"Exhausted mommy mistaken for homeless person while sleeping in her car"

    I can just see the headline now..."Exhausted mommy mistaken for homeless woman while sleeping in her car."  This is the thought going through my head as I snuggle under my hoodie in the car for a quick nap.  It had been a long Monday morning already.  Mondays are always bad because of my working Saturday and Sunday.  I am a zombie for our morning routine on Mondays, but I made a promise to myself that I would try to remember Colin's show and tell.  Every Monday, he has show and tell, and every Monday, I forget.  So on this sleepy morning, Colin and I Googled things that start with "N", so that we could find a super cool thing to bring.  After looking at the list, and around our house, we decided on a lizard puppet that resembled a Newt.

     In our excitement to finish breakfast, and get out of the house on time, the poor newt was left on the floor of the living room.  Colin begged me to turn around, but then we would be way late for school.  I promised the tearful little guy that I would bring the puppet back up to school so that he could show his friends in class.   Of course, it takes some where around 20 minutes to get to their school, so by the time I got back to our house, it was already 9:40.  Circle time would probably be done before I returned, but I had a mission to complete, despite the fact that my super warm bed was beckoning to me on this cold and rainy day.  I grab the lizard, and hop back into the car.

     I get back to school only to discover that Colin's class is already in Music.  Fabulous...I missed my very small window.  I left the Newt sitting on the counter with a note for the teachers.  I could only hope that they would let him show off his toy after they returned.  I look down at my watch.  10:20 am...I need gas in the SUV, and I have a few errands to run, but I really just want to sleep.  I drive around the corner, and thanks to Kroger points, I score gas for $2.65  a gallon.  I am still exhausted.  I contemplate driving home for a short nap, but the math is simply not in my favor.  It would probably be 10:45 by the time I got back to the house, and I would need to leave by 11:40 to pick up the kids on time.  What to do??  What to do??  And then inspiration hits me.  I do a quick glance around the parking lot at the church where the kids go to school.  Pretty empty, very safe...I look in the car.  I have a soft, fluffy hoodie, and a small jacket of Colin's on the floor board.  I grab the jackets, make a makeshift pillow and blanket, hit recline, and set an alarm.

    I slept hard for that hour.  I was having crazy dreams about my SUV being a monster truck, and rolling over everyone else in the carpool line.  Very odd...And I was more than a little afraid that someone from the church would come out and offer me some "assistance" due to my shabby, mismatched clothing, and my strange choice of nap location.  But instead, I grabbed a quick, refreshing nap, and made the best use of the time I had left before both children were finished with school.  Resourceful?? Yes...Desperate?? Perhaps...But a mommy has to do what a mommy has to do to survive, even is that means sleeping in your vehicle :)