One Day

The alarm went off at 6:30, but I'd been up with the baby twice the night before so I pushed the limit and stayed in bed until just before 7. By that time, the kids were up. One needed help finding his shoes, and one couldn't find his sweatshirt, and one was anxious that I wouldn't have time to make lunches. I would hurry, I promised. And so I did. I found the shoes and found the sweatshirt and made peanut butter sandwiches, four in a row, then stuffed apples and pretzels and sandwiches into lunch boxes. I signed a behavior chart and a planner, I wrote a check for milk money, fixed hair twice, (It should have been three times. Yikes was Sam's hair crazy, but time ran out, so guess I should be glad he's got the personality to work the finger in socket look.) then took a deep breath as they headed out the door to school.

I hoped for a few minutes of quiet before the babies woke up, and sat down to update the budget and plan a grocery list. 8 minutes later, Ivy was awake. I finished the budget, but left the grocery list for later. I helped Ivy get dressed and fixed her breakfast, then sat her down to watch cartoons so I could get Jack ready to go. I fed him and got him dressed, then it was out the door to the gym, because heaven knows this baby weight isn't going to fall off on its own.

After spin class, I hurried home and put the baby down for a nap and sent Ivy up to the playroom to play. I unloaded, then loaded the dishwasher, moved a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, then folded two more loads, distributing piles of laundry into six different baskets, one for each kid. At 11 AM, I realized I'd never eaten anything so I juiced some carrots, apples, and celery for my breakfast. (YUM.)

Realizing I wouldn't have enough time to shower before my visiting teacher came over, I decided she would have to visit me in my smelly workout clothes and sat down to type up a few emails, to my sister-in-law, the principal at the school, the music teacher. I remembered that Josh and I haven't seen a dentist in two thousand years, so I called and scheduled dental appointments for the both of us.

My visiting teacher arrived with a beautiful bunch of fresh herbs from her garden--parsley, basil and rosemary that would be an excellent addition to my dinner plans. While we visited, Ivy grew tired of playing and decided instead to head into the bedroom where she dumped all the clean laundry out of six baskets into one big pile on the floor. Awesome. Then she started throwing wooden blocks over the banister of the loft upstairs, into the living room. Where I was sitting with my visiting teacher. Then she poured an entire container of Nestle Quik on the floor of the kitchen. Then my visiting teacher decided it was time to go. Heh.

After I picked up all the laundry and cleaned up the quik and took the wooden blocks back upstairs, I defrosted chicken for dinner and piled everything together in the crock pot. Chicken and herbs and zucchini and tomatoes. I finished another load of laundry, then finally got around to making my bed. I fixed lunch for Ivy, nursed the baby one more time, then sat back down to finish the grocery list and dinner menu for the upcoming week.

At 2:00, it occurred to me that I was STILL wearing my work out clothes. (Um, gross?) so I turned cartoons back on for Ivy and jumped in the shower, finishing just in time to race out the door and pick up kids from school.

I grabbed my own, plus a few extra 11-year-old boys so Josh could take them, and Jordan, to the store to prepare for an upcoming camping trip when he got home from work later that evening.

4 PM. That's when the real fun begins. I nursed the baby one more time, while simultaneously helping Jordan with his homework, and encouraging Lucy and Sam to get their piano practicing done. I helped Henry with his chores, then scolded the others for not doing their chores, then helped Jordan with another homework problem, then scolded the others for not putting their laundry away before Ivy could dump it all out on the floor, AGAIN.

I finished dinner just in time to feed Jordan and his friends. They ate, then Josh ate, standing at the counter because even though he'd just walked in the door, he had to go do scouting stuff and would momentarily walk right back out again. After they left, I fixed plates for the younger children, then ate my own dinner sitting on the floor next to Jack's bouncy seat because this late in the day, he's not happy unless he can see his Mamma. every. single. second. After I finished, Lucy took Ivy upstairs to give her a bath while the boys helped me with the dinner dishes. After Ivy got out of the tub, I put Jack in the tub, then into pajamas. I rounded all the kids up for a prayer, then put Jack in his crib, hoping he would stay happy long enough for me to get Ivy settled in bed. I lay down beside her, tickled her back while I sang the ABC's seventy thousand times, then kissed her sweet little head.

"Mom," she whispered, "You're my best friend." (sorta makes it all worth it, doesn't it?)

I went back in to get Jack and called down to Henry that it was his bedtime. After a conversation about why he didn't want to go to school, even though he likes it (because he doesn't like being away from me all day... because he's totally my boyfriend and I love him) we decided we needed some special Mommy/Henry time over the weekend to make up for all the time he spends in school. This was an acceptable plan, especially when I told him our special time could include Twizzlers.

With Henry finally in bed, and Sam and Lucy reading, I sat down to nurse the baby so that HE could go to bed too. While I nursed, Ivy wandered out of bed and lay down beside me. I put Jack to bed, then put Ivy to bed one more time. Then a second time. And a third time.

Before Sam went to bed we had a long conversation about the perceived injustices of being a younger brother when Jordan is allowed to do so much and he is never allowed to do ANYTHING. Once he was sufficiently mollified, he and Lucy finally headed off to bed.

Just after 9, I sat down.

When Jack graduates from high school, I'm going to go to sleep for three years.