For whatever reason, my body has been waking up in the 5am hour for over a week now. No matter what I say, or how late I stay up, my body just won't stay asleep past this hour. And so my day begins.
6-7am - The children start to rise and one heads off to school while the others are happily enjoying the treats Daddy let them pick out.
7-8am - Mornings are never consistent with children. Some days we are on our game, ready to tackle the day with time to spare. Some days we are still getting ready while driving off to school. Thankfully this was an 'on top of it' day and I got to sit down and read a bit while the kids watched TV before heading out the door.
8-9am - One kid goes here, the other there. Lots of quality time in the car every morning.
On this particular day, after dropping Holly off to school, I had to run home to get my mom and get back to the school for Grandparents Day. Holly's school is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields and, honestly, I enjoy the drive. Every day, little by little, I get to watch the seasons change and the sun rise.
9-11am - Grandparents Day. Its funny the things you remember from your childhood. I remember having Grandparents day. I don't remember what we did and I don't remember what happened afterwards, but I do remember that my grandparents were there and that's all that matters. Hopefully the children will have those same memories.
11am-Noon - A quick pit stop at home to grab lunch, make some phone calls, pick up the house, get laundry going and, of course, sneak in some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Noon - 1pm - Errand time! Jake decided, with a little coaxing, to give wrestling a try. Now in these younger years of less competitive leagues is the time to give things a try. If you like it, keep going. If you don't like it, you're finishing out the season so suck it up.
We also made a run over to the recycling center to turn in 5 more bags of pop cans!! The price wasn't the best but I have the money in my pocket and more space in the garage.
1-2pm - Back home and time for a pick me up.
I also needed to put the recycling money where it goes - the vacation fund! In January we started the penny a day challenge where you start with a penny and increase (by a penny) every day until the end of the year. At the end of the challenge, you will have $667 - a nice nest egg for a vacation. We're behind (it gets hard to throw $2+ in jar every. single. day) but we're sticking at it. Now matter when we finish it, we'll have the same amount of money.
2-3pm - Didn't you hear? My Jacob got married! Mr. Q (Jacob) married Mrs. U and we were invited to be guests.
3-4pm - Back home and back at it. It was homemade pizza night and I was in charge of making the dough...
...and the homemade croutons for salads.
4-5pm - Time to load up the van and head on over to the Cider Mill for our second pressing of the season. If you haven't had fresh pressed cider, you are missing out. It tastes sooo different from the store bought stuff.
5-6pm - Back home. Again. Prepping pizza toppings and getting the salad bar ready to go for our dinner guests.
6-9pm - Packing Party!! Our friends and I have a deep passion for Operation Christmas Child and all that it stands for. We shop, shop, shop all year with anticipation of this night. Packing our boxes.
9-10pm - After all that hard work, we need a reward, right? I found a new donut recipe on Pinterest and was lucky enough to have my guinea pigs friends willing to try them.
10-11pm - Bree has been asking to watch the original Parent Trap and who am I to deny her such a request. I love the old Disney movies! Even though Bree had enough energy to craft the night through, the other two did not.
11pm - Midnight - The hubby was kind enough to start a fire earlier in the evening but with dinner and shoeboxes, we didn't have time to enjoy it. Throw a couple more logs on, start the movie over again, and that completes the end of a wonderful day.
Although most days aren't as full, this really isn't a stretch of what a typical day is like. Three kids, a house, my mom, her house, a marriage to tend to daily, my own soul to fill, and work is a lot for anyone. Something has to change.
And that it will.
More on that later.
