A Day In the Life: Summer Real Time Addition

I am just working on our school-year schedule and lesson plans and remembered I typed out a "day in the life" a few weeks ago. Summer sped by and my blogging was ridiculously sporadic. Sorry!



And sad to say, I don't have "blog for 20 minutes" anywhere on my new schedule either. So, I will be blogging here/there/occationally once again, squeezing it between procrastinating chores and nap-times gone wrong. Thanks for keeping up....

A Day In the Life: Summer Real Time Addition

0'Dark Hundred 1:00 am: Baby wakes up and wants to eat. I grab the iPad and make my way upstairs to his room. It makes the perfect night light. :) Not much happening on facebook or email in the middle of the night. This is a quick feeding and Tommy goes right back to sleep.... and so do I.



4:00 am: Baby wakes up and wants to eat. I grapple around for the iPad and wonder where I put it. Finally find it and make my way upstairs to Tommy's cozy room.



4:30 am: Devotions read, Bible reading done, prayers prayed, life reflected upon. This is going to be the best day ever (it's so easy to be optimistic when the house is quiet). I feel SO completely blessed. Baby nursed and I try to put him down in his crib. He's having none of it and is wide awake.



4:45 am: "But I just want to talk," Tommy says to me with his gorgeous smiles and coos. I give in and have some quality snuggling time.



5:00 am: Finally back in bed and sound asleep.



6:30 am: Alarm goes off and I get up and go for a walk/run go back to sleep.



7:00 am: Kids are up, awesome, amazing husband prepares their breakfast and says a "They are all yours, have a good day!" as he leaves for work.



8:00 am: Mama finally joins the land of the living to find the kids calmly watching Thomas the Train and the kitchen the scene of a demolition derby. Oh my stars, this place is a pig-sty! Start to clean the kitchen. Where is the broom?



8:05 am: Kitchen is still a disaster, broom is still missing, baby is up and hungry again, I forgot to get dressed, the kids are bored with their show and ask for a snack.

8:06 am: While feeding the baby and being attacked by 3 bored kids, I announce we are going for a walk to get out of this crazy house. Kids squeal in delight.



8:20 am: Find broom. Instruct the kids to do their chores so we can go on a walk. And do some "quick" chores like sweeping while Rem eats zucchini bread. Indeed like shoveling snow in a blizzard.



9:00 am: Shoes missing, potty accidents, baby spits-up all over, jogging stroller has a flat tire, Mandy crying to ride her trike instead of her bike, Emma doesn't want to wear the wet bike helmet she left in the sprinklers, and I remember I'm still wearing my bathrobe and have to pee incredibly bad.

9:15 am: Go to the barn and pump up jogging stroller's tire. We're all happy and ready for our 1 mile walk/ride to the park.

9:45 am: Arrive at park and ride bikes and run on the trails, climb trees, throw rocks in the creek, nurse baby under the shade of a lovely tree. Go to the bathroom only to discover Rem is nowhere to be found when I'm done. He calls from the men's side, "I'm going pee." That crazy kid. Sure enough, he was going pee in the urinal like the perfectly potty-trained child he *usually* is not.

10:30 am: Everyone is still happy, we better go home.

10:35 am: .95 mile from home and Mandy announces her energy is gone with tears of defeat, the baby starts screaming quite convincingly about who-knows-what, Rem leaps from the stroller while I'm pushing it and I run over him. 3/4 children crying. Emma's back bike tire starts to stick and she drags it down the road. She starts to cry as well. Four out of four.

10:45 am: Convince everyone that "we are still having fun!! Woohoo!!" and plead/drag/bribe on down the road. Mothers are required to be eternal optimists.



11:15: Arrive home in a puddle of exhaustion...

11:30 am: Eat lunch outside after preparing a delicious, camper-esque meal of pancakes and eggs on the bbq and griddle. Kids announce this is the "best meal ever," and "as fun as camping... but not quite."



12:00 pm: Put everyone, and I mean everyone, down for a rest.



1:00 pm: Open one eye and observe my surroundings. Oh my stars, this place is a pig-sty! Rouse myself from my resting position on the couch and do some cleaning.



2:00 pm: Emma and I play an exciting game of Uno.

She is totally going to beat me again.

2:30 pm: Start preparing to leave the house for swimming lessons.



3:30 pm: Actually leave the house for swimming lessons. Why does it take an hour to leave the house? I have no idea, but when I test the theory, I am late every single time.



4:10 pm: Watch Emma and Mandy in swim lessons -- they are doing great! Feed the baby while trying not to flash the too-curious male lifeguard.

4:45 pm: The girls are done and they have a race to see who can shower, soap-up, dry off, get dressed, comb hair, shoes on, and out to the car first. After a month of locker room theatrics, the girls are doing AWESOME at getting ready to go without my prodding.



5:00 pm: Find Rem and pull him out of a locker, go to the car, and drive home.



5:15 pm: Fire up the blessed BBQ and make hamburgers. I take full advantage of BBQ weather :).



6:00 pm: Pack up supper and find hungry farmers.

6:30 pm: Eat dinner, chat, watch the kids play in dirt.

7:00 pm: Go home, tell the kids to go play in dirt outside so I can clean the kitchen, hold crying baby who is gassy/tired/poopy/and/or/hungry.



7:30 pm: Start bedtime routine with the three big kids as the baby blessedly falls alseep. The kids are thrilled to watch some tv after their baths and hurry through the de-mudding process. They choose to watch the A-Team via Netflix.



8:45 pm: "I love it when a plan come together!" All four are tucked in bed.



8:45 pm: Sit down to watch some Market Warriors on PBS and hear baby crying.



9:30 pm: Baby fed. Tommy is ready for some quality time (this is his favorite time of the day, or maybe it is 4am, either way, he loves one-on-one Mama time). Daddy is home! More talking and snuggling, this time with Daddy.



10 pm: Baby is in bed, husband is beyond tired but would rather talk to me than watch tv. Man, I love this guy!



11pm: Say 50 times, "We should go to bed," and stay up way too late once again talking about our days, what we learned, what we've been thinking about, that maybe it would be awesome to go on a date sometime in October or November when things slow down. I tell ya, it is like I'm still dating this guy the way we never run out of things to talk about it.




Then, we catch some good hours of sleep before we start another day in paradise.




Man, I don't want to forget this stuff. I don't want to forget the tantrums or the sleepiness. I don't want to gloss over the crazy. This is it, real life for now. It is full of so many blessings... harder to see sometimes than others. When school starts, we just have to pack in less play, more scholastics and hopefully have the Daddy around more in the evenings to bring sanity back to my life.