But just in case you were wondering WHY I don't blog more often it's not (as you might think) because I have suddenly decided that our lives are simply not that interesting. I decided that A LONG TIME AGO. Instead, it's really been that I've been busy. Someone must have changed the space time continuum or something becasue the six hours or so per day that I'm supposed to be basically child free to shop, watch soap operas and eat bon bons has been cruelly taken from me
So I thought (not really, but who cares) that you might like to know what a day in the life of ME is like.
7 a.m. My alarm goes off. I didn't hear it because I was downstairs asleep on the couch because I was up late writing and closed my eyes for just. one. minute. zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Luckily Rob came down to have breakfast at 6:45 so he woke me up.
7:10ish I got the girls up. They were actually half awake this morning, so I didn't have to physically remove anyone from a bed. (Except of course for myself).
7:10 to 7:30: Make breakfast for Hannah, Liz and Cash. Let Cash out. Let Cash in. Let Cash out (he's got a stomach bug...) Check my email and see that there are 32 emails. Two of them are moderately important.
7:30 to 7:50: Supervise Hannah and Lizzie getting ready for school. This means making sure that their homework is in their backpacks, their planners are signed and ready to go, they are wearing clothes that are appropriate although not always matching, hair combed, gym shoes on. Oh, and make them lunches. They used to like the same stuff for lunch and now they don't. This morning Lizzie informed me that she's "not really a chocolate girl" so she doesn't want the M&Ms for dessert. I scrounge around and find her some gummy fruits that are not chocolate.
7:50 to 8 a.m.: Run upstairs, hop in the shower, brush teeth, get dressed and run back downstairs yelling for everyone to put a sweater on and get out to the bus. As we are walking out the door Hannah tells me that today is bring in some food for the hungry day, so I run back inside the house and get a box of scalloped potatoes for Hannah and a box of stuffing for Lizzie.
8 a.m. to 8:13 a.m.: Wait for the bus with the girls while pulling little pieces of lint out of Lizzie's hair because a pillow exploded somewhere in our house and she danced around in it (or so she told me.)
8:13: FREEDOM!!! Well, not really.
8:13 to 9 a.m.: Eat breakfast, let the dog in and out a few more times, respond to the two important emails, check my planner for the day, see that 6 more emails have come in, all of them work related and respond to them.
9 to 9:45: Work on web content and setting up interviews for future stories. Okay, and check facebook, too. Play Jungle Jewels and lose miserably.
9:45 to 11:30: Go to St. Peter's Bakery and get some multi-grain bread, have coffee with my friend Amy during which we solve the problems of the world and then I inexplicably feel nauseated (probably the antibiotic I had for breakfast -- tooth abcess medicine) and have to run home where I don't get sick, thankfully because that has been Cash's job for the past four days.
11:30 to 1: Eat lunch (chicken corn chowder soup), spend 15 minutes training the dog so that he won't keep trying to eat my soup, answer some MORE email, write two web content stories. Realize that tomorrow is a deadline for a story on Cirque du Soleil that I've researched but not begun writing, so I look at youtube videos of cirque du soleil to get a feel for the story. Then I check facebook again.
1:30 to 2 p.m.: Go food shopping intending to pick up cous cous for dinner and a couple of cans of yams for the give food to the hungry day that will conclude tomorrow and end up spending $85 on a bunch of other stuff including NON CHOCOLATE cupcakes and skittles for Lizzie's lunch. Remember I need cous cous while in line and go back and get it. And grab some applesauce too. And some instant potatoes.
2 p.m. to 3:24 p.m. Work on some web content. Pick up dirty clothes from the floor. Or maybe they are clean. Hannah changes her clothes often so they may have only been worn for 35 seconds. Put all clothes in the hamper because it takes too much time to try and figure out if they are clean or dirty. Let dog out and throw a ball for him for 5 minutes. Step in dog poop and spend 10 minutes trying to clean my shoe. Curse the person who is supposed to clean up the dog poop in the yard and then remember it is me. Polish my web content stories and try to organize my Eagle stories for next couple of weeks. Send an email to Kelly McGillis' people to see if she'll talk to me for 20 minutes on Tuesday although since it's taken 2 weeks for me just to get the contact info I don't have much hope for the interview. Do 15 minutes on my glider while watching "Modern Family" on Tivo. Talk to my friend Kara on the phone because she just sold her house and is moving in three weeks. I say congrats and then hang up on her because I see that it is nearly 3:21 and I have to be out at the bus.
3:24-3:30 Wait for bus while reading mail that has arrived. It's a Wegman's coupon packet and an ad to bring all my friends to Catherine's -- a plus sized clothing store-- to save 50 percent on one item. I wonder just how insulted my friends would be if I took them to a sale at a plus sized clothing store. Girls get off the bus and start yelling WHAT'S FOR SNACK????
3:30 to 4 p.m.: Girls have snack. Hannah has some coffee cake and milk. Lizzie Miss I'm not really a chocolate girl has chocolate covered swiss rolls from Tasty Kakes and some juice. We empty backpacks, put coats where they belong, check for homework that needs to be done tonight (math and word study and the 100 book challenge). Then I send them downstairs to relax until homework starts. I try to write a lead for my Cirque story, but Hannah has decided to watch Scooby Doo in the family room and it's very noisy. Instead I load my new voice recognition software into my computer and start playing with it. It cannot understand me and I think, of course, why would it be any different from my children. Then I read the directions and see that I need a special microphone which I will have to go to Staples and buy tomorrow.
4 to 4:45: Homework. Seriously I can't even make a joke about it, it is so annoying, but Hannah finishes hers while Lizzie opts to play piano and read. She'll do her math after dinner and I don't argue because when they BOTH try to math AT THE SAME TIME I find myself looking for sharp objects with which I can poke myself in the eye.
4:45: The girls get ready for dance class while I call my mother (this is Thursday and I've called my mother every Thursday afternoon for at least the last 20 years) and we talk for 22 mintues about school and food and how she's feeling better and so is Cash. It's all good.
5:12: Tell girls to get in the car to go to dance class. Hannah has stolen Lizzie's dance bag so a fight ensues. I tell them I will be in the car and eventually they work it out (or maybe not since everyone is sulking in the car) and they get out to the car. But only after I've honked the horn three times and noted to myself that we are going to be late for dance class AGAIN. Get to dance class in the nick of time, but notice that Hannah has decided to put her tights on OVER her socks. I don't ask why, but Lizzie tells her she's odd and everyone will laugh at her. Hannah starts to take her leotard off, but there is no time since the teacher has arrived. So she just sulks.
5:38 - 7p.m: Back home from the drop off. Check email, respond to a twin mom who is having trouble getting her kids to nap. I feel her pain. I want a nap, too. Then try to clear off a spot on the table for dinner, get the clothes out of the dryer (from yesterday) and put them in my SECOND laundry room AKA my dining room. Put the rest of the groceries away from before, prepare dinner for Rob and I (the girls usually get McDonalds on Thursdays and Rob and I eat leftovers -- today I added cous cous to our menu). Reread the lead for my Cirque story but run out of time to write anything else on it, and then check the message boards at the web content writing job to see that FEWER titles are available. Think about panicking, but then realize I don't really care that much.
7p.m.: Girls get home from dance with their happy meals. I remember that I had put Cash in our bathroom earlier because Hannah got her unicorn costume in the mail today and she was wearing it and he was jumping up on her trying (it looked like) to make little unipoodle babies, and then she hit him, so I put him in the bathroom where he's been since 4:30 or so. I let him out and praise him for not peeing or barfing in the bathroom, although frankly it would be a lot easier for me if Cash could actually learn to use the bathroom in the traditional way.
7:30p.m. - 8 p.m. Finish dinner. Lizzie does her math homework. Hannah tortures Cash. Rob plays the piano. Rob yells at Hannah in between stanzas of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. I tell Lizzie 14 times that she can use her number chart to figure out the subtraction problems if she needs to. She doesn't and gets about 10 of the problems wrong and has to redo them which makes her SO VERY HAPPY. I sign their homework, get their lunch boxes and other stuff out of their backpacks to be ready to repack for tomorrow. Tell them to think about what they want to wear tomorrow as I have found out by reading a note shoved at the bottom of Lizzie's homework folder that tomorrow is RED day and they should wear red. And bring in a can for the hungry people. Get girls into their jammies except Hannah wants to wear her clothes to bed. Sing songs, kiss goodnight. Sleepy time.
8:15-11 p.m. Write the cirque story, throw in another load of wash, fold the stuff that's on the dining room table. Remember halfway through the wash cycle that I've left my NEW IPOD in the pocket of my jacket/shirt. Rescue iPod, which is now in ICU buried in a pile of rice in hopes of a complete recovery. Respond to west coast email since they are still working and I'm trying to score an interview with Louis CK (a comedian). Write some web content (goal is 15 stories per week -- today I wrote only two) and then work on inputting my young adult novel that a publisher has requested. I still can't get the voice recognition software to recognize me, but it does seem to hear Cash barking so at least I know it understands dog. I need to get the book input by this weekend (it was in hard copy form back from the days we actually used paper for things...) but once I buy the mic tomorrow I'm sure it will be a breeze. Or I'll just type it in the old fashioned way. Because you know, I have so much time.
11 p.m.: Watch the news while checking facebook and emails (I get about 200 emails a day from various sources). Pick some web content stories to write tomorrow. Drink a cup of decaf and eat some crackers. Remember that I forgot to take the antibiotic for my tooth infection all day so I take two now in hopes that it will eradicate all germs while I am sleeping. And that I will not awaken at 3 a.m. to vomit.
11:30 p.m.: Let Cash out, sit on the deck while he does whatever he is doing and breathe the lovely fall air in deeply. Then remember that I have to put the clothes in the dryer.
Midnight: Start to go upstairs after putting clothes in the dryer. Remember that I need to put the cans for tomorrow's food drive on the table or we will forget them. See that Cash's water bowl is empty and wash and refill it. Remember that I need to charge my phone. Then, as long as I'm still up I check out the special values on HSN and QVC and then I see that HSN is having a game so I go online and play it and while I do not win a gift card I do get 15 percent off my purchase so I go to their site and start looking at camcorders because lizzie threw mine in the pool at the end of the summer (by mistake, I think) and I need a new one with piano recitals and drama class and dance class and Nutcracker... I find one I like but then I notice the digital cameras, many of which also take short videos and then I get confused and decide to think about it tomorrow. Then I close my eyes on the couch and fall asleep for 20 minutes or so.
12:45: Upstairs to bed, happy that Cash has not appropriated my side (which he does at least once a week) and that there are no random children in there who are suffering from headaches or had a bad dream or were just bored in their own bed. However once I'm in bed Cash jumps in, too.
1:30 a.m. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ :) again.
I realize that many of my friends have even more hectic days, so I can't imagine how any of us ever gets anything done. But we do. We're MOMS!!! ;) And tired.
Oh and if you made it down this far, please join me in congratulating my parents on their 54th anniversay which was Wednesday. Fifty four years. When I am married 54 years I will be 90 years old. But that's a post for another day.
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