The Day the Clock Trick Actually Worked

So we've all tried the "clock trick" at some point in life. In fact, I would bet that most of us still try it on a regular basis. The "clock trick" I am referring to is the one where you knowingly set the time on your clock ahead... how far ahead? Five minutes, ten minutes, maybe more... that's the beauty of the clock trick. It's all up to you. The goal of course is to give yourself the priceless gift of time by hoping that you will somehow forget you set set the clock ahead to begin with. As well all know however, it never really seems to work. The alarm goes off or you look at the clock and think, "It's not really ___ o'clock, I actually have ____ more minutes." And that is where the "trick" almost always fails. I say almost because today the trick actually worked and it was AMAZING. This is how it happened...

While my good friends are out of town, I am watching their kids. Since they have four children and I've got my two girls, we stayed at their house so that everyone would have a place to sleep. We've been having so much fun, but I worried from the beginning that I wouldn't get someone where they needed to be and would completely mess up their "system" that always runs so smoothly when their parents are at the helm. So last night I was looking over the schedule for today and trying to figure out when I needed to get up in order to be ready and able to get everyone to school, piano lessons, basketball practice, and gymnastics on time. So I decided on a time and set the alarm clock accordingly. When it was time to get up, I of course hit snooze one too many times but got up and tried to hurry to make up for it. I was getting ready to feed Brooke and started realizing how fast time was going. I thought to myself, "Boy! It would be perfect if I could just have 20 more minutes before it was time to get everyone up." But according to the clock, it was time to get get their oldest daughter up for school. I walked into her room and just as I was about to wake her up I looked at the clock on her nightstand. I couldn't believe it... it said it was exactly 21 minutes earlier than I originally thought. I immediately assumed her clock was wrong so I ran back down the hall to check the clock on my computer. It really was 21 minutes earlier. I had been given the 20 extra minutes I really needed plus one more just to enjoy. It was great. I was so excited about it that I danced around a little bit... enough that Brooke giggled and smiled. That's what we did with our extra minute before we put the other 20 to good use. Brooke wasn't sure why we were so happy but she enjoyed it anyway.