It was 6:30 when Lori finished with her hair. She was beginning to look more like the y young woman Himchan had married and less like the 31-year old exhausted Mom she had become. Now she just had to do something about those dark circles. She applied foundation under her eyes and smoothed a dark brown eyeliner over her lids. She slipped on a pair of skinny jeans and placed a button up over her tank top. She left it ed to add a bit of appeal. She was tousling her hair when she heard a knock at her door. 

“Yes?”

“Mommy, Ji-woon keeps trying to scratch his chin, and I told him not to, but he won’t listen. Oh, and DC asked if he could eat.”

Lori sighed. The moment to herself was over. She stood up and walked to the door. The clock told her that Himchan would be there in less than 15mins. At least the kids were awake. She could have them put the frosting on the cake while she set the table. 

“Tell Ji-woon Mommy said not to scratch and that I’ll check on him in a minute. I’ll get DC something to snack on.” 

Lori went to the kitchen to grab a plate of crackers for Dong-chan before heading to the linen closet to grab the ointment for Ji-woon. April remained in tow the entire time. 

“Mommy, can we eat the cake now? I’m starving.”

“April, you can eat the cake after dinner. In fact, you can help Mommy decorate it before Daddy gets back.”

“Oooo can I!? I want to put pink frosting on it. Do we have pink frosting? Ji-woon’s not gonna help, right? He’s bad at it. He always make it lumpy. I want the cake to be pretty for Daddy. I hope DC doesn’t throw up on it.” 

Lori had made it to the boys’ room. She turned to April and put a finger to her lips. “Give me a sec. I’ll answer your questions after I check on DC.”

Lori walked in and saw DC sitting up in his bed reading comics. “Feeling better?”

He looked up from his book and nodded. “Yeah! Thanks for helping me. I really appreciate it. Umm can I eat now? I’m starving.”

“Me too.” April spoke up from near the door. “I wanna eat now too, cus I’m starving.”

“Starving”, Ji-woon parrotted from the other bed. 

Lori feigned surprise. “This is terrible! I can’t have a house full of starving kids! Everyone, let’s go decorate the cake and then eat until our bellies are big!”

The kids got excited and raced out of the room to the kitchen. Lori caught Ji-woon before he ran out too. She still needed to apply the ointment to his chin. 
*******************************************************************************************************
Soon they were all in the kitchen applying chocolate frosting to the cake. Other than the occasional bickering between Ji-woon and April about how the frosting should be done, everything was relatively quiet. Suddenly, a loud ring sounded from Lori’s work phone. She told Dong-chan to watch his siblings while she went into the living room to answer the phone. 

“Yobeyeo?”

“Annyeonghaseyo Lori-ssi. I hope you’re enjoying your relaxing vacation.”

Lori couldn’t exactly call it relaxing, but she did enjoy spending time with her family in spite of the craziness that came with them.

“Ne, I am enjoying it. How is everything?”

“Listen, about those blueprints, the owner wants to add a third floor. She said she’d like the adult’s section to be completely separate from the kids section. She apparently contracted with Starbuck’s to have a coffee shop added to the adult’s area. Would you mind working with her on that to get a blueprint for the third floor.”

“That won’t be a problem. I can have it done by next Friday.”

Lori heard a tsk on the other end. “Yeah, that’s going to be an issue. The owner’s hoping that it can all still be done by next Wednesday. She doesn’t want any delays in the construction.”

Lori felt her headache coming back. “Adding a new attachment and asking for the blueprints to still be done by Wednesday is a bit hasty. I still have quite a bit left to do for the recreational center we’re constructing in Bundang-gu district.”

“If you’d like, I can assign that project to someone else. It really isn’t a bad workload. What’s got you so busy? Is it the kids?”

Lori was offended. She knew what her supervisor was implying. She was one of two women in an office filled with men. It was hard to get assignments as big as she had. It took awhile for her to prove to her supervisor that she was a capable and efficient architect. Now that she had, she didn’t need him thinking that her abilities would be hindered by the fact that she is a Mom of three kids.

“It’s fine sir. I can take care of both assignments. Ms. Lee will have her blueprints with the new addition by next Wednesday.”

“Excellent. I will see you next week.”

The line went dead and Lori stared at the phone. She would have to work double time to get the prints finished. How was she going to do that when she still had the kids. Sure, Himchan was coming back, but he would likely be too tired to be of much help. Lori took a deep breath and tried to relax. She could do it. She would contact her assistant and together, they would get it done.