Putting out fires

A very common figurative way of suggesting or actually solving a series of crises in some context or other.

Jane as mother had a day of "putting out fires", as she resolved minor crisis' for different members of her family. Finding her son Tommy's lost pet bunny, salvaging daughter Katie's science project after it fell off the table and broke, picking-up hubby's dry cleaning and various other little dramas strewn in her path.