It’s no secret that we are having just about the worst summer ever around here. Between my husband being gone for a month, the car accident, sick kids, broken air conditioners, and one financial calamity after another, I’ve had just about enough. I’ve also been trying to regulate my work from home schedule a bit more, because in my frantic quest to scrape up enough money for the Heathens’ tuition, I’ve pretty much driven myself to the edge of a nervous breakdown.

So this week, I was determined to provide my kids with some kind of fun. They deserve it. I planned to take them and a couple of their friends to the public pool for some much-needed exercise, then back here for boy-video-game-time. Great plan, right?

Ha…ha…mwhahahahah!

Apparently all five drops of rain we got this morning (the first in three weeks, by the way) warranted closing the pool for the entire day, which we didn’t find out until we were all sunscreened up and at the gate. I dragged five disappointed kids back to my house to play their less-than-eight-months-old Wii U, and what do you know? The Wii U locked up on the start-up, and was DOA. After thirty glorious minutes on the phone with Nintendo technical support, I was informed that the Wii U is, in fact, toast, and I need to send it in for repair. Thank the powers that be that it is still under warranty; otherwise, you would find me in the loony bin at this point. Subsequently, I had five REALLY disappointed kids, and I was out of ideas. We had to scrap the whole day, and I yet again get to be the meanest mom ever. To add insult to injury, Bean’s bizarre separation anxiety has reared its ugly head, and she freaks out if I make any sudden movements or act like I am going to leave the room. That is, until my husband gets home. Then she just screams in my face if he is not being her personal entertainment committee.

School starts in less than a month, and I feel like this summer has been an epic failure. We’ve had no real fun, our garden was pathetic, and instead of relaxing, we’ve just gone from one crisis to the next. I KNOW I need to be grateful and count my blessings, I really do. In the big scheme of life, we are blessed beyond measure. I’ll remember that tomorrow. Tonight, I’m going to make a cocktail, put my feet up and sulk over my no good, very bad day.