Each night after my children are in bed I pick up the house, do some dishes and get ready for the next day. There are so many times I think I can take a day off, which my idea of a day off is a day spent on the couch with a book or a movie, napping with the baby and doing laundry or something minor like that. And I get all relaxed and excited to take that day off, when suddenly I will realize I have to go run a bunch of errands and then my day off is gone. Since the name of this blog is A Cross Section of My Life, I give you today for an example:
2130 last night - I realize my son needs a new dresser for his clothes, and Tupperware for his Lego's. I also realize we have a birthday party on Sunday, and that I will be busy all day Saturday. This means I have to go run around tomorrow. ~sigh~
0635 - My annoying inner alarm goes off, you know the one that your body sets. You really have at least 15 minutes more to sleep, but your inner alarm clock starts to ring and you can't really get back to the deep sleep you were in.
0645 - My real alarms sound, both the traditional alarm clock and the cell phone alarm. I don't trust myself to wake to only one alarm, so I use backup. I also heavily use the snooze button for some reason. The clock alarm has a 9 minute snooze and my cell alarm has a 7 minute snooze. I wish I knew the reason for the odd minutes. My theory is you have to actually use your brain a little to figure out how many more times you can hit the snooze button. If it gave you 5 or 10 minutes you'd know right off and your brain wouldn't engage as much, thus you'd stay in the sleep zone longer. At least that is my theory. I digress....
0652-I hit snooze on my cell phone.
0653- Baby Leah wakes up ready to nurse and likewise, I realize that I am more than ready to nurse her. She started to sleep through the night again, so as it was before, I now wake up to a few gallons of milk under my shirt. Okay, it's not that bad, but let me just say that it is once again uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach. It is not too bad though, since I am still breastfeeding it means I can bring her into bed and try to sleep a little while she nurses.
0658 - I stop trying to fight it, it is time to wake up and get the big kids ready for school.
0715 - Joe and Lily are dressed, downstairs and hopefully eating breakfast -- not playing around. Leah has had a diaper change, new clothes and she has been nursed. She is playing with her toys that I keep in a toy box in my room. I am getting my "mom-on-the-go" clothes on. At least that is what they call it on What Not To Wear. Okay, not too bad, I feel like I found a reasonably good looking outfit today, I just need to do some 1000 crunches or so...
0730 - Coffee is brewing and the scent of it IS morning as far as I am concerned! The dog is out doing her morning duties and for once (!) the kids are actually eating their cereal, not messing around. I open the front door for my neighbor's daughter. I take her to school and back each day since we live so close.
0740- The neighbor's little girl arrives and that is the cue for Joe and Lily to get shoes on and grab backpacks. It doesn't always go so smoothly, there are many many times I am having to nag them to eat, to find shoes, to take their backpacks, sometimes to even put their homework into their bags... I try to be more organized but I fail at that quite often.
0748- We are late leaving the house, Joe couldn't find his shoes and we are a few minutes behind. I know it sounds so ridiculous, but even a few minutes can make all the difference. Just a few minutes here or there can mean we will be on time or we will be tardy. As it happened today, they were a little late. Oh well, TGIF.
0805- I am down to one kid now and she is falling fast asleep in her car seat. We drive down to K-Mart and it is a very pleasant drive. I have brought a to-go cup of coffee and my blue tooth so I can call my mom and dad. They will be celebrating their30th anniversary next week and Erick and I have planned a nice dinner out for them. I got to call and tell them the surprise! I love giving people good news or fun surprise gifts, or both!
0830- Once I am in K-Mart, I peruse the shoes. Not like they have amazing shoes, it is K-mart after all. But you never know if there will be a sale or something... Plus I kinda have this weakness for shoes. It's a good thing high heels aren't very practical for me to wear, or I'd certainly be lusting after some Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahniks.
0845- My cell phone rings - it's the health room at school. Lily says her tummy hurts, so I tell the school nurse to let her sit out for 15 minutes and if she needs to, I will drive back and sign her out. Lily sometimes tries to get out of doing things by saying her tummy hurts, or her head hurts, or her elbow.... Mostly I think she is crying wolf, but you never know.I hurry and finish shopping in case I have to go get her.
0900- Cell rings again, Lily had some water and her tummy feels all better. She is heading back to class. I am heading back to the car and on to the next stop, Goodwill.
0915- My friend has a daughter who just turned 10. She still loves to play dress up ( I did too at that age) and her birthday party is this Sunday. Her mom asked me to find fancy dresses at the thrift store and tailor them to fit her daughter. I have done this before for Lily, so it is no problem. I actually love this idea for a little girl birthday party, and I will most likely do it again if Lily has any more girl birthday invitations. I take my time at Goodwill to find the perfect dresses to tailor. In the end I found a beautiful ball gown which was on sale for half off (it wound up being only $6.50!), two full skirted dresses and two teal tops to make the dresses more appropriate for a 10 year old.
1045- Leah and I return home to have lunch. I let the dog out, nuke a Lean Cuisine and make a salad. Leah has milk and a teething biscuit, followed by some squash. She is ready for another nap after lunch which is perfect for me since I have the dresser to assemble. I like putting furniture together so this part of my day was actually quite nice. I found a fun movie on TV (Death Becomes Her) and I get in to the assembly. By the time I was nearly done, it was time to get the kids from school.
1345- I was able to transfer the sleeping baby Leah from her crib into the stroller with only a tiny whimper of complaint and then she passed back out. The walk was nice, breezy and not too hot. Lily was going to a friends house after school and then to ballet practice where I'd meet her with her shoes and leotard. So the walk home was just Joe and I, plus the neighbors little girl.
1430- Joe and I worked together to finish the drawers for his dresser. Leah played with her toys and supervised our progress. Once the dresser was finished we had about 10 minutes to transfer his clothes into the dresser and then put his Lego's, Bionicle's, Mega Blocks and other assorted toys into the old Tupperware drawers. Then we bopped around the house looking for all the parts of his Cub Scout uniform.
1600- We arrived at the PX (Post Exchange, like a Wal-Mart) and Joseph found his den right away. They had to be courteous and polite when approaching people to buy the coupon books. Joseph ended up selling two of them! Not bad for a little boy who sometimes is shy around people! I was just starting to feel a sore throat forming so the Starbucks around the corner sounded awesome. I ducked inside, changed the baby and bought some strong coffee. Aaaahhh, an afternoon pick-me-up! I went back outside, talked with the other women for a bit and let Leah have some well deserved playtime on a blanket. Which she pulled up and started chewing on, while also getting her white socks super dirty. Since I had forgotten to put the stroller back into the car after the walk home from school, as well as I'd forgotten to put the baby sling in, I was down to carrying her on my hip, along with the diaper bag and my purse. So I ducked back into the PX for an umbrella stroller, new socks and a pair of scissors to cut the zip ties on the stroller.
1720- I have a blister on the back of my heel, right on the Achilles Tendon and my shoe is rubbing it raw. Since I have only minutes to get Lily her ballet clothes, I make a faster-than-the-speed-of-light stop at my house and throw a band aid at the blister.
1729- I make it in time to the dance studio with Lily's ballet clothes and the baby in her car seat sawing logs. She is an 18 pound baby and the car seat must weigh at least 10 pounds, maybe 15. Ugh. I herd Lily into the handicap stall in the bathroom and I help her on with her tights, leotard and ballet shoes. This is the first I've seen her since school was out, and I've missed her! I give her a kiss and send her into dance class. I leave the studio with her school clothes and her backpack as well as a balloon necklace and bracelet she made at her friends house. Oh yeah I am also carrying the baby in the car seat and my purse. I looked like a llama going on an expedition weighed down with too many packs.
1735- I arrive at the Commissary (grocery store) with one of Joseph's recipes from cooking class. He just started the class this past Wednesday and the first thing they made was S'mores. He came home with a packet of S'mores-themed recipes so I told him he could pick one recipe and make it at home. He chose the S'more muffins and I had to buy a couple things, mini marshmallows and graham crackers.
1750- I decided to wait at the self checkout, the quick line which is a 50/50 chance of actually being fast. You never know if it will pan out for you, or if you would be better off going in the regular short line. This time the odds were against me -- I was stuck behind a woman with over the 15 items plus she didn't know what she was doing. Very frustrating.
1800- In the car driving 100 yards over to the PX parking lot. Normally I'd just walk (obviously) but I was pressed for time and my heel is in no shape for walking that distance. Plus, Joe was starving and I had to stop at the Food Court to pick up Burger King for their dinner. So, no walking for us, though it irked me to have to drive that little bit.
1825- Back at ballet class and I was just in time to see her practice her routine for the recital. Joe stayed in the car with his feedbag on, wolfing down his double cheeseburger. Leah was thrilled to get out of the car, as she had been in the car seat or stroller for the better part of the day. I will let you imagine how happy she was to have only 5 minutes of freedom before I had to strap her back in. But I 
distracted her with a shiny toy and all was well.
1835- Home finally. The weekend can now begin. Except this weekend doesn't sound very relaxing, it too is filled with ballet dances, Cub Scout stuff and a birthday party. Plus laundry, dishes, vacuuming, mopping and general up keep.
I will take a day off next week. At least that is my plan....
2334-I have finished typing this blog. My nose is running on one side, the other side is clogged, go figure. My slight sore throat has now escalated nuisance-level sore throat. Hopefully some sleep will knock it back down. I'm gonna go eat a zinc lozenge and pass out.
Peace.
-B
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