A Day In the Life Of...

This is the third year in a row that I have sat down near the turning of the year and typed up a play-by-play of my life as a stay-at-home mom.  (For the exceptionally curious, here are links to the 2008 and 2010 posts.)  This is long and detailed, and not for the casual reader, but I love having a verbal snapshot of what our days are like each year.  Here goes...

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

5:40 AM  I wake up very reluctantly to Ethan calling "Mommy!  Mommy!"  I stumble into his room and he whispers, "I'm cold, can you lay the blanket flat on me?"  I cover him up and start to head back to bed when he says, "Mommy, could you please lay down in my bed and sleep with me for one minute?"  I realize that he is probably not going back to sleep either way, but there is a little better chance if I lay down with him, so I consent and cuddle in his bed with him for a few minutes.

6:00 AM  I give up on Ethan going back to sleep and we both get up.  I open the blinds in the boys' room and leave the door open, in hopes that Caleb will wake up soon and then be tired enough to nap with Ethan this afternoon (which he hasn't done all week).  When we get downstairs, Ethan wants to be held so he can choose his cereal out of the upper pantry.  He chooses Chocolate Bunches of Oats, dried fruit and a cup of milk for breakfast.  I fix his food and put it in front of him, then go upstairs and use the bathroom, brush my teeth and put in my contacts.

6:15 AM  I hear a crash and come down to see that Ethan has accidentally knocked his bowl of cereal on the floor.  Thankfully, he didn't want milk on it this morning so it is easy to clean up.  I sweep up the mess, give him more cereal, chew up my vitamins and pour myself a bowl of cereal.  I take my cereal downstairs and get on the computer to write a quick blog post about the boys climbing trees.

6:35  AM  Just as I hit "publish," Ethan wails.  He has finished his breakfast and joined me in the play room.  The wail is because he accidentally stepped on the lid of a toy container and hurt his foot.  I hold him while he whimpers for a minute, and then go get his "night-night" for him at his request.

6:45 AM  Marcus comes down dressed for work while Ethan and I are cuddling.  Marcus gives Ethan a toy camera that he fixed for him last night and Ethan's good mood is restored.  He climbs off my lap and goes to take pictures.  I feed the dogs and then go upstairs to wake up Caleb and collect a load of laundry to put in.

6:55 AM  Caleb beats my back downstairs and asks for breakfast, so I put down the huge load of laundry I'm carrying to fix his food.  He asks for waffles and I remember that there are some leftover waffles in the freezer from the batch I made yesterday, so I pop two in the toaster and pour his milk.  He is a little grumpy (as usual in the morning), so I have him repeat his grumpy comments & questions in a pleasant voice several times.  While Caleb eats his waffles (Ethan has one, too), we go over our days of the week, months, weather, seasons, memory verse, good habits, address, phone number and birthdays and then recite the Lord's Prayer together.

7:10 AM  The boys head into the living room to play with their trains while I resume my laundry trip to the garage.  I get the laundry sorted and start the first load when I hear a wail from the living room.  Two boys come sprinting downstairs, one with a train in hand and the other bent on violence.  We talk through the dispute and it appears that Caleb is more in the wrong.  He sits in time out, then apologizes to his brother.  Ethan forgives him readily and then gives him the train that they were previously disputing over and the play resumes happily

7:25 AM  I get my workbook from the ladies' class I'm in at church and do a few pages of homework in the living room while the boys play.

7:50 AM  Caleb climbs on the couch to jump and is reminded that he is too big to jump from couch to couch.  This is something I just decided a couple of days ago, and he looks genuinely sad and even says quietly, "I don't want to grow bigger.  I get too big to do all the fun things!"  I put my workbook and Bible down and take the kids downstairs to show them pictures of Alabama Adventure (the local theme & water park that we have season tickets for this summer) to remind him of the advantages of getting bigger.  Then the boys want to play with the dogs in the garage, so I move the car out of the garage.  While they play with the dogs and ride their bikes in circles, I sweep out the garage (one of today's several cleaning tasks) and move the load of laundry over.  I also call my OB's office and make my first prenatal appointment in 3 months.

8:30 AM  The boys watch Dinosaur Train on PBS while I take a shower and get dressed for the day.

9:00 AM  We head upstairs to do our morning homeschooling stuff.  The boys tidy up their rooms while I fold a load of their laundry and put it away.  Caleb is resistant to cleaning up his assigned area, so I spank him twice before he will get to work. When they are done, Ethan gets out the Spanish workbooks and Caleb chooses which page we will practice that day.  He chooses "Mas Cosas," so we listen to that track on the CD twice and practice saying those 20 or so words.  Ethan wants to read books next, so both boys choose a book to read and I choose our unit book from Five In A Row, which is Katy and the Big Snow this week.  We read the books together and then Caleb asks if we can play a game next.  The boys choose Chutes and Ladders.  The game goes well and both boys do very well, both with counting and coping with the "ups and downs" of the game.  In the end, I win, and Caleb struggles internally with the loss.  He triumphs over his bad loser instinct though, and says, "Good game, Mommy."  Ethan doesn't care at all and is already playing with the marble race toy in their room.  While I clean up the game, Ethan suggests that we do Bible reading next and goes to get the Bibles.  I turn over the 5-minute sand timer and we all sit quietly "reading" our Bibles until the timer is done.  The boys show me which stories they have selected and I read both stories.  Ethan gets a little rambunctious toward the end of the second story and  starts pulling books off the bookshelf.  I redirect him to doing a puzzle and finish the second Bible story.  The last thing on the morning agenda is exercises.  We start with jumping jacks, which Caleb gets really into this morning and keeps jumping and counting all the way to 100 (Ethan and I stop around 25.)  I'd never heard him count past 40 independently before, so I was impressed.  We continue by doing leg lifts, push-ups, squats and all kinds of stretches.

11:00 AM  Back downstairs for an early lunch, since we didn't do a morning snack and we are all hungry.  I fix hot dogs (Hebrew National All-Beef), corn and grapes for the boys.  At first, Caleb complains about the food, since he is an extremely picky eater and doesn't like hot dogs or corn and wasn't in the mood for grapes.  I remind him that there are children all over the world who would give away their clothes to have this much good food.  He says nothing, but starts eating his food.  I guess both boys were listening to my little talk because they both volunteered several positive and thankful comments during lunch.  While the kids eat, I load & run the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, and fix myself a tuna salad sandwich.

11:20 AM  They finish just as my lunch is ready, so they go down to the play room and I eat my lunch in front of my computer and start to type up this blog.  The kids play with minimal conflict for about an hour, though Ethan does have to sit in timeout twice for knocking down Caleb's magnet towers and once for hitting Caleb. In between all the interjections of "Watch this, Mommy!" and "Can you open this, please, Mommy?" and "Will you help me with this?", I spend the rest of that hour blogging and backing up all the documents & pictures on my computer to an external hard drive (something I do about four times a year, since my computer is old and unreliable).  I also eat a slice of leftover apple pie :).  At one point, Ethan squeals in panic and tells me that something is stuck in his nose.  I look to see that he has put a small white cylinder-shaped Lego from one of Caleb's Lego sets into his nose.  I remove it quickly with tweezers and ask him why he did that.  He tells me that he wanted to be silly like the guy in Toy Story 3.  We talk about the importance of never putting anything in our noses or ears.

12:30 PM  We do a couple of things from the afternoon agenda: Music Time (listen to our Daily Songs playlist on iTunes and sing along) and Caleb's math lesson for the day, since I know we will have baths and getting ready for church after naptime.  The kids each get a quick snack before naps since lunch was so early today.

1:00 PM  Both boys go potty & Ethan brushes his teeth because he says they are yucky (he loves brushing his teeth).  Both kids get in bed and I tuck them in.  Caleb argues with me every step of the way, insisting that he doesn't need a nap.  I insist that he has to try, since we will be up late because of church tonight.  I come downstairs, move the laundry over, take the load out of the dryer, fold a few things, and hang up a few wet things from the other load that can't be dried.  Then I read today's chapters of Job in my chronological daily Bible.

1:30 PM  I go upstairs, hoping that Caleb went to sleep and I can now take a short nap.  Unfortunately, today is no different than any other day this week...he is lying wide awake in bed.  I tell him that he can get up and go play quietly in the playroom while Mommy rests.  I lay in bed resting, but not sleeping, for about 20 minutes.

1:55 PM  Caleb comes into my room and whispers, "Mommy, will you help me with the Lego thing I'm building?"  I sigh and head downstairs to join him, mentally noting that I need to wake Ethan up in 35 minutes (he is very difficult to get down at bedtime if he naps for more than an hour-and-a-half).  I help Caleb with the Legos, fix myself a snack, and write a little more of this blog.

2:30 PM  I wake Ethan up from his nap and fix a snack of Chex Mix and raisin bread toast for both boys.  While they eat, I empty the dishwasher and reload it with the lunch dishes.

3:00 PM  We get started on Table Time.  I print Caleb out a color-by-number with seven colors.  He colors it perfectly with colored pencils, not a jot outside the lines, working on it for 40 minutes straight.  Ethan uses a yellow marker to color a different color-by-number in about ten minutes, paying no attention to the lines or numbers :)  Ethan then plays with Tinker Toys while Caleb colors.  I tidy up the play room.

3:45 PM Caleb is still only half-done with his picture, but I ask him if he wants to finish it later.  He decides he does want to do something else, so I take out the stack of twenty 3-letter-word flash cards and we do his reading practice.  He does very well today, both in attitude and skill.  He doesn't get upset when he makes a mistake, and gets most of the words right on the first try.

4:00 PM Ethan picks out a few toys to take upstairs for his bath.  Caleb stays in the play room to build a Lego sled and man while Ethan and I go upstairs.  I get Ethan in the bath.  Ethan, who LOVES bath time, plays for about 25 minutes while I put on make-up and fold some laundry.  Caleb calls me from downstairs to help him with the Legos.  I tell him to bring them upstairs, which he does, and I help him with the part he's stuck on.

4:30 PM I get Ethan out of the bath, drain the water, and start running Caleb's bath.  After Caleb is in, I get Ethan dressed for church and then look through two sets of Baby Einstein flash cards with him.  He is very proud of himself for recognizing his numbers and does a good job counting items on the cards.  Then I get Caleb out of the bath, set out his clothes and tell him to get dressed for church.  I look at my phone to see a missed call and text from a friend who is sick, so I call her back and chat for a few minutes.  Ethan deliberately exasperates his brother several times while I'm on the phone, impudently ignoring my warning looks and words, so he gets a spanking when I get off.

5:00 PM  Both boys are ready for church, so I send them to play in different rooms while I cook dinner.  This is a regular preemptive move that I use to avoid conflict while I am trying to cook.  My energy-level and patience-level are at their low points during this hour, so it goes better for all of us if there is no conflict.  I dice and saute the chicken for the quesadillas and cut up an avocado. About halfway through cooking, the boys sweet-talk me into letting them play together, assuring me that they will be good and not fight.  They keep their word and play nicely until dinner is ready.

6:00 PM  The boys and I sit down to eat dinner.  Marcus calls about five minutes later saying he is on his way home.  I finish eating, clean up, and then pack Marc's dinner to be eaten on the road, since we will have to leave for church as soon as he pulls in.

6:25 PM  Marcus walks in.  I pull the car into the garage, we load up and all leave for church.  Marcus eats his quesadillas in the car.

8:35 PM  Pull back in the garage after church.  Kids had a great time at church, but, unfortunately are pretty wired and not very tired-looking.  (It is amazing to me that my 4-year-old can go from 6:45 AM until 9:00 PM with no nap and without ever looking or acting tired, and that my 2-year-old can get up an hour earlier, take a 90-minute nap, and be just as alert and happy at 9:00 as his brother.)  We head straight upstairs, I get the kids to brush their teeth and go potty, and then get their pajamas on in their room.  Daddy comes in and reads their two books to them, tucks them in their beds and hands them back over to me.  I cuddle in bed with Caleb for a few minutes, whispering with him about his day and praying with him.  Then I do the same with Ethan.

9:00 PM  Caleb falls asleep while I'm finishing up with Ethan.  I kiss Ethan good night, tiptoe the six or seven steps from Ethan's bed to mine, and collapse on top of my bed, fully-clothed, contacts in, no covers, etc.  I intended just to rest for a minute, but I guess my body took over because that is the last thing I remember.