(no subject)
There has been a lot of discussion on my LJ friends list the past few days about kids' activities and the angst they can cause. I think I must be somewhat unusual. MOST of the time, I love that my kids are busy doing things they love and don't mind that it sucks up nearly all of my time because...well, I don't know what else to do with my time, I guess.
A day in the life of our little family:
I watch a nearly one year old little girl (M) full time and normally she arrives between 7:30 and 8:30am. I have been watching her for about nine months now. It works out great as she is super easy going and her mother doesn't mind that I drag her all over kingdom come. It has gotten a tad more complicated as she really needs one long nap now and I can't always pull that off for her, so on some days she gets two naps, one of which might be in the car or stroller. But, again, mom doesn't seem to mind, she doesn't seem to be hurt by it and it works out. To start this week, today M arrived at 7:45. She had not eaten so I gave her a bottle and then woke up the other girls. Maria started a theater camp this week that goes from 9am to 3pm. I threw cereal and milk on the counter near the fruit bowl and started packing Maria's lunch and snacks. The girls got dressed, did their hair, and ate. M hung out in the exersaucer or, when Zoe finished getting ready and took pity on her, in the living room playing. I checked the list to make sure Maria had everything and we headed out the door at 8:45. Dropped Maria off and then got home about 9:15. I fed M some breakfast and supervised her playing in the living room, while the other girls messed around reorganizing their room and playing games on their kindles/ipods. At 10am I tried to put M down for a nap which didn't take and then took her to the basement to do some paperwork for the girls' church camp next week. Girls helped supervise M a few times. At one point I told Luci to get her dance stuff on and made a lunch for M, and at 11:00 we left for dance. Luci fed M a bottle in the car because the timing did not allow me to feed her before we left. M fell asleep on the bottle. Dropped Luci at her 45 min dance class and Zoe and I sat in the car while M slept. Zoe played on her Kindle and talked to me non-stop, so I couldn't read my book. Heh. Sent Zoe in to walk Luci out to the car and we drove to Chick Fil A for lunch, a promised treat. M woke up just as we got there, amazingly, so she slept for about an hour and 20 min. total. If she had not woken up, we would have done the drive through and gone home. We ate, including M, the girls played with M in the play area and then we headed home. The girls got serious about organizing areas I had specified in their room, I did some dishes and supervised M playing until 2pm when I gave her another bottle and put her down for another nap. She fell asleep immediately. I then made several phone calls which ate up about an hour, picked up a bit, and told Zoe to get ready for gymnastics. She packed her bag with her snack and water bottle, I woke M at 3:45, changed her and we headed out the door again. Dropped Zoe at the gym for her four hour practice and then picked up Maria from my sister's house which is near the gym. If my niece was not doing the same theater camp, I would have picked Maria up at 3pm, ruining M's nap and having to kill an hour until gym because I didn't want to go home and waste gas. So, this is nice. Maria, Luci, M, and I went to Walmart to pick up the girls' glasses, as Walmart had called earlier saying they were ready. All three girls have glasses now, mostly for reading and school work. Maria may not REALLY need them, but she complains of headaches while reading so we are seeing if it helps. Her 'script is very low. Zoe needed them long ago, but the eye doctor we went to in CO seemed to think she was just hysterical (Victorian sense) or something (I'm not going there right now) and Luci's issue seems to be a new one. Anyway, picked those up and headed back home again. It was 4:30 when we got home, and M was fussing, so I offered her a cookie and when that didn't take, gave her another bottle. Made her much happier and she made us all laugh until her mom showed up at 5:15. Maria asked what was for dinner, so I put some talapia in the oven and pulled out leftover baked potatoes to warm and put green beans on the stove. That is nearly ready, and I am just waiting for the timer to buzz while I write this. We will eat dinner, clean up, and basically relax until 7:45 when I will pick up Zoe from the gym. When we get home, Zoe will eat, all the girls will take showers and go to bed. And I will make sure the house is sanitary for tomorrow and then crash myself.
That is my day. Sometimes we don't have daytime classes at all and only have an insane evening schedule, and currently we are not doing school work which makes things a little weird. There are evenings when I spend three to four hours in the car running from one thing to the next getting the girls where they need to go after a day of school work. Occasionally, but not often, I need to call on my mother, MIL, or sister to make sure everyone gets where they need to go. Now that Brad lives here, we have one or two evenings a week where he takes over at 5pm or so and I'm free to do whatever I want. I haven't had that luxury in a long time and don't really enjoy it all that much to be honest. A couple of times we've tag teamed activities when needed, but he hasn't been here long enough to really get into that. I missed one game of Maria's last soccer season because I couldn't get it all worked out and had to have someone else somewhere. Luckily it was at a time Brad was visiting and he went.
My life revolves around kids' lives. I get that. I'm happy with it for now. In the evenings or in the car I often have time to Facebook, blog, text with friends or chat on the phone, read or plan things. My house is NEVER clean though and laundry? That is a joke. It gets done when people run out of clean underwear. We eat quick meals, lots of lunchmeat rolls, salads, and quick cook things like fish and chicken. If I'm ambitious I put stuff in the crockpot in the morning. Pasta used to be a staple, but when I cut out a lot of grains that habit kind of died. We still eat some grains, but not a ton. We keep a lot of snack foods around and a lot of them are processed things, unfortunately, such as Cliff bars, some granola bars, dried fruit and nuts, chips, etc. Its not perfect and far from what I loved to dream as my ideal before I had kids, but it works. And I'm happy most of the time.
Sometimes...I even get to go to an Indigo Girl concert. :) :) :)
A day in the life of our little family:
I watch a nearly one year old little girl (M) full time and normally she arrives between 7:30 and 8:30am. I have been watching her for about nine months now. It works out great as she is super easy going and her mother doesn't mind that I drag her all over kingdom come. It has gotten a tad more complicated as she really needs one long nap now and I can't always pull that off for her, so on some days she gets two naps, one of which might be in the car or stroller. But, again, mom doesn't seem to mind, she doesn't seem to be hurt by it and it works out. To start this week, today M arrived at 7:45. She had not eaten so I gave her a bottle and then woke up the other girls. Maria started a theater camp this week that goes from 9am to 3pm. I threw cereal and milk on the counter near the fruit bowl and started packing Maria's lunch and snacks. The girls got dressed, did their hair, and ate. M hung out in the exersaucer or, when Zoe finished getting ready and took pity on her, in the living room playing. I checked the list to make sure Maria had everything and we headed out the door at 8:45. Dropped Maria off and then got home about 9:15. I fed M some breakfast and supervised her playing in the living room, while the other girls messed around reorganizing their room and playing games on their kindles/ipods. At 10am I tried to put M down for a nap which didn't take and then took her to the basement to do some paperwork for the girls' church camp next week. Girls helped supervise M a few times. At one point I told Luci to get her dance stuff on and made a lunch for M, and at 11:00 we left for dance. Luci fed M a bottle in the car because the timing did not allow me to feed her before we left. M fell asleep on the bottle. Dropped Luci at her 45 min dance class and Zoe and I sat in the car while M slept. Zoe played on her Kindle and talked to me non-stop, so I couldn't read my book. Heh. Sent Zoe in to walk Luci out to the car and we drove to Chick Fil A for lunch, a promised treat. M woke up just as we got there, amazingly, so she slept for about an hour and 20 min. total. If she had not woken up, we would have done the drive through and gone home. We ate, including M, the girls played with M in the play area and then we headed home. The girls got serious about organizing areas I had specified in their room, I did some dishes and supervised M playing until 2pm when I gave her another bottle and put her down for another nap. She fell asleep immediately. I then made several phone calls which ate up about an hour, picked up a bit, and told Zoe to get ready for gymnastics. She packed her bag with her snack and water bottle, I woke M at 3:45, changed her and we headed out the door again. Dropped Zoe at the gym for her four hour practice and then picked up Maria from my sister's house which is near the gym. If my niece was not doing the same theater camp, I would have picked Maria up at 3pm, ruining M's nap and having to kill an hour until gym because I didn't want to go home and waste gas. So, this is nice. Maria, Luci, M, and I went to Walmart to pick up the girls' glasses, as Walmart had called earlier saying they were ready. All three girls have glasses now, mostly for reading and school work. Maria may not REALLY need them, but she complains of headaches while reading so we are seeing if it helps. Her 'script is very low. Zoe needed them long ago, but the eye doctor we went to in CO seemed to think she was just hysterical (Victorian sense) or something (I'm not going there right now) and Luci's issue seems to be a new one. Anyway, picked those up and headed back home again. It was 4:30 when we got home, and M was fussing, so I offered her a cookie and when that didn't take, gave her another bottle. Made her much happier and she made us all laugh until her mom showed up at 5:15. Maria asked what was for dinner, so I put some talapia in the oven and pulled out leftover baked potatoes to warm and put green beans on the stove. That is nearly ready, and I am just waiting for the timer to buzz while I write this. We will eat dinner, clean up, and basically relax until 7:45 when I will pick up Zoe from the gym. When we get home, Zoe will eat, all the girls will take showers and go to bed. And I will make sure the house is sanitary for tomorrow and then crash myself.
That is my day. Sometimes we don't have daytime classes at all and only have an insane evening schedule, and currently we are not doing school work which makes things a little weird. There are evenings when I spend three to four hours in the car running from one thing to the next getting the girls where they need to go after a day of school work. Occasionally, but not often, I need to call on my mother, MIL, or sister to make sure everyone gets where they need to go. Now that Brad lives here, we have one or two evenings a week where he takes over at 5pm or so and I'm free to do whatever I want. I haven't had that luxury in a long time and don't really enjoy it all that much to be honest. A couple of times we've tag teamed activities when needed, but he hasn't been here long enough to really get into that. I missed one game of Maria's last soccer season because I couldn't get it all worked out and had to have someone else somewhere. Luckily it was at a time Brad was visiting and he went.
My life revolves around kids' lives. I get that. I'm happy with it for now. In the evenings or in the car I often have time to Facebook, blog, text with friends or chat on the phone, read or plan things. My house is NEVER clean though and laundry? That is a joke. It gets done when people run out of clean underwear. We eat quick meals, lots of lunchmeat rolls, salads, and quick cook things like fish and chicken. If I'm ambitious I put stuff in the crockpot in the morning. Pasta used to be a staple, but when I cut out a lot of grains that habit kind of died. We still eat some grains, but not a ton. We keep a lot of snack foods around and a lot of them are processed things, unfortunately, such as Cliff bars, some granola bars, dried fruit and nuts, chips, etc. Its not perfect and far from what I loved to dream as my ideal before I had kids, but it works. And I'm happy most of the time.
Sometimes...I even get to go to an Indigo Girl concert. :) :) :)