Better than expected

I went to bed last night dreading the morning. I knew today was going to be one of those days I was going to be pulling my hair out. Turns out I was wrong. :)
It's Monday, which means it's one of my up at 4:40 days. Even knowing I had to get up early, I just could not get myself to bed last night. It was almost 1:00 before I finally turned out my light last night. So I knew I wasn't going to be getting very much sleep. Also, all the elementary schools in the district have parent teacher conferences this week, which means there is no kindergarten at all, and all the other kids have early dismissal all week. That means that the two older kids I don't normally have to do much with will be coming home several hours before their mother gets off work. And Rebecca and Tyler both had gymnastics classes today. I knew I was going to have to pack lunch for everyone because there wouldn't be time to feed them all before we had to go. In fact, I was worried that Alex and Keirsten would get home in time to get Becca to her class on time. I was praying that bus was early, and that traffic would be light. Turns out prayers are answered. They got home a full 15 minutes before we had to leave, and traffic was so light I was able to stop at the bank and still get Becca there on time.
My next blessing came in the form of good weather. It was in the low 60's and mostly sunny today, so instead of having to figure out how to entertain 5 kids in a very small place for more than two hours, we were able to go to a very nice park just a few minutes away! It's a nice sized park, but it was also very busy. I was impressed at it's layout. Even with as many kids as were there, they never seemed to run into each other too much. There was always something for them to do, something on the equipment to play on. And they played so well together!! From the oldest to the youngest, they all played together, helped each other, and just had a grand time all around. They loved being able to have a picnic and play outside. We also had friends from the Little Gym there with us the second hour we were there, which just added to the fun. And the timing worked out so perfectly. They were all starting to get tired by the time we had to head home, so they were ready to go, but it hadn't been too much time and they were still having fun. It was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.
Oh! I forgot one other very important part of my day! These three kids have gotten pretty comfortable in the house, so last week I started going back to bed instead of trying to sleep on the couch (which wasn't working). I didn't really sleep much even in bed last week, but today I was able to go right back to sleep without any trouble! I got another 2 1/2 hours of sleep! That alone was huge in making my day better.
So all around it was just a great day. I went to bed dreading the day, but it has turned out to be just wonderful!

Fizzy joys for today: public parks, warmer weather, sunshine, pink leotards, and a friend to talk to.