2 Weeks and 6 Days: It all comes down to math

I hardly got any sleep last night. Every time I'd start dozing off I'd hear the kids or the cats or something would happen to get me back up again.  I finally got out of bed around 12:30 to get after Jillian for the last time and sent her to sleep in my room (like that was going to get me a good night's sleep). After chasing after her I was wide awake again and finally started reading, hoping it would put me to sleep. I think it was around 2:00 before I started dozing. Turned off the light, rolled over, and laid there wide awake for another 1/2 hour.  Finally started reading again, dozing, turned out the light and Jillian started crying and kicking me.  All said and done, I think it was 4:30 before I finally turned off the light for the last time.  I don't understand how one can be SO tired, and yet not be able to sleep.

Got up early to take Dani to her "MathMatters" competition. Had to drop her off between 9:15 and 9:45.  We barely made it there and then I had to run over to Jon's mom's to get the kid's piano books they left.  Stopped at Costco to get some noodles, then rushed back to pick up Dani at 10:35.  From there we went across the valley to an awards ceremony at the Salt Lake Community College campus.  We had a really fun visit.  She didn't make the top 10, but she said now she is more ready for next year.  During the ceremony, they had the dean of the Math department give a speech.  He went on for 15 minutes about how math is part of pretty much everything, and continued to give examples: it's in buildings, science, space, technology, statistics, medicine, etc, for 15 minutes.  Everyone was quite patient but at about the 15 minute mark people were starting to squirm and get noisy.  Fortunately he picked up on the clue and quickly ended by saying, "In conclusion, math is in everything we do and see....." yadda yadda.

So now I know, if I can just figure out the mathmatical problem, maybe I'll be able to figure out how to get better sleep, stop chasing everywhere, and maybe keep a clean house.

We got home in time to get lunch fixed before Shawn and Nichole showed up for piano lessons.  I had the kids washing cupboards but somewhere in the mix the kids disappeared and Nichole and I were left washing cupboards.  We actually had a nice visit.  So maybe I've figured out that math problem about getting things clean, invite company over and give them a washrag, kids are not part of the formula.

After piano lessons Nichole and Shawn stayed for a late lunch/early supper of chicken noodle soup and had a nice visit and laughed a bunch watching Julia Childs and Carol Burnett clips on the internet.

It's now late and my house is still a mess, kids need to be bathed, and I haven't figured out what math formula will motive my kids in that direction. Let me know if you can solve that problem.