Monday morning.

It was a long weekend of running kids to activities.The laundry got washed, but only haphazardly folded, and zero ironing was done.Luckily, gym day lined up for two out of three kids, and I only had to get one uniform pressed.My morning routine is to get up early, get myself ready to go out the door, then get kids' breakfasts, lunches, backpacks, and uniforms all ready, and then settle down to work from home for about an hour before I rouse the kids.Once they're up, it's on them to get dressed, eat breakfast, and perform their morning ablutions. In theory, I finish working at the same time that they are ready to walk out the door, two get dropped at the bus stop, one gets walked to school, and I head to work.It's a nice theory. It rarely comes together.This Monday was a real doozy.We were coming off a weekend of travel for the swim team, and some weather related chaos.G had been flirting with not feeling well all weekend.He was on a roll for perfect attendance for a few years, and the kid truly hates to miss a day. At the same time, I don't like to infect everyone else, and I've learned over the years that pushing through sickness is not something kids do well. Nevertheless, he was agonizing over whether or not he could or should go to school. We don't have time built in to the schedule for that.At some point over the weekend, E's hairbrush went into a swim bag. It should be noted that she did have a dedicated hairbrush for her swim bag. But, when that went missing, she just compensated by taking her bedroom hairbrush. When that went missing, she compensated by taking my hairbrush in the bathroom.Knowing how this family operates, I had a few extra hairbrushes in hiding, but this was the week that that stash ran out. E decided to have an emotional breakdown over all the lost hairbrushes, in addition to the simple fact that we had no way to comb through her rat's nest. We don't have time built into the schedule for that.Of course, this was the Monday morning that my laptop decided to throw its own tantrum and several key programs were giving me error messages. I really needed to get into work so I could have our IT guru work her magic.Normally, I walk everyone out the door, but thanks to the morning of unexpected events, I sent them out the door with a hug and a kiss and remained behind to pack up my own belongings.I peeked out the front window a few minutes later to make sure I saw G head into school, and watched as the bus rolled by to pick up the other two. Finally ready to make my own dash out the door, I grabbed for my car keys and discovered that they were missing from the key rack.I knew I had gone grocery shopping the night before and I clearly remembered ringing the doorbell with my hands full of groceries. I also had been wearing a hoodie with a front pocket. So, that was the first place I checked. Nope. No keys in my hoodie pocket.I also have a habit of throwing my keys on the kitchen table. Nope. No keys on the table. E was with me when I came home, and although I didn't remember doing it, there was a chance that she had brought the keys in, and she's the one who can't reach the key rack these days. So, I got down on my hands and knees and searched in and under and around the entire area by the key rack. Nope, no keys there either.I was starting to suspect that I might have left the keys in the car, which was very bad news because the wonderful husband had taken the car that I had been driving all weekend to work.I wasn't ready to admit my carelessness yet, so I refrained from calling him to see if he'd found them. I tore through the house some more. I meditated and retraced my steps again. I used several very choice words to express my opinion of the situation. Finally, I admitted defeat and broke into the safety stash of spare car keys. Upon walking out to my car, I discovered another surprise.A, the thoughtful child that he is, had taken my keys, started my car, and even turned on my seat heater for me.As I drove to work, late of course, but with my derrière nice and toasty, I had a few minutes to feel a little ashamed of myself for being so angry over a small thing like keys, and tried to focus on how feeling like a good parent because I had a responsible, thoughtful kid.In reality, though, what I probably have is a kid who really can't wait to get his driver's license.Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.