Stay at home mom…

Wow!  I’m not sure why but February and March were crazy and I blogged none!  Not that my life is any slower today, in fact that is what my entry is about.  At the end of each day (being when all three of my kiddos are snoring, yes snoring just like their dad) I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing and everything all at once.  So today I decided to keep a running log of all my day entails and it has even surprised me!  Well here it goes, please don’t judge me I’m doing my best I promise!

A.M.

6:16 – Woke up to Katie excitedly telling me she wore her big girl panties all night with no accident and in her excitement peed my bed telling me about her accomplishment… sigh

6:17-6:45 – bathing me and Katie, changing our clothes, throwing the peed on clothes in the hamper, stripping the sheets, cleaning the bed with my upholstery steam cleaner, drying the bed with towels, putting new sheets on the bed…

6:45 – realizing Katie is crying and assuring her that I love her and am not upset with her, she did a great job all night and next time she can just run to the bathroom first before coming to tell me and it will be fine, that I love her and am proud of her and don’t mind changing my sheets before 7 am.  I kissed and hugged her and my mommy heart was full 🙂

7:00 – Bella comes in with her first disaster of the day her tiny baby bear she “stole” from my mom’s house is missing… so off to search the covers, pillows, toys and blankets for a very small white bear that will make or break Bella’s day

7:08- Bear found!  Inside of a large fish toy that has a way to shove things in his belly (he is a stuffed Jonah and the Big Fish play set, so you can take Jonah in and out of the Big fish’s stomach… gross I know)  So I rescued Bell’s bear from the bowels of the fish and the girls did a lot of giggling and celebration dancing and singing the Jonah song (you know the who did? who did? who did? who did? who did swallow Jo Jo Jonah…, no?  well you would think it is cute)

7:10- Went to get Noah from his crib, as always my sweet boy was super happy to see me (all my worries melt away when I see his deep love for his momma) and reached for me with mucus covered hands… wait… yes mucus covered hands.  Upon closer examination of my sweet 10 month old’s face I realized it definitely looks like he has been attacked by a slime monster and I sigh realizing the third bath of the morning is in order. 

7:12 – I undress Noah, rush him to the bathroom (hey, he is a boy) and he laughs and giggles the whole time obviously unphased by the large amounts of mucus and grossed out mom.  I sing songs to him while bathing him trying to sneak in something semi-educational (ABCs, Jesus loves me, twinkle twinkle and his favorite lately patty cake). 

7:20- bath over and rush him to his room (again, boy) and diaper him fast.  Pick him back up to find some clothes, then dress him fully knowing that after breakfast and much more snot he will need another outfit… but he is so handsome and clean right now I play peek a boo with my happy son, his giggle is the most amazing sound.

7:34- holding a clean, dressed baby happy with my efforts I sadly realize the girls are quiet and a panic comes over me… I run to their room to find them standing in the middle of a pile of ever piece of clothing from their dressers and closet.  Hang up clothes, pants, skirts, shorts, pjs, socks, shoes, underwear, tights and my girls standing on top of this small mountain with expressions of pride and joy.  I took a deep breath and walked back to Noah’s room, put him in the crib with three or four toys. 

7:38- Went to my room, shut the door and made the bed and cleaned my room (my own calming down, I know strange) while repeating some Bible verses about patience and the fruit of the spirit (something my dad used to make me do when he found me being impatient)

7:45- went back in the girls room and calmly asked them to help me pick up all the clothes and help me fold them, hang them, match them and put it all back where it belongs.  All the while telling myself (and them) this was an opportunity to teach them about taking care of our clothes and keeping them nice because we need to be good stewards, not screaming that it was way too early for this type of crazy.

8:53- second guessing writing this inventory of my day… take a deep breath and try to encourage the girls (and myself) that it will be a great day despite our morning and we all head downstairs with a positive attitude for breakfast.  I put everyone in their chair/highchair/booster seat

9:00- make Katie and Bella “chocolate milkshakes” (chocolate milk) and give it to them.  Give Noah a tray full of cheerios, turn on Bubble Guppies and then set about making breakfast.  Scrambled cheese eggs and yogurt for the girls and rice cereal with apple juice for Noah.  Checked/updated Facebook, got some much-needed encouragement from far away friends,while waited on eggs to heat up.

9:18- Breakfast served/fed.  Had mucus and cereal sneezed on me twice.  (rejoicing always gets hard at times like that for a germaphobe)

9:23- Noah is nauseated from the drainage and he pukes,  I clean him, the chair, me and put him in outfit # 3 for the day…

9:39-Finished answering emails, messages from Facebook while munching on a granola bar (bella took two bites for every one of mine, so I had probably about 1/3 of it).  Researched ear tubes for Noah (I’m an over analyzing parent I know), while the kids colored (each other and the papers I gave them).  Cleaned up my girls.  Cleaned up all the breakfast stuff, cleaned/scrubbed my kitchen table due to beginning to harden spilled yogurt.  Katie ran up and hugged me thanking me for cleaning up (yes my heart melted)

9:50- Fed Noah his bottle (pure bonding wonderfulness), and put him down for morning nap upstairs, grab a load of laundry to take downstairs with me (hey can’t waste trips)

10:03- Bella gets arm stuck in my elliptical machine (screams like she is dying, pretty sure the neighbors are convinced I’m beating the kids with how much they scream)… pry her out, console her, tell her its not a toy, give her an ice buddy (we still freeze their old teething toys for boo boos) and turn on her favorite veggie tale and hold her for a while

10:30- Decide lunch is coming soon, need to start something now.  Bring girls in the kitchen to “cook” at their mini kitchen (Katie said they were making green bean frozen yogurt with carrot topping… yes my kids LOVE veggies and I’m fine with it) while I make my double batch of pizza dough, clean out my fridge, empty and reload the dishwasher, make a grocery list and organize my coupons

11:14- I hear Noah, so I give the girls an art project to do at the table with foam stickers and crayons.  Run upstairs to change a biohazardous diaper, change Noah (into new outfit #4) and wash his once again slimed face.  Poor boy.

11:26- Bring Noah downstairs and put him in his playpen so I can vacuum from the girls/breakfast so he can play on the floor without choking on some tiny piece of food or toy (mostly Barbie shoes).  Put him in the middle of the floor after putting away all the girls toys and putting out some blocks for him to ignore and crawl to the coffee table and chew on it…. thankfully he still only has two bottom teeth! 

11:35- Roll out pizza dough and breadsticks, make and begin baking lunch.  Get interrupted several times by my girls insisting I dress their naked Barbies so they can go to a Ball.  Try to launch my favorite Christian Radio station 89.7 power fm, only to turn the screen of our dinosaur of a computer to see the blue screen of death and I want to weep a little (fourth time this week and its only Wednesday)  reboot and pray.

12:10- pizza taken out of the oven and cut into adult and kid pieces (yes they are very different, I use cookie cutters to make “shape pizzas” of their choice) make Noah some baby food.  Fight all three to get them to the table and back in their chair/highchair/booster seat, promising a yummy lunch and dessert of fruit later.  Ended up having a good conversation about obeying God and parents.  Katie prayed, “Thank you God for our food, guinea pigs, eggs, toenails, slides and Noah’s booger face”  (I stifled my laugh not wanting to discourage her prayer and cherished the sweet innocence of her talking to God so honestly)

12:30- feed all three kids, jumping up constantly for a napkin, clean a spill, extra piece of cheese, wipe sauce out of Bella’s hair, repeating over and over for Bell to stop trying to pick Noah’s obviously runny nose even if it looks like he needs it.  After all this I’m not hungry (booger-fest did me in), so I give Noah a bottle and take them all up to bed for nap time. 

1:00- silence…..  breathe…..

1:01- rush around doing laundry, cleaning the massacre that is my dinning room table after two toddlers and a baby have eaten lunch there.  Sweep and vacuum again, pick up the toys again (I’m pretty sure they explode out of the toy box randomly even without my kids help sometimes, because they can be everywhere when I’ve never seen the kids get them out)

1:58 – my first trip to the bathroom of the day alone (I don’t have time to drink, but I’ve refilled at least 12 juice/milk cups and three bottles at this point in my day)

2:00- look in the mirror and realize my face is pale because I’ve been not sleeping but 2 or 3 hrs a night lately mostly due to sinus junk and I feel kinda faint, so I go to my room to lay down.

2:02- (I KNOW they have some kind of radar that goes off when I dare to sit/lay down) I hear a thump, boom, boom, boom, boom…. running in my room is Bella who I forgot to put in a pull up before nap has peed her bed….

2:03- cleaning Belle, and now everyone has had a bath today  She gives me wet hugs (I can’t make myself stop her, this wont be forever right?) and lots of splashing ensues, soaks me and I have to change again too, and sop up the bathroom floors, teaching Bella to help me wipe up the water.  Let her lay with me in my bed watching Bubble Guppies so I don’t wake up Katie and wait to clean the bed sheets on her bed

2:18- (radar) Katie runs in screaming where is my Bella (oh the drama my girls contain in such small packages)  Reunited I savor the moment seeing them hug each other and tell each other they love each other…. then I remember I must strip, clean and resheet their bed (a maid couldn’t handle my kids)

2:20 – Noah is up from the ruckus and is once again slimed 😦 sigh (outfit #5)

This is where I ended my inventory…. its crazy, but its blessed and I wouldn’t trade it for anything 🙂