A Day in My Life
*disclaimer* I NEVER watch Netflix during the day. But, I've been trying to see the end of Wives and Daughters for days now and I decided to just do it.
Today seemed chaotic and definitely not serene. This morning found us, at 6:45 searching high and low for Chris' work shoes. At this point, Ruth, Grace and Miss A were up. This is not unusual, in fact, I was glad they slept in. We searched for at least 20 minutes, when Chris gave up, took the lunch I was packing him while Ruth looked for his shoes and left. The girls started to color and I hopped on to check emails when the boys came down. Estimated Time: 7:20.
7:30 Kids eat breakfast and I quiz them on their Sunday School lesson for the upcoming Sunday. It's a test day, so we reviewed the material from the past 4 months.
8:00 Breakfast is finished, but Ruth and I continue a dialogue on Israel and it's history (including, but not limited to the return to Israel in the was it 1940's? and the Six Day War)
8:30 We begin to clean the house. I declared today "Home Ec Day" and had the kids clean the house with me. We started in the keeping room. Each kid got a bag and I filled them with toys and laundry to be put away. Sent them up to clean their rooms and put away clothes.
9:00 Ruth comes down to help me in the keeping room. I set her to vacuuming the dog hair off the sofa. Darn dog sleeps there when I'm not there to beat her.
9:30. I realize the other kids have been upstairs for 1 hour "cleaning" their rooms. At this point, Grace is naked but for her underwear, pitching a fit because she has no stretchy pants and the boys are gleefully playing in their room-still in pj's. Miss A is the only one doing anything remotely good. She's got on mismatched pants and shirt, but I let her wear it because, by golly, she got herself dressed. I go up to ride them all to get the rooms clean and we finally accomplish it, but not before I end up yelling at them and spanking Grace for throwing that fit.
10:00 I come back down to finish cleaning in the keeping room. By this point, the fire I'd started earlier is going nicely and I begin to pull out furniture to vacuum up marauding dust bunnies. Such is the life with a dog and wood floors.
10:30 I remember that Miss A must catch the bus in less than an hour, so I get her shoes and socks on asap and get her lunch ready. She sits to eat and Ruth sits with her and draws a picture of Miss A's lunch and then proceeds to tell me about it. She names each and every slice of meat, cheese and cracker on her plate and I try very hard to seem interested when I just want to finish my vacuuming.
11:00 I remember that I had people to call and I try to squeeze in two calls before bundling up Miss A and popping her into the van.
11:20 We wait in the van (warmer that way) for the bus. Fortunately, the bus arrives mostly on time and I get her off to school. She just looks so tiny sitting in that seat and waving to me as the bus drives away.
11:30 I come back in and put in the Piglet Movie for the other four and allow myself a break to watch a bit of Wives and Daughters (I love BBC stuff!).
12:00 I settle a dispute between David and Byron, which ends with Byron in time out for hitting. Then, I get the kids a bowl of apples and carrots to munch on while they watch the movie and to stave off the inevitable query for lunch. Not to mention they need to eat healthier.
12:30 The kids' movie is mostly done, so I resurface to make them the rest of their lunch. They begin to eat and I sneak off to finish episode 3(I was almost done with it).
1:00 back to work, cleaning the kitchen. The kids head to the basement and over the next hour, I referee several arguments, put kids in time out, clean up and check email, Facebook, my blog...
2:00 I have the girls fold a load of laundry for me. Towels and napkins mostly, so it's easy stuff. There is groaning and I bite my tongue before I try to remind them once again how easy they have it. One of these days they'll realize it. Like when they're grown and have 5 kids....
3:00 By this time, the kids are getting on each others' nerves, so I've had to break them up a bit. The boys are diving me batty with "Hey Mama! Watch this!" and then proceeding to spin in a circle, or fly a plane, or spin in a circle....did I mention spin in a circle? I'm attempting to clean the school room. I have tons of stuff that still needs put away and I finally have to send the boys out of the room. I can't take it anymore. I work until 4:40 and decide to take a bit of a break and sneak into my room for a bit of episode 4 of Wives and Daughters. I just have to know if Cynthia is really going to marry Roger when everyone knows she doesn't really love him and Molly does....
4:45 I glance up and see the bus coming down the street. I don't give it much thought, though-Miss A visits her mom on Tuesdays (she gets picked up after school by a social worker). But, no. The lights come on and the bus is slowing down....I guess the visit was canceled. I dash to the door and fling aside the two large tubs of laundry blocking it and then run through deep snow (in my crocs) to get her off the bus. I'm thinking evil thoughts about the social worker who didn't call to let me know the visit was canceled. Good thing I was actually home...I run errands sometimes on Tuesdays when I have less kids.
5:00 Sarah pulls in just as I was making dinner and the kids mob her at the door. You'd think that 1. she was gone for, like a billion years and 2. that she's lived her longer than 2 weeks the way they acted.
5:35 We sit down to dinner. During the prayer, I hear David tell both Miss A and Byron to close their eyes. I think to myself, that if he had his own eyes closed he wouldn't notice...
6:10 Dinner is mostly over. It was spaghetti, so everyone was happy. Especially David. He ate a huge bowl of it. It's quite commical when he eats a lot at dinner. He's so skinny that when he does eat a big meal, his belly sticks way out.
6:15 Chris cleans up dinner while I start bathing kids. I was going to bathe the boys first, but Miss A starts to cry when David brushes past her and I realize that with no nap and a full day at school, she's really tired. So, she gets in first. I wash her up quickly and then let her play for a little bit.
6:30 I get Miss A out and get her jammied and promise her a book before bed. I tell her to pick one out while I wash the boys.
6:40 Miss A and I snuggle in with Curious George Gets a Job and we get about 3/4 of it read when I hear Chris yelling at the boys. I've gotten real good at tuning out noise, so I failed to notice that they were having a high old time in the tub bailing out most of the water(or so it seemed). They were chastised, made to clean up the mess and sent to bed. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth.
7:00 I come down from putting the boys to bed, finish the book with Miss A (though in my absense, Ruth read her the rest, she wanted to hear me read it-such stalling tactics) and she begins to sniffle when she realizes it's now time for her to go to bed.
7:10 Miss A is in bed, teeth brushed and snuggled by me....the girls are in pj's, too and have brushed their teeth. I sneek a shower and then quietly snuggle into my bed to finish episode 4 (I won't tell you how it ends....). While I'm watching my show, the girls are writing a thank you note to my uncle for the box he sent Ruth and drawing him a picture with butterflies.
8:00 I take the girls up to bed and then think I should call my parents to let them know when we'll have Ruth's birthday party. Her birthday is on a Wednesday and the Saturday before, we'll be in a continuing education class for our fostering license, so we have to have the birthday party the weekend after. When I tell Mom, there is dead silence and that's when I realize that must be the weekend that my Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob are coming to visit. So, hopefully, they'll come along, too and we'll have a really merry party.
And, so goes my day. It's 10:22 now and I have written this and done two loads of laundry. I'll quit for the night, though, because Sarah has gone to bed and whenever I run the washer the water all drains into to the room just off her bedroom and then gets shoved out with a mighty rush and clunking of the valves. She might appreciate me more if I stop now and finish tomorrow.
Today seemed chaotic and definitely not serene. This morning found us, at 6:45 searching high and low for Chris' work shoes. At this point, Ruth, Grace and Miss A were up. This is not unusual, in fact, I was glad they slept in. We searched for at least 20 minutes, when Chris gave up, took the lunch I was packing him while Ruth looked for his shoes and left. The girls started to color and I hopped on to check emails when the boys came down. Estimated Time: 7:20.
7:30 Kids eat breakfast and I quiz them on their Sunday School lesson for the upcoming Sunday. It's a test day, so we reviewed the material from the past 4 months.
8:00 Breakfast is finished, but Ruth and I continue a dialogue on Israel and it's history (including, but not limited to the return to Israel in the was it 1940's? and the Six Day War)
8:30 We begin to clean the house. I declared today "Home Ec Day" and had the kids clean the house with me. We started in the keeping room. Each kid got a bag and I filled them with toys and laundry to be put away. Sent them up to clean their rooms and put away clothes.
9:00 Ruth comes down to help me in the keeping room. I set her to vacuuming the dog hair off the sofa. Darn dog sleeps there when I'm not there to beat her.
9:30. I realize the other kids have been upstairs for 1 hour "cleaning" their rooms. At this point, Grace is naked but for her underwear, pitching a fit because she has no stretchy pants and the boys are gleefully playing in their room-still in pj's. Miss A is the only one doing anything remotely good. She's got on mismatched pants and shirt, but I let her wear it because, by golly, she got herself dressed. I go up to ride them all to get the rooms clean and we finally accomplish it, but not before I end up yelling at them and spanking Grace for throwing that fit.
10:00 I come back down to finish cleaning in the keeping room. By this point, the fire I'd started earlier is going nicely and I begin to pull out furniture to vacuum up marauding dust bunnies. Such is the life with a dog and wood floors.
10:30 I remember that Miss A must catch the bus in less than an hour, so I get her shoes and socks on asap and get her lunch ready. She sits to eat and Ruth sits with her and draws a picture of Miss A's lunch and then proceeds to tell me about it. She names each and every slice of meat, cheese and cracker on her plate and I try very hard to seem interested when I just want to finish my vacuuming.
11:00 I remember that I had people to call and I try to squeeze in two calls before bundling up Miss A and popping her into the van.
11:20 We wait in the van (warmer that way) for the bus. Fortunately, the bus arrives mostly on time and I get her off to school. She just looks so tiny sitting in that seat and waving to me as the bus drives away.
11:30 I come back in and put in the Piglet Movie for the other four and allow myself a break to watch a bit of Wives and Daughters (I love BBC stuff!).
12:00 I settle a dispute between David and Byron, which ends with Byron in time out for hitting. Then, I get the kids a bowl of apples and carrots to munch on while they watch the movie and to stave off the inevitable query for lunch. Not to mention they need to eat healthier.
12:30 The kids' movie is mostly done, so I resurface to make them the rest of their lunch. They begin to eat and I sneak off to finish episode 3(I was almost done with it).
1:00 back to work, cleaning the kitchen. The kids head to the basement and over the next hour, I referee several arguments, put kids in time out, clean up and check email, Facebook, my blog...
2:00 I have the girls fold a load of laundry for me. Towels and napkins mostly, so it's easy stuff. There is groaning and I bite my tongue before I try to remind them once again how easy they have it. One of these days they'll realize it. Like when they're grown and have 5 kids....
3:00 By this time, the kids are getting on each others' nerves, so I've had to break them up a bit. The boys are diving me batty with "Hey Mama! Watch this!" and then proceeding to spin in a circle, or fly a plane, or spin in a circle....did I mention spin in a circle? I'm attempting to clean the school room. I have tons of stuff that still needs put away and I finally have to send the boys out of the room. I can't take it anymore. I work until 4:40 and decide to take a bit of a break and sneak into my room for a bit of episode 4 of Wives and Daughters. I just have to know if Cynthia is really going to marry Roger when everyone knows she doesn't really love him and Molly does....
4:45 I glance up and see the bus coming down the street. I don't give it much thought, though-Miss A visits her mom on Tuesdays (she gets picked up after school by a social worker). But, no. The lights come on and the bus is slowing down....I guess the visit was canceled. I dash to the door and fling aside the two large tubs of laundry blocking it and then run through deep snow (in my crocs) to get her off the bus. I'm thinking evil thoughts about the social worker who didn't call to let me know the visit was canceled. Good thing I was actually home...I run errands sometimes on Tuesdays when I have less kids.
5:00 Sarah pulls in just as I was making dinner and the kids mob her at the door. You'd think that 1. she was gone for, like a billion years and 2. that she's lived her longer than 2 weeks the way they acted.
5:35 We sit down to dinner. During the prayer, I hear David tell both Miss A and Byron to close their eyes. I think to myself, that if he had his own eyes closed he wouldn't notice...
6:10 Dinner is mostly over. It was spaghetti, so everyone was happy. Especially David. He ate a huge bowl of it. It's quite commical when he eats a lot at dinner. He's so skinny that when he does eat a big meal, his belly sticks way out.
6:15 Chris cleans up dinner while I start bathing kids. I was going to bathe the boys first, but Miss A starts to cry when David brushes past her and I realize that with no nap and a full day at school, she's really tired. So, she gets in first. I wash her up quickly and then let her play for a little bit.
6:30 I get Miss A out and get her jammied and promise her a book before bed. I tell her to pick one out while I wash the boys.
6:40 Miss A and I snuggle in with Curious George Gets a Job and we get about 3/4 of it read when I hear Chris yelling at the boys. I've gotten real good at tuning out noise, so I failed to notice that they were having a high old time in the tub bailing out most of the water(or so it seemed). They were chastised, made to clean up the mess and sent to bed. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth.
7:00 I come down from putting the boys to bed, finish the book with Miss A (though in my absense, Ruth read her the rest, she wanted to hear me read it-such stalling tactics) and she begins to sniffle when she realizes it's now time for her to go to bed.
7:10 Miss A is in bed, teeth brushed and snuggled by me....the girls are in pj's, too and have brushed their teeth. I sneek a shower and then quietly snuggle into my bed to finish episode 4 (I won't tell you how it ends....). While I'm watching my show, the girls are writing a thank you note to my uncle for the box he sent Ruth and drawing him a picture with butterflies.
8:00 I take the girls up to bed and then think I should call my parents to let them know when we'll have Ruth's birthday party. Her birthday is on a Wednesday and the Saturday before, we'll be in a continuing education class for our fostering license, so we have to have the birthday party the weekend after. When I tell Mom, there is dead silence and that's when I realize that must be the weekend that my Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob are coming to visit. So, hopefully, they'll come along, too and we'll have a really merry party.
And, so goes my day. It's 10:22 now and I have written this and done two loads of laundry. I'll quit for the night, though, because Sarah has gone to bed and whenever I run the washer the water all drains into to the room just off her bedroom and then gets shoved out with a mighty rush and clunking of the valves. She might appreciate me more if I stop now and finish tomorrow.
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