is it wrong for a kindergartener to give his teacher a bottle of wine?

Probably. Until this morning, however, I never even thought this would be the gift. But it's the last day of school and all my other ideas fizzled. For months I was planning to make Liam's teacher and classroom helper purses but over the last couple weeks I have been second guessing this idea. Then at 11 p.m. the night before the day before the last day of school I had a brainstorm. It was ingenious. It was eco-saavy. It was creative. Liam could even help me. But by 11 p.m. last night I realized it was impossible. A girl has to sleep after all. At least a little.

So it was back to the drawing board and I found myself going to my happy place. Sewing coasters. Lately I have been on a coaster craze. They are relatively quick to make, and so satisfying. And they are pretty darn cute. The coasters led to the wine. And wine glass charms made with some help from Liam, in the minutes before we need to be walking out the door to school, of course. Nothing ever gets done early around here, but that's part of the excitement.

Actually I have been trying to figure out why I do this to myself - wait until the very last second to bring my brainstorms to life. First, I am indecisive. Ask my husband. I need a deadline licking at my heels to finally commit. Second, I am scrappy. I've never liked a detailed plan. I don't use patterns. I like to dream stuff up and then dig through piles and pull things off shelves in a weird random rush to see if I can actually bring my vision to life. And sometimes, when I'm down to the wire, that method doesn't go so well. And other times, it does. Finally, I have far too many things on my mind. How can a working mom sit down for a leisurely sewing session when she's stressing over preschool plans, which doctor her son needs to see next, if the big summer project is going to come through, where the lost library book might be, how mulching the yard can possibly happen in the next two weeks? As much as I try to simplify, declutter, relax, I am always here, skipping from one deadline to the next.

Andrew, at least, is starting to get me. Tuesday I was feeling the pressure more than usual: breathing shallowly, sighing loudly, feeling down. Liam was at school and Elliott was napping and I had just emailed off a project that had been hanging over my head. The counter clutter, the weedy yard, the overloaded inbox - so much I could do in the 50 minutes before school ended but, as I mentioned, I'm indecisive and so I sat at the counter in a huff.

"Why don't you go upstairs and sew something," Andrew said. "That always makes you happy."

So, reluctantly (after all, there was so much I should be doing), I waded through the piles crowding out the floor of my studio and picked up a piece of fabric. And I made a coaster. Because coasters don't take any planning and the sound of the machine bearing down on the fabric in tidy straight lines makes me happy. And, needless to say, they go great with a glass of wine.

Right or wrong, that was our gift to Mrs. McCloud. After more than nine months with 50 kindergarteners, I'm guessing she can use them.