My day started at 5:30 AM, up and at em' to get Tony off to work for his newest road trip. (Don't ask where, I can't keep track, lol) Anywho...out of the house by 6 AM, stop for a cup of the good stuff - super extreme extra caffeinated coffee, with a splash of french vanilla creamer. Then we're on our way for a 40 minute drive, one way, to drop off Tony and his bag of clothes at work. Then, turn right around and head back home. On the way home, I call Brooke and wake her up and she in turn gets all the kids up so they can at least get breakfast in before I get home.
I arrive home at 7:20 AM, making sure teeth are brushed, and back packs are located along with their shoes. Now it's Wednesday, so it's a walking school bus morning. (This is a program run by the school and human services department. The goal is to get kids, not on the bus route, up and moving. It promotes a healthy lifestyles and a safe environment.) The police and fire departments ride along all the walking routes to make sure everyone stays safe) I volunteer (because y kids walk everyday anyway) and we're the furthest house on the 'walking school bus'. We make 3 stops to pick up other children along the way before we meet up with another 'walking school bus' of kids and parents and we then finish up our walk to school.
So out the door of the house we go by 7:35 AM so we pick up our other stops on time. We arrive at school by 7:55 AM, I kiss the kids good-bye and Brandon, Nicole and I head on back home. Now today was appointment filled so my most awesome sister came to babysit this morning, relieving me of some of my headache. We get back home by 8:10 AM and off I go to the doctor for my physical therapy on my back (p.s. - bestest person EVER! is my physical therapist, at least on Wednesday mornings at 8:30 AM he is!). Finish up and head back home by 9:30 AM. Get home, grab the papers that I will need for the rest of the day and back out the door I go to my next doctor’s appointment. Stop back at the gas station for a refill of my extremely caffeinated coffee and back on the road again. Doctor appointment at 10:45 AM, finish up by 11 AM, and head over to gram's to meet my mom and have a much needed cup of tea!
Leave there at noon, meet up with my sister and the 2 kids, run her on her errands and finish up by 1:30 PM. On to the next one! Drive to Nicole's appointment for 2 PM until 3 PM, leave there, head straight home so I can get there before all the kids get home from school and destroy what's left of my clean house! Home by 3:30 PM, kids every where (dang it, they beat me home!), food every where and utter chaos. Get the mess cleaned up, shoo the kids outside to get their chores done, and get everything together for dinner. Damn!!! Missing items for taco night....ugh!
Leave the house at 4:40 PM, run to the grocery store for 3 items. Stop at the ball diamond and pick Brooke up from softball practice at 5 PM. Head back home and start making dinner. At this point, it's fairly quiet. Some kids are outside doing yard work, others are upstairs playing school and 1 is driving me insane with his negative attitude. Soooo, now inside play time is over and I send ALL the kids outside for yard clean up until dinner is done...which means the neighbor girl has to go home.
Wait for it............yup, here it comes, super meltdown mode by my Gift from God #2. Full blown meltdown. Someday I'll video tape one, when I remember to. Crying, tears, screaming bloody murder for the whole town to hear, stomping, hitting, more screaming, more crying....and me snapping. I tell her to get in the house, make a sandwich with some crackers and head to bed. More screaming because she "didn't even do anything wrong"....more stomping...all together about a 15 minute tirade. Then silence....Nana is here!! YAY, save my sanity one more time! Two kids headed out the door at 6 PM, 1 kid calmed down after talking to her Nana, and 4 others just waiting for the floods to recede and know that it's safe to come in again.
6:15 PM dinner is ready. By 6:45 everyone is finished eating and it's clean up time. Boys in the shower, girls on dish duty and the little man jabbering away to whomever will listen to him. The 2 boys take turns reading to
We do staggered bedtimes here. It is way too hard to get 5 kids to bed at the same time. All three boys have an 8 o'clock bedtime. Teeth brushed, showered and pj'd up, it's bed time. Books are read, backs are rubbed, kisses and hugs are given - over and over, good nights are said, love yous too....time for lights out by 8:10 PM.
Wait for it.....feet pounding down the steps...<sigh> "Moooooooommmmmmmm" so and so has done this or said this or won't do this, potty breaks are needed, more people are doing this and that. Tyler and Nathan don't even sleep in the same room!!! They're not even on the same side of the house!! AHHHHH!!!! Not getting to bed at bedtime = early bedtime the next night. The problem...they never learn!!
Is this just a boy thing? The girls go to bed fairly easy and I'm pretty sure they always have, unless I've blocked out something in my memory. Now don't get me wrong....Nicole very rarely sleeps. BUT, she stays in her room (or more often than not, on her sisters floor), she reads, and in the middle of the night she wanders. In the same breath, Nicole's reasons for not sleeping are a completely different subject and reasoning behind it. It's not that she doesn't want to sleep; she just can't most of the time. But she doesn't go around the house waking everyone up, tattling for no reason (and tattling at bedtime does no good, because then you're out of bed and in trouble too). The boys have yet to figure any of this out. Brooke gets in bed, reads and goes to sleep....why can't my boys?!
So here it is 8:47 PM, it's now been about 15 minutes since one of the boys has come down for any reason. The girls are upstairs playing together and have bedtime in 13 minutes. At that point, I will probably crawl into bed and just crash. Is it bedtime yet??
