7:40am- Alarm goes off. I hear Kyle waking the girls up. Lots of yelling. *sigh* Turn off the alarm and take a quick 5 minute shower. Tell the kids to get dressed while I get dressed. Change diapers and dress Kyle and Kelly. Sort laundry.
8:10- Pour cereal and milk into bowls. Put Kelly in her high chair and fill sippy cups. Toss the load of darks in the washing machine. Turn the computer on so I can print out eBay addresses. Start filling the diaper bag with the things I need today (eBay packages, cell phone, JoAnn coupon & sewing pattern envelopes, BlockBuster dvd).
8:30- Tell the kids it's time to leave for school, "put on your shoes and jackets!" It's warm but rainy so I pull out the light weight jackets. "Backpacks!" I put a box of clothes in the mini-van to drop off at Once Upon a Child. Put jackets and shoes on Kyle and Kelly. Start buckling the kids into their carseats but have send Ally back in the house for her backpack first. Grab a Mountain Dew for myself.
8:35- Drop Zach off at school. Deal with parking lot madness and go around the block so that I can drop the twins off at preschool next door to Zach's school (but a different parking lot). The twins don't go in until 8:55 so I nurse Kelly while we wait. Walk the twins in and sign up for cookies and juice for their Christmas party.
9:00- Drive to Once Upon a Child. Arrive at 9:20, they don't open until 9:30. Wait. Struggle holding the box and Kelly and keeping Kyle from running through the parking lot. We're the only ones in the store so she sorts through the clothes quickly. Only wants $10 worth. Blah. Take it and struggle back to the minivan with the box, Kelly, and Kyle.
9:45- Arrive at JoAnn's Fabric store. Kyle picks out a $.25 lollipop and happily sits in the cart while I try to decide on fabric for the girls' Christmas Day dresses. Finally decide on black velvet bodices and green skirts for Em and Ally, red for Kelly. Get the fabric cut and pick up zippers, buttons, and snaps. Only spent $23. For 3 dresses, you can't beat that! Load Kyle and Kelly back into the minivan, did I mention it's been raining all morning? Drive back to town.
10:45- Stop at the post office, I have a few minutes before I need to pick up the twins. One of the few good things about living in a small town is that the post office is rarely busy even at Christmas time. Mailed 2 eBay auctions, realize that I charged too little for shipping on one ($2.50!) Oops.
11:00- Pick the twins up at preschool. Ally found her gloves that she had left there on Monday. Go home since I don't want to wait half an hour in the school parking lot for Zach. Grab the mail: birthday cards (with money) for the twins, a bill and junk mail. Unload the kids into the house. Put the darks into the dryer, whites into the wash. Change diapers. Nuke a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts for chicken noodle soup. Unload the dishwasher. Realize I don't have any chicken broth or bouillen cubes for chicken noodle soup. Blah... Fries and hot dogs then. Put the cooked chicken in the fridge. Call Greg since I haven't talked to him yet today. He's stressed, a snowstorm came through Missouri so he can't get a flight out until tomorrow. So he plans to rent a car and drive to Tulsa OK to catch a flight today to Maryland. Yikes! Make him promise to call me as soon as he gets somewhere. Call my mom and ask her to pray for Greg's safe travels. Stress about Greg and hope everything starts going right for him. Put the french fries in the oven to cook. Load the kids back into the minivan.
11:30- Pick Zach up at school. At home, nuke the hotdogs and pull the fries out of the oven. Dish out lunch. Then unload the minivan (sippy cups, diaper bag, JoAnn bag). Make my lunch and come downstairs to check my emails. Send a few out concerning eBay auctions. Back upstairs to dish out seconds for the kids. Check my Delphi forums. Kids finish lunch so I turn on the TV. Put Kelly down for her nap. Sit down to blog this...
1:00- Take the darks out of the dryer and put whites in. Clean up the kitchen from lunch. Change Kyle's poopy diaper. Start folding darks on my bed. I hear yelling from downstairs, go referee the kids. Realize both lights are now burnt out in the family room, it's not because the kids turned out the lights again. Go back to folding the laundry and finish. Fill sippy cup for Kyle, he follows me around while I hang up coats, sort through hats and mittens (missing Kyle's, hmm), find an Easter basket to hold them (mental note: find something a little more appropriate), go through the kids' backpacks and pull out papers, sort and pitch the ones I'm not keeping for their scrapbooks.
1:30- Blog. Fill out Zach's "Do the 'Wright' Thing: Read!" Log Sheet. We live in Ohio so the school is doing a Read a 100 Books during the school year program (it's the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight, hence the "Wright" and 100. They worked in Dayton Ohio so it's a big deal around here). Zach is determined to be the top kindergarten reader. He's reading all these books himself although kindergartners and 1st graders can have the books read to them instead. My aunt just gave me all her kids' old books (like 5 grocery bags full!) so it seems like Zach has been reading constantly for the last few days. His teacher says he's at the beginner 2nd grade reading level at the moment. His favorites are Dr. Seuss books. :)
2:10- Rest! Lay on the couch and snuggle with Kyle while discussing previous and future Halloween costumes with the big 3.
2:20- Fold whites and put away all the clothes. Admire the empty laundry basket but know it'll be filled in less than 6 hours again. Referee another fight between the kids. Then it's time to get ready to go out for the twins' 5 year check up appointment at 3pm. "Go potty, get your shoes on, jackets!" Wake Kelly up from her nap (hate doing that), change diapers and load the kids into the minivan. Grab another Mountain Dew for me, so much for kicking that habit. I don't think I could do all this without a shot of caffeine and sugar.
2:50- Arrive at Ped's office. It's raining again. The sick waiting area is packed, great... Overhear Dr. Scott telling the receptionist no more sick appointments today. The kids stay semi-calm in the waiting room.
3:30- Called back finally. First weight, height, blood pressure, seeing and hearing tests. Ally's 1lb and 1/4" bigger than Emily. Grab a little cup of crayons when we're shown into our room. Answer more questions while the kids color on the white paper covering the examining table. Dr. Scott comes in and we discuss the girls' eczema. They are fine most of the year but once winter hits, they dry up so quickly the poor things. He writes a scrip for a steriod cream (I'll fill it tomorrow) and gives me a ton of free samples of lotion. Shot time! 3 each but they are done until their boosters at 11 years old. Only a few tears and the nurse promises them 3 stickers each.
4:10- Drive to Krogers for the promised candy bars since they were good and Em and Ally had shots. Taking 5 kids into the grocery store is so much fun. (NOT!) Picked up bouillen cubes and chapstick because Em's lips are chapped. Impatiently waited for the kids to chose a candy bar. *sigh* Went through the U-Scan line and back out into the rain.
4:30- Drop off Block Buster dvd and argue with Zach. "Dad said next time we're at Block Buster I can rent a video game!" That means next time you and Dad are at Block Buster, not next time Mom with all 5 kids drops off a dvd in the drive-thru box. Then argue with Zach that I can't make the radio station play Christmas music just because he wants to hear it (and the radio is mine, damnit! I'm not flipping stations).
4:50- Home. Unload kids, throw away candy bar wrappers and try to collect all of Kelly's wheat cracker crumbs out of her carseat. Walk downstairs and realize I totally forgot to buy lightbulbs for the family room (needs flood light type bulbs). Shit! I'll pull some lamps out of other rooms later. Sit down to nurse Kelly because my boobs hurt. I hate the weaning process. Talk to Greg on the cell phone, he's in Tulsa waiting on his flight to Detriot to Maryland. He's getting a free ticket out of this mess but was suppose to arrive in Baltimore at 1:30 today, now it'll be 9 tonight. Blog. Yell at whining, whistling kids and try to rub away a tension headache. Veg out in front of the computer catching up at the About.com SAHP forum and my Delphi forums.
5:40- Put 2 lamps in the family room on the end tables. Hope the kids don't mess with them. Make dinner: "Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup" 1. Boil 2 quarts water with 8 chicken bouillen cubes. Add 8oz package of wide egg noodles and cook for 10 minutes. 2. Add 3 cups cooked cubed chicken and 2 cans cream of chicken soup. Stir until well mixed and heated through. 3. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup sour cream. Meanwhile put Kelly in her high chair with wheat crackers and milk. Played "Pick up Sippy Cup" as Kelly tossed it over the high chair several times. Yelled at the kids to pick up their toys and books. Yelled again a few minutes later when they weren't doing it.
6:15- Serve dinner. Kyle doesn't want to eat. Blah... Dished up a bowl for me and came down to the computer to print out some eBay stuff and check email. Blog. Yell at the kids acting like lunatics in the kitchen. Serve them and myself seconds.
6:40- Kids are done with dinner. Clean up kitchen. Pull out fabric and sewing patterns. Iron fabric and cut apart pattern tissue for Kelly's dress. Hear Kyle picking on Kelly. Go downstairs and talk and cuddle with the kids for twenty minutes until they are bored of me. Back to cutting fabric for dress.
7:30- Start baths for the kids. I have to do all the prep work before I call them up because I don't leave them alone once they are in the water. Gather towels, brushes, PJs, underwear, diapers, q-tips, lotions. Set out tomorrow's clothes in their rooms so they can get dressed right after they wake up. Put on my PJ's.
7:45- Go downstairs to get the kids and find that Kyle has pulled all the toys off the shelves and out of the bins. Maybe Greg's right by calling him the Tazmanian Devil. Turn off TV and order kids to help me pick up toys. Finish and tell them upstairs for baths. Zach takes a shower in my bathroom while Kyle, Em, and Ally get in the kids' tub. Kelly plays near the tub. Blah, blah, bath stuff. Get the twins out, put Kelly in with Kyle. Zach gets out. Kids brush teeth and hair. Put globs of lotion on the twins. They dress while I pull Kelly and Kyle out of the tub. Finally everyone is clean and dressed and in bed. Hugs and kisses and our usual night time ritual. Change into a dry set of PJs cause I'm soaked.
8:15- CLOCK OUT! Made a bowl of Coco Puffs (chocolate fix) and sit at the computer to blog. Since I'm probably done on the computer for the night, next I plan to read my friends' blogs and then finish customizing an eBay paper piecing so I can mail it tomorrow. I might start sewing Kelly's dress, the pattern is a familiar one so I should be okay working this late. (My brain has a bad habit of turning itself off at 11pm). Bedtime for me is between 11pm and 12:30am. And yes, this is a pretty typical day for me. *sigh*
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