3:15- the big kids get home from school. book bags are flying, papers needing signed, coats and shoes on the floor (and having to be reminded every. single. day. to be hung up!)it's pretty much chaos. first item on the agenda is to pack lunches for tomorrow before the little guy gets up. if not, he will also insist on packing a lunch even though he does not attend school. you can tell him until you are blue in the face that he does not attend school but he will still be insistent on packing a lunch. therefore we do it while he's napping. they begin homework and chores after that so that everything vital is accomplished before dinner. it's easy when you are alone every night for things to get away from you so i try to get all of that out of the way first thing.
3:45- get the little kids up from nap. at this point we encounter yet another "destroying of the little guy's room", where he again seems totally shocked that this has happened. you may be wondering at this point why he keeps doing this? i'll tell you. it's because he does not want to sleep, ever. you may now be wondering why i keep putting him in there for naptime? because it is unsafe for me to drink all day and/or abuse prescription medicines therefore i must have a break from his incessant talking/running/climbing/destroying/mess-making. also, he does eventually go to sleep in there. he just prefers to make a ginormous mess first.
4:00- the little kids get to watch one show while i nurse esme and then it's back to diaper changing! i try to read a few books to the little kids during this time while the big kids are finishing up their homework and chores and it's semi calm.
4:30-5- between this time the babysitting kids are picked up and i finish up dinner. everyone seems to think they're starving by 5 so we eat pretty early. i tend to wait and eat with theMr when he gets home. while they're eating they tell me what was the highlight and lowpoint of their days. this can be very humorous. usually Zaza's high point is something having to do with recess and the princess' is almost always snack. she takes after her mother. i get to hear all the latest drama in the fourth grade such as who has a crush on whom and who started an exclusive club without including another. it's all very dramatic. some days i long for quiet but then there's that little voice in the back of my head that reminds me that one day they won't want to tell me about their days anymore so i try to enjoy it. we clean up from dinner and get the kitchen in order.
5:45- our after dinner routine varies somewhat. some evenings we run errands. some evenings it's bath night (not as many evenings as it should be...) sometimes we just play outside. last night, my best friend rachel and i decided to take the kids to dinner since we had free kid's meal certificates. sounds fun, huh? did i mention that between the two of us that's two moms and TEN children under 10?
yep, you read that right. now while that may sound like a nightmare to some, it really isn't that bad. for one thing, we both are used to having five children each and managing them in public. secondly, we both have husbands who work alot so we're accustomed to doing it alone. things went pretty well until the last fifteen minutes or so when the little guy decided he was no longer interested in sitting still or cooperating. in his defense, we had been there about 40 mins by then. that's pretty much his limit. also at this point rachel's youngest, the super adorable 10 month old Kalyssa, decided to screech at the top of her lungs. she's so cute she can totally get away with it. it was time to leave. (and throw down a big tip!)
7:30- time to start the bedtime routine~ WOO HOO! this is probably the time of day i'm most likely to lose my cool. i'm tired, i'm ready for the day to be over, i usually have a screaming baby and my kids are stalling! we wash up for bed, brush teeth, put PJ's on and head to our rooms. the little guy has to have that whole naptime routine repeated (kiss the animals, tuck in the animals...). the big kids get to read quietly in their room until theMr gets home to pray with them, around 8:30. the bean gets to stay for an extra hour since she's 10. every night the other kids try to convince me that they should get to do the same and every night i tell them no. after they're all taken care of i put esme to bed. she's more than ready by this point. she's really easy, change her diaper and nurse and put her in her crib! she'll lay in there and babble and kick her legs until she falls asleep.
8:30- can you hear that?? quiet... theMr gets home, we have dinner, we stay up too late even though every day we say we're going to start getting to bed earlier, and before you know it it's another day!
1 comment:
im exhausted just reading that..
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