The ONLY thing that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other and trudging through life is knowing that one day, my kids will leave home and I will wake up and wonder what I'm going to do with my day. That day is years away.
Here is what my day looked like:
Sam is out of town (Don't come murder us--by the time you read this, he will be home.)
7:00 a.m. wake up and rush around to get four kids ready to go for the day (no time to shower myself!)
8:00 a.m. Dentist appointment for three older kids. Buster doesn't feel well and cries the whole time. Ryan screams bloody murder and refuses to get in the chair. Somehow at the end of the appointment, the dentist ends up holding Buster and the hygienist is holding Ryan and I'm empty handed. I don't know how that happened.
9:15 a.m. Drop Luke off to school.
9:30 a.m. Drop Sammie off to ballet
9:45 a.m. Go to my mom's house and drop off a Christmas tree (d0n't ask!) and proofread an invitation for her.
10:15 a.m. Pick up Sammie from ballet and pick up bagels because the kids are screaming for them. Ask for a side of butter. Realize as you leave the drive-thru that they don't give you a knife. Listen to the kids scream for butter all the way home.
11:00 a.m. Get Sammie ready for school. Help her make a birthday card for a friend. Nurse the baby.
11:30 a.m Sammie gets picked up.
noon-3:00 p.m. Blur of crying baby, nursing, crying two-year-old, cleaning up messes, laundry, phone calls.
3:00 p.m. leave to pick up carpool at school.
3:45 p.m. arrive home. My two good friends drop off their kids that I am babysitting while they set up for a church activity. Referee eight children for the next hour and half.
5:30 p.m. Drive all nine of us over to the church in my van and pray I don't get pulled over. Drop kids off to their moms.
5:45 p.m. Take baby to the doctor and find out he has another ear infection. Wait in the small room to see the doctor for 15 minutes while my four kids touch every surface in the room. Pray they don't get Aids. Listen to them fight over the crayons, the books and the rolling chair.
6:30 p.m. drop the prescription off to the pharmacy.
6:45 p.m. Come home and make breakfast for dinner. Feed the baby rice cereal in the bumbo while manning the stove and cutting up food for the older kids.
7:30 p.m. Go back over to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription.
7:45 p.m. Start helping kids with homework. Luke announces he has a book report due tomorrow. He hasn't finished the book.
8:30 p.m. Nurse the baby and put him to bed. Help the kids with their piano because they have lessons tomorrow.
9:30 p.m. Finish up homework, book report (he had to make a turkey out of paper, etc etc) and get the three older kids to bed.
9:45 p.m Relief Society president comes over to visit. Chat with her (She is awesome and it was actually really fun to talk to her.)
10:30 p.m. Call Sam and threaten to leave him if he doesn't get on a plane and come home tomorrow.
24 comments:
Just so you know I would be clinically insane if I had to do what you do day in day out. (That was a pretty useless comment) So I will say it goes quicker than you think it is going to. Every day it will get easier I promise. I admire you my friend. Take Care.
PS I agree bring on the Golden Years ;-)
Wow just when I thought my day was crazy! Bless your mother heart for taking those kids while we were setting up! Seriously I don't know how we mothers stay sane! Please tell me Sam is really coming home early. Kudos to you that you're still nursing I have no idea how you pull that off with 4 kids.
OK 9:45 for the R.S. President??? That's a little late don't you think?
Anyway, it does get better soon. As you know I too have 4 kids and my youngest in now 5 and I must say it gets better!! I look back over the 8 years that Dave traveled Tues- Friday every week and wonder how I did it. Hang in!!
sounds like my day...
My mom once told me that even when your kids leave you don't have time to relax. I called her the other day at 10:30 and she was still in bed....
This sounds like my life with minor detail differences (I have 3, not four, and one of them has special medical needs). My husband is even out of town this week, too (as he is half of every month). I can't tell you how much better reading this made me feel. Here in DC, I feel that I am constantly judged (particularly by medical professionals) for having "more than I can handle." I am just looking forward to getting two of them in school. And I am not having any more for at least 4 years.
I called Brigham during one totally hard day and talked about how I could see how people just hop a bus and don't look back. That i would never do it, but I could really see how it happens. He showed up an hour later.
btw, you are a wonderful mom and your kidsa are so so lucky. i know i have never met you, but i know ashley and know the same is true of her. i hope you don't think it strange that i have had that thought about you well before reading this post.
i always love your posts.
i can relate - except my husband is in the hospital which is extra frustrating! kids are sooooooooo much work. and why is it so hard to just get a shower?! ugh.
Brooke~you always make me laugh!!
You may not be able to get this yet, well, maybe you will, but enjoy these busy days! As I was reading your post it made me think back to when my 3 girls were those ages and Tom was gone all the time and my days were just like that. For sure, some days are busier and much more hectic than others, but crazy nonetheless. Hang in there! In a few (fast) years, those days will be long gone and nothing will EVER replace them...I actually really miss those years! As busy as they were, they were so much fun and having adorable little kids at home is so brief....enjoy every crazy, hectic moment! Having them grow up and not be home very much and not need you as much isn't as great as it sounds...really! You're a GREAT mom! I love you and admire you so much. and ps.....when crazy evenings roll around and you have to bundle them all up to go get a prescription, CALL A FRIEND (Lauri)to get it for you!! :)
It's good to document days like this because I think we will REALLY appreciate the golden years when we read this.
Sit back today, put your feet up, and drink a big DC.
p.s. You had me freaked out with the book report. I had Emi double check 3 times before she went to school that hers wasn't due yet!
oh yikes. My two favorite parts are the dentist and hygienist holding your kids.... and hoping your kids don't get aids (sorry but that was funny). Your day was a horrible nightmare and I hope you get a break and some time to yourself today!
You're making me tired just reading that! If Jacob was not still coughing I'd say, Bring Ryan over!" Jacob is bored with me. :)
Hope Buster (and you) feel better soon. Glad Sam is home!
Sounds so similar to my day, except that it wasn't the baby with an ear infection, it was the seven year old and (after all the hassle of taking him in) turns out that he just needed to pop his ears. I'm printing the picture of the older people on your post, coloring the man to make him brown and framing it.
and that is WAY too late for the RS Pres. to just "show up".
In defense of my RS president, she did call first and I told her she could come if she came late enough and she brought me a caramel apple so she is golden.
It's days like this one that test the stuff you're made of and confirm the Lord's sense of humor...I'm sure of it.
It is hilarious that the dentist and hygienist both ended up holding your babies!
I hate all the running around dropping off and picking up kids; it's something to consider whenever the kids request a new activity.
I found myself thinking, "Where are her visiting teachers?" If you could have found a moment, it would have been perfectly acceptable and great for you to call and ask one of your visiting teachers to pick up Buster's prescription for you. Loading 4 kids in the car over and over again causes wrinkles!
Brookie - so sorry that I didn't know about your day yesterday until today. Hopefully I made up for it today.
FYI - sometimes the "golden years" can be tiresome too, when you are taking care of the 90-year-old parents and the 0-yr-old grandbabies. All in all, I would rather be here than where you are. That's why I started staying up so late at night - it was the only peaceful time to myself. Actually it was "catch-up" time.
Serenity now. The image of the dentist holding Buster really is fantastic. I'm sad about his ear infection but hopefully now he can get the tubes and end it, right? I too have been overwhelmed and run down by an excess of kids lately. I want to blog about it but I have to clean in my spare moments. Next year you should have three days a week when Ryan goes to preschool and you just have Buster right? NICE.
You lost me at 3:45. I am ashamed to say I did very little babysitting for my friends...and so I asked very seldom. 5 of my own was enough! ...besides, my kids were good then and others kids were brats! :) LOL. Then add a doctor apt. nope...just not gonna happen here! I took three kids to the doctor ONE time. After the tears were done, I got in the car to leave Stan that night! (being shut in the room still makes me CRAZY!)...and Stan took them to many of the "next" doctor appointments! I remember a nurse saying to me one time Oh, so you are Stans wife. :) Yep that would be me. (Of course, that was the emergency room nurse.)
I will definitely be waiting 4 years before I have another.
I'm sticking with one kid! Your post scares me.
Most people get to rest when they die. But our fine religion claims we have tons of work to be done on "the other side." What's that all about? When do we get to rest, I ask?? I'm becoming Catholic just so I can get some peace and quiet some day.
ha! i'm totally laughing right now. i'm wondering if it ever gets better??? glad sam's home now :) hope you can relax over the weekend!
I wonder when that day will come too. It can't be soon enough.
I barely escaped a panic attack after reading your post. I love how brutally honest you are about the day's events. It is so refreshing to read a blog that isn't air-brushed to "Cranberry Hill Perfection's" illusion of a life. (If you don't understand this--look up Cranberry Hill Perfection's profile on facebook and you'll get it.)
I love that you recorded a day in your life at the stage you are in. One day you will hardly even remember it! It amazes me that I can look back to those days with such bliss,longing and fondness--it is hard to remember the "bad" days. (Maybe they are all blended into one?) ha. Time has air-brushed many of my memories, and humor has made up for the rest. :)
I seriously miss my little family as chaotic as it was. I miss my kids having their little friends over--I am so thankful I took as many pictures as I did. Most of my older boy's childhood friends have beards of some type now. It's crazy! Okay, come to think of it, I just miss the days when my boys had their baby faces-- before they got all scruffy. :)Just before Justin left on his mission, I saw him sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast one morning--his scruffy face struck me so funny...Where did this man come from?! Who is he?! Time goes by much too fast. :)
The Mostess is funny.
This post makes me want to cry. Tonight I hosted the sister missionaries and nearly broke down trying to entertain the baby and make a pizza and salad. You did all this with no husband and 4 kids. You are WONDERWOMAN. Reading this and Ashley's new post (who is also Wonderwoman--wait, wasn't she for Halloween?), I too am only spawning one child.
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