Duggar Time

I know some people don't like them, but I am obsessed with the Duggar family. In fact, I was "ugly crying" as I watched their 1 hour special when they brought their youngest home from the hospital. I'm sure I was a little more emotional as my due date with Jack was days apart from hers--yet her baby was born early December. I say, like them or not, you have to respect the fact that even though they have a ton of kids they are raising well behaved, godly kids and are living debt free. Clearly, they're doing something right.

Anyway, all that to say that "Duggar time" is a phrase often used on the show. (And it refers to the fact that they, as a family, typically run between 60-180 minutes late. But seriously, if I had 19 kids, I would too.) Thankfully I am not that late, but I feel like despite my very best efforts, I am almost always late. I try ever so hard to be on time, but I evidently run on "Janelle time" (aka, 15 minutes late, with extreme effort, 5 minutes late). Sigh. This morning, however, I finally figured out the trick to being on time (to school, in this instance). It's a 3 part plan. 1.) Wake up earlier (I know this is obvious, but it pains my soul). 2.) Have your baby sleep through the night so as to be decently rested. 3.) Pack (most of) lunches the night before. (again, I know obvious, but I hate eating a lunch packed the night before...the bread is either soggy or hard, the fruit is gooshy...) But, I got everything ready except for the sandwiches which saved a lot of time. Brilliant.

Then, after drop-off, I had a "come to Jesus" with Jack where I told him I had a lot of errands to run and he simply had to get over his dislike of the carseat, at least for today. God bless him, he was a trooper. We dropped the big kids off at 9:05 then went to Hobby Lobby, Target, TJ Maxx, 2 different local stores, Ann Taylor Loft (who is having a 30% off clearance sale right now), Bed Bath and Beyond, I nursed the baby, then Gymboree, (also having 30% off and offering gymbucks currently) Chick-fil-A and then Publix (where I did my shopping for the week)...and managed to run (while awkwardly carrying my carseat as my groceries were on top of my stroller) into school at 12:58 to get the kids. Poor Jack cried the whole way home, but, can you blame him? Did you catch that? That would be TENstops. Even I'm impressed with myself (and my baby.).