Scrub-A-Dub for Lunch

When the lines between your personal and professional life are as blurry as mine are, you learn to take efficiency to new levels. I'm truly the queen of multi-tasking and I'm obsessed with using every spare second to get something done. I will literally put food in the microwave for 30 seconds and then look around to see what I can wipe down, sweep up, or scrape off in the time remaining before the beep. Honestly, if I'm not doing something, I fall asleep. That doesn't mean that I'm ultra-organized and have my act together...it's a constant struggle to deal with the bare minimum of what needs to be done. There are currently 98 items on my to-do list (work & personal combined). I'm serious.
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This summer, Adlani and Aliya are in Summer Scene in the morning, and Norah has classes at the Y. After lunch they head upstairs for a couple of hours of R&R (Rest & Reading) before Ben comes home between 3 and 3:30 and takes over. That leaves the hour between bus arrival and rest time for me to see what I can do simultaneously with making peanut butter sandwiches.

Most weeks I'm lucky enough to have an extra pair of hands during the day to help with them, but there have been random days that I was on my own and today was one of those days. When I picked Adlani and Aliya up at the bus stop, Norah was asleep in her car seat which allowed me to respond to all of my open emails and voice mails while I was waiting. I drove home and we all unloaded the mountains of crap that I was carrying around in my car.
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My car is always disgusting. The sad part is, it's a company car. That means that it should be presentable enough to drive a coworker, customer, or visiting dignitary somewhere. Luckily I can often use the "I've got 3 car seats in the back" excuse, but I'm pretty sure I'd be fired if anyone actually looked in my car. The stuff that we unloaded today included 2 boxes of OLD (1990's) Door & Hardware magazines, none of which had any of my articles in them. There were also 6 diapers and a changing pad, a game of Sturbridgopoly, a folding travel toilet (yet to be used), a butterfly net, 5 umbrellas & 2 raincoats, 5 lawn chairs and a picnic blanket/poncho, 4 ice scrapers, 3 packages of filters for a vacuum cleaner we threw away last year, and TONS of other stuff.
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After we got it all out of the car, we hit the drive-thru at Kelly's and drove to Scrub-A-Dub. We went through the car wash and then turned the grossmobile over to 5 professional crumb removers and we sat outside and ate lunch. A half hour later, the car is done and so are we.
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A) I didn't have to make lunch, listen to bickering, or clean up after lunch.
B) The kids think going through the car wash is a special treat.
C) IR pays for 2 car washes per month so I only have to pay for the balance ($20).
D) My car is now CLEAN! REALLY clean! There's still special sauce on the ceiling and chocolate ice cream on the seat, but what the heck. In a few days it will look like we've never once been to Scrub-A-Dub but until then I like to just sit in the driveway and inhale the scent of carpet shampoo. Aaaahhhh.
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