps going - leave work on time, pick up the kids on time, supper is ready at a decent time, cleaned up,remember to feed the dogs, the morning's laundry load is dried, folded and put away, vacuum, dust, wipe down another bathroom, kids get an actual bath (WITH hair washing), stay patient through the bedtime charts (clean up, snack, brush teeth, stories, potty, mommy "will you schweep wiff me"), kids asleep by 8:30, everything in order, lunches packed for tomorrow, dishwasher humming.  Ahhhh, Mommy-time Wine-time Whatever-I-want-time.  After some homework that is - I am usually taking a University class or two at any given time.

Most days, this is NOT how it goes.  Just imagine the Exact Opposite of the above.  Chaos. Fail.

Some women seem to have it totally together all the time, but I don't know how.  I try to keep up, but it only takes a day of less-than-stellar-housekeeping for it all to go to down the drain fast.  There's clean clothes on the couch waiting to be folded, there's something in the fridge that really shouldn't be there anymore, there's toys in the living room (does nobody care that toys have been BANNED from the living room?).  Sigh.

Sometimes I feel bad that I don't have my kids in soccer and ballet and piano and gymnastics and kindermusic and skating and swimming and brownies and karate and and and and.......  oh sure, they have taken some of these things, but we only allow one thing at a time.  It's just too much to do more than that.

I AM ON THE #!&!!@!& PHONE !!! @#!&!!@!&#&!!!

Honestly, I am convinced there is some strange phenomenon that occurs when a mom picks up a phone.  Some signal goes off in a child's brain that makes them start yelling, running, needing things, climbing, and requiring them to be within 1 foot of their mother at all times.  Even when I try going to another room, they follow - loudly.  And if the person on the other end also has small children, there is equal chaos.

My sister and I have solved this problem.  It's called MSN!  We can chat for hours. Sure, there's intermittent breaks, sometimes an hour between posts, odd subject changes - but we know the other is just dealing with kids and life in the meantime.

Mommy can you make me one of those things?

My daughter came up to me this morning and said "Mommy can you make me one of those things?"  I must have looked confused because she went on to explain "You know, one of those THINGS, with paper".   Huh? She accompanied her statement by moving the thumb and index fingers of both hands open and shut, open and shut. 

OH!!! One of THOSE things!  "You mean with the numbers and you pick one, then you pick a color?" She gave me a look like I was a bit slow, but she was proud that I'd managed to figure it out. Sure we can make one, how hard can it be?  I made them when I was a kid, I made them for the older two when they were little.

Turns out origami is not my strong suit, neither is my memory on how to make these 'things' (what are they called anyway??).  However, I'm proud to say that after a few attempts and lots of folding this way and that, the "thing" was accomplished WITHOUT the use of Google.

Now I just need to get the two of them to stop coming up to me every 8 seconds saying "Mommy pick a number".