Bzzzz Bzzzz Bzzzz. It’s 6:00 am, time to get up.
No, snooze. I can sleep another 9 minutes. By 6:27 I can finally peel my eyelids open and I wander into the bathroom in an attempt to shower unnoticed and uninterrupted. Without fail as I sit to pee I hear the pitter-patter of little feet and a small face surrounded by the largest afro of bed head I have ever seen pops around the corner. “I’m hungry!” says the small face.
I sigh. No shower today. As I enter the kitchen I find another small child, with less bed head, over-focused on an art project that has consumed 12 sheets of paper, a roll of tape, half a bottle of Elmers glue, a paper plate, scissors and all of the markers {including permanent ones} she could find. I fondly remember the neatly swept and perfectly clean kitchen floor of just 7 hours ago.
It’s 6:32am.
The next hour of my day is a little blurry. It consists of getting four children fed, dressed, hair combed and styled, lunches packed, school planners signed, backpacks loaded, shoes and socks on (oh and jackets ’cause it’s cold now), into the car and buckled into each of their four respective car seats.
As I quickly glance into the rearview mirror and stuff my errant hair into a passable ponytail, I realize that I’m still in my pajamas. Sigh. Again? I think. I guess it means the school drive-through line today.
It’s 7:40am.
After returning from dropping two of the four children off for their day of learning, I can finally take a small deep breath. Too bad it’s not a shower. I settle one of the remaining two kids down for a tv show so I can begin breakfast and kitchen clean up while the baby clings fussily to my leg. I begin to calculate just how long until I can legitimately put him down for a nap and start daydreaming about taking a shower…even if it means having one child in there with me, I think I can handle that. 10am, I think. I can be showered and dressed by 10am.
It’s 8:27am.
By 9:30 I get the baby down for his nap and set up the toddler with some puzzles. I sit down to check Facebook and find myself quickly lost in the Facebook “black hole”. I really should delete my account, I remind myself. As I slowly exit the void, I look around to find that the toddler has moved on from puzzles and has resumed her art project at the kitchen table. This time she’s included the cat. In case you ever find yourself in this situation I have a little advice…don’t attempt to wash or comb Elmer’s Glue from your cat’s fur. Save yourself a lot of trouble and just let them lick it out themselves.
It’s 10:48 and I’ve missed my shower…again. And now I’m covered in sticky cat hair.
The baby gets up and it’s time to run the one small errand I have to get done today – a quick trip to the store. We only need four things. I quickly load the kids into a shopping cart and wheel my way through the produce section. Bananas – check.
As I round the corner towards the dairy case, it begins: “Can I have…?” No. Begin tantrum. I stop the cart and briefly explain to the small child that we are only here for four things. We have one of them. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot item number two and decide to distract the tantruming child by turning her into Mama’s helper. “Can you go get the eggs?” I ask. The distraction works and my 3-year-old happily bounds off to the egg case. Bad idea. At least she only dropped one container.
It’s 12:14pm.
We manage the rest of the trip with little hinderance and I race home before lunch-time meltdown hits full swing. Lunch runs fairly smoothly – I only had to make two different meals today. I turn on another show and begin lunch clean-up only to turn around and find someone {me} left the baby gate open and the baby is nowhere it sight. As quick as lightening I race down the hall to the back of the house to baby’s favorite play spot – the toilet. I find that in all of 30 seconds, he’s managed to empty an entire roll of toilet paper onto the floor and stuff 2 cars and a drum-stick into the toilet – which is filled with pee, because sister didn’t flush again. I wonder how I can pawn this clean-up off on my husband…
It’s 1:10pm.
As afternoon naptime approaches I begin to feel my eyelids droop. I know that if I can just make it to 2pm I can finally have that shower and start my afternoon off the way my morning should have. I get the two littles in bed and after two trips out of bed for potty and water, I believe they are finally settled. I survey the damage done to the house and tell myself if I just clean up for 5 min, it will look so much better. Then I can shower and get the girls from school. I’ve just begun to tackle the mess in the playroom when I hear it – bing-bong, bing-bong – and realize that 5 minutes cleaning has turned into 45 and it’s time to get the girls from school.
It’s 2:45pm.
I pick the girls up from school, rush them home for a quick snack and sit them down at the table to go over their days. Overall, a good day – well done. We pull out their homework and both girls dive in with little argument. I begin to prepare dinner – loading up the crock pot with a bit of this and a little of that – when the next timer on my phone goes off. 0 minutes until gymnastics. I interrupt the girls homework and rush them off to change into their leo’s.
It’s 3:50pm.
I return home from gym at 5:40pm with one girl in tow to realize that dinner was left half-prepared on the counter. Oops. I quickly rummage through the fridge and come up with chicken nuggets, grapes, and a mystery rice dish of left-overs from last week. Voila! Dinner.
It’s 6:02pm.
As I start to clean up dinner, husband rushes the kids off for their evening bath (can I just give a quick shout-out to my awesome hubs who bathes our kids EVERY night!). Once fully jamma-clad, the troops return for an evening snack and movie. The toddler insists it’s her turn to pick. No, it’s the kindergardener’s. I think the baby should pick, he never gets a turn. The argument continues for another 5 minutes before husband picks the show and no one gets a say.
It’s 6:48pm.
At 7pm I hear the faithful little bing-bong, bing-bong and hop in the car to pick up the oldest from gymnastics. She’s been there for 3.5 hours now. I pause and watch the remainder of her practice enjoying the momentary lack of small children. At 7:30pm we head back home. I can only hope to find some of the small children no longer running free and sleepily tucked into their beds. Tonight I get lucky and find just the baby waiting for some end of day snuggles before settling off to sleep. I love that part.
It’s 7:48pm.
I head back out to the family room to find the oldest sitting politely at the kitchen table waiting for some dinner. Wow, I think to myself, she learned manners somewhere! I send her off for a quick shower and heat up another meal. I sit and chat with her while she eats, help her finish the last of her homework and send her off to find a book and unwind. At 9pm I shuffle her off to bed with a goodnight hug and quick prayer. I wander out to the family room, glance over the train wreck that used to be a clean house, and collapse glossy-eyed on the couch.
It’s 9:03pm. Looks like I can finally shower.
