A Day in My Life

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

6 am: Alarm rings, interrupting a dream I was having of him. I've actually dreamed of him the last several nights, which I don't find helpful to my emotional state. And on my mind as I awake is the same thought I had as I fell asleep, "I've had enough growth and learning experience to last me a while. Can things please go back to the way they are supposed to be? I need a fairy godmother with a magic wand."

6:05 I head downstairs to work out. When I get downstairs I turn off the switch on my furnace for a few seconds before switching it back on. (For the last week or so, when I turn my thermostat down the furnace won't turn back on and heat up the house when I turn the thermostat back up unless I do a hard reset by flipping the switch on and off.) I change my mind about what workout to do because I'm just not up to being ripped by Jillian, so I just do a 20 minute aerobic thing instead.

6:30 Make sure Emily is up and then head upstairs to shower and get dressed.

7:00 Flip the hall light on, which actually turns on the first try. (There is some sort of wiring short and it usually takes multiple attempts to get it to come on, if I can get it at all.) I then wake up the boys.

7:05 Put on my makeup then head to the boys bathroom to help comb hair and supervise all the morning bathroom stuff. I could really use 2 sinks in that bathroom, what with 3 boys all trying to get ready at the same time.

7:15 Time for scripture reading. Ryan is crying because he doesn't get to sit with him so he ends up in his room for a couple of minutes.

7:20 A minute or so long little guided mediation thing I do with the kids. They don't seem to enjoy it, but I keep doing it anyway.

7:25 Make Emily's lunch and send her out the door at 7:30. Get breakfast for the kids and start in on the rest of the lunches.

7:35 I'm nearly in tears because I can't get the new jam jar open. Ryan is in real tears because he's very upset he won't be able to have a jam sandwich for lunch.

7:40 I get the lid off the jam jar and enjoy listening to David and Josh excitedly plan the game they are going to play together, with some other friends, at recess today. It's nice to see them getting along. I resist packing a cookie in my lunch. (I've decided to not eat sugar for a month since I've been a total addict lately.)

7:45 Head upstairs to dry my hair.

7:50 Finish up everything to get the kids out the door, and eat a piece of toast for breakfast. Help Benjamin brush his teeth, and wash his face.

8:10 The boys head out the door to school and I go upstairs to finish styling my hair. I feel like I haven't been having great hair days lately and today is no exception. I need my hairstylist (my sister,) to come up here from Vegas!

8:25 Gather up all the stuff I need for work and the toys Benjamin wants to take to the sitters: animals, zoo, etc.

8:30 Drop Benjamin off at my friend's house who watches him and head to work. I get a lot of good green lights and make good time, and I even find a parking spot! This is not a given when you come in at 9, there's not a lot of parking, and there is packed snow taking up several parking spots.

8:55 I enjoy the sun and lots of birds happily singing on my nice little walk to in-doors.

9-2 Work. I'm fairly busy. I work on getting our semi-annual performance evaluations in our online HR system and even get a problem with the system finally corrected. My office mate has music playing the whole time and unfortunately most of it today was sappy love stuff like Air Supply singing "I just can't go on without you." Not particularly helpful.

2:00 I decide as I'm heading out that I don't really want to go to Costco today and that it can wait till tomorrow. I enjoy my trip home, taking in the gloriously wonderful day with the most amazing blue skies and singing along to Love Shack.

2:30 Check my email and facebook, bank account, write some of this blog post, etc.

3:10 I flip the switch off and on on the heater again since it didn't turn on when I came home from work. Then I go upstairs to put on my pj's because I don't plan to go anywhere else today and after being dressed up for work I'm ready to be comfortable. Then I do some reading until the kids come home. One of the books I'm reading right now is titled the Myth of Tomorrow. (Live life to it's fullest right now.)

4:00 The kids come home carrying lots of noise and busyness into the house. I go down to supervise homework. I have lots of upset children, particularly David, because it's a "fruit day" for snack. I resist eating a cookie.

4:15 My knees have been bothering me again for a while, so I decide today is a good day to start back up on my physical therapy exercises for them while I'm supervising homework. Encourage David to concentrate on finishing up his book report so he can go to scouts tonight.

4:40 Run Ryan over to his friend's house to play. Encourage David to concentrate on finishing up his book report so he can go to scouts tonight.

5:00 Check my email and enjoy listening to this song my friend posted on my facebook page. It makes me chuckle. Every once in a while it's nice to live vicariously through someone meaner than I am. Benjamin feel asleep around 3:00 and is still asleep so it has been a calmer afternoon than usual. Though I'm sure bed time with him won't be fun.

5:10 Encourage David to concentrate on finishing up his book report so he can go to scouts tonight. Read a little more of my book.

5:30 Encourage David to concentrate on finishing up his book report so he can go to scouts tonight. Start dinner. Go pick up Ryan in the middle of making dinner.

5:50 The natives are starting to get restless. David and Ryan are fighting with each other over a marker and then over the kitchen timer. Ryan yells at me that he wont sit down at the table till the garlic bread is on the table.

6:00 Dinner. Spaghetti and garlic bread because garlic bread is one of the very few things all my kids will eat. Emily makes Orange Julius using the recipe she got when she made it in her home ec. class last week. At dinner I go around the table and ask all the kids their favorite and least favorite thing from the day. I learn that Josh had fun playing his "spy game" at recess and thinks he did well on the test her took. Emily has a grade of 106% in home ec. David enjoyed his field trip to the story telling festival. Benjamin had fun at the zoo. (The sitter took him to the zoo today.) Ryan had fun at recess and music.

6:20 Call the person who would be picking up David for scouts to tell him David won't be going because he has to finish a book report. Try to get the kids to do their jobs of sweeping, clearing the table, etc. while I do the dishes.

6:30 My home teacher comes over and the boys act like total wild hooligans. As a single mother I've now been kicked up into the High Priests and my home teachers are now actually a married couple in the ward, though he's just come from work tonight so he's solo. He talks for a few minutes about his daughter that is leaving on a mission in a month to France.

6:50 Encourage David to finish his book report so he won't have late/missing assignments and then have to face more consequences. I finish the dishes, get the kids to finish their jobs and give them a cookie. David is stomping around and hitting walls because I tell him he can have his cookie in a little bit after he has demonstrated he's working diligently. I resist eating a cookie.

7:00 Send Emily off to Young Womens and Joshua up to take a shower. I sit down at the computer for a couple of minutes.

7:15 Encourage David to finish his book report. Go upstairs and get the bath ready for Ryan and Benjamin. While they enjoy playing in the bath I do some journaling. I can hear them in the bath playing and I suddenly realize Ryan is saying, "Die bastard!" I go into the bathroom and very calmly and kindly explain to him that is a bad word and so we don't say it. He looks at me for a minute then says ok and the issue is quickly resolved. I'm pleased with how I handled it and un-thrilled that my 6 year old has seen things that have exposed him to the phrase.

7:45 Wash the little boys, get them out of the bath and in pj's. Read them a bed time story. I manage to get the hall light turned on after about 15 attempts thus avoiding the hysterics that accompany it being "too dark." All the boys are tucked into bed by 8 pm. I resist eating a cookie.

8:15 Emily gets home and taunts me with a big cookie she brought home. I kiss her good night and send her to bed. I watch an episode of Bones on huluPlus (the cable went months ago,) and ride the stationary bike for 25 minute of the show for my knees. The ending is all romantic and it makes me sad and lonely. I used to be a regular evening tv watcher but have hardly watched any tv in the last 6 months. Just a few episodes here and there.

9:20 Check email one more time and then head up to my room for the night. I check on the kids and discover Benjamin is in Ryan's bed and Ryan is in Benjamin's bed. I take Melatonin to help me fall asleep. I cry a little bit for a couple of minutes because this is so hard emotionally. I read some of another book I'm reading, Wherever You Go There You Are (meditation.)

10 pm Turn off the light and meditate for a few minutes before falling asleep alone. This night I dream of spring - all the snow has melted in my yard and I'm preparing to plant my garden!


If you read all of this you probably deserve some type of award!