A Day in my life part 2

This could go on and on, the days are never the same so this is a general overview of the things that must be done every day. There are definitely those days that don't go as I thought they would and it usually takes very little to throw the day off course. It could be as simple as a package arriving and getting on a tangent, or like yesterday, looking around at the babies room and realizing I need to clean up the changing table contents...it can get me on a sidetrack that I can't stop. So, yesterday a simple re-organization because I needed to condense the amount of product bottles (too many half full and almost empty), turned into a complete spring cleaning.

So, continuing on, I left off at lunch...

Lunch can be, hot dogs and fruit (from the farm-all natural/nitrate free), grilled cheese, organic cheese filled ravioli with Amy's Organic Tomato soup, egg salad, chicken salad, lunch meat (nitrate-free, no growth hormones or antibiotics), or leftovers. The babies may have some finger foods like lunch meat, or cheese and fruit, or avocado. Then, after lunch, and depending on the babies nap schedule these days, it's quiet time and nap time. If the babies wake up to close to lunch they go to the living room, which is closed off and has their toys, the boys go to their room for imagination playing. Only quiet toys, or books...no loud clanging blocks, or even trucks. If the babies aren't ready for a nap, then Mikayla gets to get out of quiet time and plays with the babies while I get some business done. This usually consists of phone calls, emails, orders, projects, etc. Usually by 2pm they are ready for a nap. I take them up for a diaper change and down for a nap. Now is more home school with Mikayla, usually history, science, reading, geography, or grammar is fit into this slot. We don't do it all every day, and i am still trying to get to the day when we get through all I had planned to do. I am starting to realize that home school is challenging in more ways than I thought. The obvious challenge is fitting it into an already packed day, but on top of that is making it a priority because there are so many interruptions.

After quiet time, is snack time...usually a fruit, but every now and then it is a "treat" snack like graham crackers and milk or animal crackers and milk...but the milk has to be there to give it some substance.

Now, it's usually about 3:30pm, and the rest of the day is usually filled with miscellaneous things. It varies from day to day. It could be a farm order pick up day(milk, cheese, meats), or a run to the post office, or grocery shopping(fruits and vegetables, misc.)...but most of the time I do house work, or sit down with the babies on the floor, a quick trip out to the garden to see how things are growing (right now I have tomatoes, so I harvest the ripe ones). The older kids usually go out to the trampoline. This part of the day seems to fly by, and soon it's time to cook dinner. I try to have in my head that 4:30pm is the "drop dead time" for starting dinner. No matter what I am doing, it must be done or I have to stop at this time or it will cause dinner to be late. If it's something quick, like fajitas I can start at 5pm, my goal is 5:30/5:45 for dinner. Friday has become our pizza night and movie night... so that's easy to get started in the bread maker (I do a quick rise pizza). Ideally, in the next year I hope to transition over to a soaked flour dough, which is much easier to digest. But for now, in lieu of ordering a pizza, I do a white dough.

Dinner is usually planned, if I am good, but lately it's been pretty spontaneous. It really depends on how the day has gone, and if I have the time. I have most of the babies' food in the freezer, so I just take it out and plop it in a pan and warm it up. I have frozen puree vegetable "cookies" that I pre-made. I usually do a meat and 2 vegetables, plus butter, coconut oil, and fish oil.

I try to eat before I bring the babies over to their seats, but of course if they get fussy I bring them over and give them a celery or carrot stick to gnaw on. They, luckily, are satisfied with that most of the time. I have really tried to not give them cereal or crackers, and I am trying to hold off until 2 yrs on the bread, as that is hard to digest up to that age. If I am lucky, I get to eat a little before I sit down and feed them their food. (And I have learned to have it ready to go in the mouth before I get close to them...if they see the bowl and I have to stir it, they are not happy!)

When the older kids are done eating, I send them upstairs to get teeth brushed, bath/shower (if it's bath night), wash hands and face, and pajamas. Then I let them watch t.v. until I get the babies to bed. But first I have to clean the kitchen, as I really dislike to come downstairs from the bedtime routine and have a dirty kitchen. So, the babies are usually content to watch and gnaw (on their sticks of choice) as I get that done. The rule is to never go to bed with a dirty kitchen, even if I end up doing it at midnight some days.

I still carry both babies up and down the stairs (the lazy always works double!). They are the least bathed of all my babies, I must admit, but they do get an average of 2 baths a week. I try to keep their hands washed, so that is a plus! I get them changed into pajamas, and we read "Brown Bear" by Eric Carle, which is a favorite of all my kids at this age. Then we nurse ,snuggle I kiss them (and try to get a kiss, which is rare) and put them to bed. They have a pappy (pacifier) in the mouth, in the hand and a tummy pat.

Then it's off to get the older kids to sleep. Stories, snuggles and then it's lights out...and hopefully they will stay in bed. Usually there are a few frustrations of getting them back to bed, needing water, an extra kiss, etc. But usually by 8:00pm they are usually settled down.

Then comes my favorite time of day...free time...blogging, email, t.v., quilting, sewing, reading, planning, and all those fun things. The evenings are my return to sanity from the craziness of the day. And each night as I enjoy the peace and clear my head, I reflect on the days events, and hope that I can have more patience, understanding and appreciation for each of my kids. If they could only know how much I love them, and how much I try to be the best, they won't truly know until they themselves have kids.

And tomorrow is a new day, to try again to accomplish the things that didn't get done today, and to be a better mom, wife and friend and all those hats we women have to wear. I wouldn't trade my life for anything else, or any other path from the many choices I had...because being the mommy is priceless.