You know those days when you don’t get enough sleep and it’s Tuesday or Wednesday or some other day not a weekend and you wake up late and you have to rush the kids through breakfast and getting dressed and they seem just a little grumpier than usual and you really don’t want them to buy lunch that day in the cafeteria because who the hell knows what a “chicken pretzel” is but there just isn’t time to pack anything and the orange juice has spilled.

And then you drive them to school and rush them to class and one of them forgot their homework folder so you drive home and drive back again and drive home again and then you work all day and do laundry and fold and put away and go to the bank and buy groceries and suddenly it’s time to pick the kids up from school.

So you drive to school and drive home and then you’re doing math homework and you thought you would never have to do math homework ever again but there you are doing math homework and then you’re taking one to dance class and one to martial arts and picking them up again and making dinner and washing dishes and wiping tables and sweeping the floor and finally, finally you send the kids upstairs to play or watch television or anything really as long as it is far away.

And you put the kettle on. And for three minutes everything is done. And everything is still. And the only sound is the purr of boiling water about to become after-dinner coffee.

And you find that spot in the corner, that spot by the cupboard where you hang the aprons, where the stool is, and you collapse on the stool, and wait for the water to boil. And breathe in and out. And it’s the most wonderful place in the world, that spot. For three minutes.

And just as the coffee is poured into your mug and the sweet satisfying aroma fills your nostrils… crying and arguing and no one wants to take the first shower and he pushed me and no one can find the toothpaste and where’s the toothpaste and what happened to the god damned toothpaste?

Not every day is like that, thank goodness. But weirdly, it’s worth it.