When you read a blog, you get a little glimpse into the writer's life, but have you ever wondered what happens the rest of the day? This month, all of the Green Moms Carnival members will be writing about a day in their life, so you can see what our real lives are like.
I decided to write about yesterday (what we call "Momma's Big Jobs Day") because I do laundry and bake bread on Mondays, so it seemed like it would be a consistent and predictable day to write about. But of course, nothing happened like I expected it to happen. Welcome to my chaos.
Monday
6:45 - I can hear the boys giggling in their bedroom. I yell, "Go back to sleep," roll over and try to do exactly that. I am not a good sleeper, so at this point, I've been drifting in and out since 5:00 or so.
7:15 - I can still hear the boys playing in their room, and then finally the oldest knocks on my door - "I'm hungry." I mumble, "I'm coming..."
7:45 - I finally get up, help the two-year-old out of his crib, change him into underpants, and then start breakfast while my husband showers. We eat oatmeal,
granola, or toast during the week and only eat boxed cereal on the weekends. I instruct one kid to put out the placemats, the other to get the scriptures, and as soon as breakfast is ready, we take turns reading while eating.
8:15 - After breakfast, I get lazy and loaf on the couch instead of showering while my husband makes his lunch - leftovers packed in
whatever mismatched storage containers he can find.
8:30 - My husband starts off on his walk to work. One of the reasons we chose our house is its close proximity to my husband's office, my son's school, the library, children's museum, parks, and downtown. Toward the end of the school year, we started slacking and driving in the mornings, but now that my oldest is out of school for the summer, my husband is back to walking to work.
9:00 - Into the shower (
still no poo) with the door open so I can keep an ear out for the boys. The two-year-old hangs out in the bathroom with me, playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain.
9:30 - A friend drops off her two boys. She teaches my oldest piano lessons in exchange for me watching her kids once a week. This arrangement saves me at least $80 a month. As soon as the boys are busy playing, I get the laundry going and then grind some flour in our hand grinder. It's a long story why I'm grinding flour by hand, and although it's a good workout, I can't wait until we can buy an electric grinder. After an hour of grinding, I take the kids to our neighborhood playground.
12:30 - My friend picks up her boys, and we end up chitchatting for a half hour. We see each other twice a week and there's still always something to say. :)
1:00 - The two-year-old has been whiny all day and I consider just sending him to bed, but instead I make lunch - burritos because I haven't gotten the bread made yet today.
1:30 - The little one goes down for a nap. Phew! The oldest and I take turns reading from
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He goes to practice the piano while the five-year-old practices reading from a BOB book. Then they both do their chores.
2:00 - Most days, I read a bit at this point (or catnap), but Mondays are really busy. The loads of pants and shirts are ready to be
hung up to dry, the towels need folded, and I've still got to get the bread and yogurt going. When the boys finish their chores, they take turns playing on the computer.
3:45 - The little guy wakes up from his nap and thankfully is in a much better mood. During the school year, this is when we would walk to pick up my oldest from school, but today I decide that we need to make a run to the grocery store for oats so I can make granola. It takes us 30 minutes to get everyone out the door (why???), so by the time we get to the store, it's 4:30. While we're there, I pick up some milk so I won't have to make another grocery trip this week - the rest of our food will come from our pantry and CSA.
5:30 - I heat up some homemade pizza from the freezer for dinner since I'm so far behind on bread-making tonight (normally, I'd use some of my bread dough to make fresh pizza).
6:15 - Get two loaves of bread ready for second rise and shape the rest of the dough into bagels. Then I unload the dishwasher.
6:40 - My husband arrives home from work, scarfs down dinner, and we have
Family Home Evening. During lulls in the lesson, I finish up making the bagels and bake the bread. Then my husband gets the boys ready for bed while I do dishes.
8:30 - I write this blog post, check my email, skim through Facebook, catch up on my Google Reader, and then settle onto the couch to read while my husband watches TV. (He's working tonight, but usually he'll fold the last load of laundry. I decide to save it for tomorrow.)
10:30 - My husband and I read our Sunday School lesson together.
11:00 - Lights out.
By the end of the day on most Mondays, I've washed and put away four loads of laundry, vacuumed/swept the livingroom, and made yogurt, granola, two loaves of bread, pizza, and some other bread products. It makes for a long, busy day, but it means that I rarely have to turn on my oven the rest of the week, all of our clothes are clean, my house looks fairly neat, and the boys and I can spend our time playing instead of working.
When I've told people about my Big Jobs Day in the past, I often get asked, "What do you do with your kids?" I don't do anything with my kids. They know that Mondays are my Big Jobs Day, and they keep themselves entertained, knowing that if I get all of my jobs done, they'll be able to spend more time at the library, playgroup, and children's museum the rest of the week. If they get bored, I invite them to help me do my jobs...and that usually knocks the boredom right out of them.
Do you have a big jobs day? Or do you spread your chores out throughout the week? What do you prefer?
You can read about a day in the life of more
Green Moms on June 21st at
Fake Plastic Fish.
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