I got up at 6 a.m. Friday morning, took a shower, ate breakfast, and cleaned the cool whip off the whip cream-dyed eggs we made the night before. Then I cleaned up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, swept the floor, washed the pieces to my sleep apnea machine, boxed up some accumulated Goodwill items, packed the snack trough, loaded the car with my bags and still I waited.

It’s like this every year. I stress about having the house ready for Easter Sunday because I’m using the two days prior to chaperone my daughter and her friends to an anime convention. Yet I spend a few hours waiting for them to be ready to leave the house.

I could have mopped, run the vacuum and dusted in the time it took them to get ready.

This year there are only two of them at my house getting ready, my oldest daughter isn’t attending, so I’m not sure why the assembly takes so long. It’s better if I stay in the background, don’t ask questions, and busy myself with household tasks while I wait. As I putz around the house waiting, I begin to think, “This is doable!”

I stress over this week before Easter every year, with all the coordination it takes to get ready for the convention and getting ready for guests on Easter. Today as I sit in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for the kids to be done with whatever it is a person does at an anime convention, I pass the spare time entertaining myself with books, writing and watching cosplayers (people who dress up as cartoon, movie and TV characters) and I think of the things still left to be done at home.

The stress launches on Thursday when I have to shop for Easter dinner, the snack trough I lovingly ply the teens with making sure everyone stays healthy on my watch, and general food for the house. It’s a whirlwind that ends with me cranky and tired, while also trying to keep up the Easter tradition of dyeing eggs.

There is also the notion of spending a night in a hotel room with teenage girls, the majority of whom always seem to end up in my room, even though there are two rooms. I deal with it by ignoring their slovenly teen ways until it’s time to pack up the next morning and install myself back in the hotel lobby for the second day.

Because I agree to spend the days at the convention with the kids, I’m technically missing two days of Easter preparation, so it forces me to plan ahead earlier in the week than I normally would. However, I don’t think it’s as much of a rush as my imagination fabricates.

Maybe I feel this way because every year I’m always surprised when the events actually arrive. I know the convention is coming, I know Easter is coming, I know we want to color Easter eggs, I know I’ll get up at6:00am to beat the kids to the shower, I know I’ll probably have time to clean the kitchen and start the dishwasher before I go, but knowing more chores await me when I arrive home Saturday night is disconcerting. So, since my oldest daughter stayed home with my husband this year, I left a pathetic note: “A woman can dream – Dust, Vacuum, Mop, Clean the hall bathroom. I love you guys!”

When my husband called me Friday night, I trepidatiously asked, “Did you see my note?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “We’re almost done.”

And still I wait. But now I wait with the relief of knowing nothing more waits to be done at home.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She still waits. You can read her column every week on covingtonreporter.com under the Lifestyles section. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or “like” Living with Gleigh on Facebook.