A day in the life - when K has a break from school and doesn't have to work

The phone alarm at 6:30am lets me know it is time to wake R for school.  I touch his arm to wake him, despite the fact that last night he said "nobody can wake me up in the morning, NOBODY!"

R - "I said NOBODY could wake me up!"

"Good morning love, see you downstairs in a bit"

His bed head makes me smile as he makes his grand entrance downstairs.  I'm already putting together his lunch for school, his breakfast of poppyseed muffin is on the table - cut in half, the only way he will eat it.  "Good morning mom, I'm ready for breakfast"

The boys sit together at the table and eat breakfast. 

Clearly R is NOT a morning person, but once the initial wake up is over, his mood drastically changes.

It was 21 degrees this morning so I drove R to the bus, K came along for the ride, causing R to comment that "K says he sees the stars or moon twenty-two-five-thousand times, and it gets annoying!" What can I say, K loves astronomy.

We waved goodbye as R got on the bus, I snuck in a quick kiss, I always do.  He says "moooom" in that annoyed, yet I know he likes it still, sort of way.

We got home from drop off, and I decided to reclaim my living room floor.  I kept K busy for a bit, as I told him to try and find all the sneaky socks that were hiding in the pile, then try to match them up.  He (mostly) did a great job.  That mountain of laundry is folded.  I counted 11 dryer sheets, which means ELEVEN loads were sitting there on the floor, wrinkled and clean.  For the moment my laundry room was empty.  A huge accomplishment.  It filled up quickly though...

J woke up at 8:30am - changed her diaper, then went downstairs for breakfast.  K always eats a second breakfast with J.  Chocolate milk (milk mixed with instant breakfast), and Cheerios...always.

After breakfast, it was playdoh time.  That lasted an hour.  Seriously.  These toddlers are OBSESSED.  Then we went for an outdoor adventure walk, they were annoyed they had to wear hat and gloves.

We came back and K asked to vacuum.  Seriously.  He likes to do it.  And similar to the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" K's vacuum job turned into wanting to wipe the mirrors down, then put away clothes, then sweep the floors.

So, my house is now clean.  Let me elaborate, clean in the sense that K helped me wipe down the bathroom mirrors - so clean with streaks, and K vacuumed the front room - so maybe more missed spots than vacuumed, and J helped pick up the toystore  play room explosion - so maybe more mixed up toys in bins than organized, and J helped "seep a floor" - which really consists of her spreading everything I swept up back around the floor.  So maybe my standard of clean doesn't equate to the kind of clean that a cleaning service would offer, but the current state of my house is clean, and I'm happy.  The streaks, the missed spots, the kitchen dust bunnies, the unorganized toy bins, the way it gets messy before it is really clean, clean...I love our house, and the people who make it a home.

Perhaps this mornings line up - playdoh, chilly outdoor adventure (it was 26 degrees for our walk) and then the enormous cleaning spree was a little too much activity for my toddlers.  There are flash cards and color crayons/books that didn't get picked up before naptime - we stretched our morning out too long, and had to abandoned the activity mid session related to an all out brawl over the purple crayon.  Purple.  He didn't even know which color it was, but she had it, and so of course he wanted it.  So I whisked them upstairs.  He fell asleep, woke up 3 hours later sobbing because his bed was wet.  Then the sob-fest intensified as I had to wash all the blankets, including his most special brown blankies.

We got R from the bus stop, came home to have a snack - apples, fruit snacks, and Cheeze-its.  R talked about PE, and how he didn't want to do his homework right now, and asked me to play angry birds.

A fight over the angry birds (between brothers) ended that activity, and was the start of some much needed quiet time for my kindergartener.  K got bored and remembered he wanted his blanket from earlier, so we switched it into the dryer.  

He is sitting in front of the dryer waiting for them.  Seriously.

J is writing on a post-it note, left handed, sitting on my lap as I type.  A post-it note with P scribbles of random to-do stuff.  He leaves them everywhere.  I hope this to-do list was done.  If not, it is not legible anymore.

We all played in the play room, were we messed up the cleanliness that it once was earlier in the day.  But they had fun, and played well together for almost 2 whole hours - which given the high activity of the day is a win.

P was at work, and got home in time to tuck them in.  So I faked a dinner to span out the time that I could be doing something with my kids instead of cooking.  Tuna and crackers, and fruit (bananas, grapes, and raspberries).  It is nice doing dinner that way every once in a while because I know each and every one of them will eat it.

Bathtime happened at 6pm, with bubbles because we do bathtime right around here.  Then I slathered em' up with lotion because this dry, cold weather is just nasty to their skin.  Then it was time for  books - R read one of them, and then bed.  J always needs her blanket, doll and kitty cat (stuffed animal), R will only cover up with his angry birds blanket, and then sleep on the left side of his bed (since it is a school night, he sleeps on the right on the weekends...weird I know), K will need his blankies and then say "after night-night we'll got to the swings at the park," (even though we don't do that every day, he asks to do it every.single.night).

I run on the treadmill - 6 miles cause I'm trying to get back into marathon shape.  P works.

Shower, and then relax watching TV - because at the moment I don't have homework.

Bed by midnight, because I'm not working.  Woot.