The other day my husband (trying to be helpful) called upstairs to me, “Why is the milk sitting out on the counter?”  Pause.  ”Um, I can’t remember”, I say, “but could you just put it back in the fridge”.  Later, as we were going to bed, I explained, “I remember why I left the milk out.”  Pause….he didn’t ask why, but I told him anyway, and here is the story as I remember it:

Will asked me for a bowl of cereal as a snack.  I pulled the milk out of the fridge, then heard a cry of frustration from the upstairs bathroom.  I ran upstairs to find my youngest, Cade, struggling to get his pants off to use the toilet (he had to do more than pee).  I got him stiuated then noticed the hand towel in that bathroom was grimy and dirty, so I took it to the laundry room to throw it in the hamper.  Upon entry into the laundry room, I realize the load in the dryer needed to be folded.  I pulled the clothes out while they were still warm, just to lay the clothes flat so they wouldn’t wrinkle.  Now I have laundry all over my bed and my son calls me from the bathroom for a wipe.  We wipe, wash hands and shoot, there is no hand towel, so I return to linen closet to get a hand towel and every single towel falls out on my head.  I dry, replace the towel in the boys bathroom and return to the linen closet to refold those towels.  Evan calls me, his computer won’t turn on.  I climb under his desk to make sure everything is plugged in, then I test the socket to make sure that there isn’t a short…turns out the monitor is turned off- yeah it’s fixed!

Will calls me from downstairs, “Mom can I have a bar?”  ”Sure” I yell back, still unphased that I pulled the milk out (that was ages ago).  Back to the laundry, finish folding, throw clothes from washer to dryer, start one more load.  Put clothes away- partially, I hate this job and am easily distracted.  Cade calls me for help in putting a Lego Star Wars ship back together- I spend 20 minutes and never really figure it out.  That is when I hear the question about the milk.   I think this is a pretty great explanation of why I left the milk on the counter.  Don’t you?