This is for all those people who say “I could never be a stay at home mom.  What do you do all day?”

Live blogging my day.  Scroll down for updates.

2:45 AM – Baby A wakes up for nursie.  She’s been sleeping through the night, but waking the last couple of nights.  I think she’s going through a growth spurt, or maybe the fact that she can run at 10 months is increasing her caloric needs.  Not a big deal, I pull her into bed with me and go back to sleep.

4:05, 4:14, 4:23, 4:32 AM- poke husband to turn off the snooze alarm.  Who decided that it 9 minutes is enough time to snooze?

4:34 AM – Husband gets up for work, Baby A wakes up.  Nurse her back to sleep.

4:35 AM- I go back to sleep.  HD leaves for work, his shift starts at 5.

6:00 - Husband staggers back into bedroom.  He’s got a stomach bug and threw up at work.  Baby A wakes up.  Baby A does nurse, again, but does not go to sleep.  I try to sleep while A nurses.

7:22 – Baby A goes back to sleep, having tired herself out playing patty cake with my head.

7:35 – Alarm goes off.  There’s a bus to catch, shoes to find, breakfast, coffee.  Take 3 year old potty, brush hair, make children change clothes, play around on computer while baby nurses, and so on.  Fix a yo-yo, clean the potty chair, change a diaper.

9:00 – Some backstory: every few months I get a hankering to rearrange the furniture.  Because, everything would be smooth and organized if only this table was in that room, right?  So, over the weekend I forced husband dear to move some stuff, and pulled everything off the school shelves into one big giant pile on the school table.

Now we have avalanches of random school stuff, plus everything from the computer desk like papers to be filed, plus the art supplies.  Work for a bit putting stuff on shelves.

10:00 – Feed baby some banana and chicken.  Doctor up an injured toe.  Take way paints that kids got when all the art supplies were dumped on table.  Find dishes in pile.  Take them to sink.  Sink is full of breakfast dishes.  Start to wash up.  Realize I need to unload the dish drainer.  Decide to wait to unload the dish drainer, which is full of pots and pans and lids, until I put new lid organizer in cabinet.

Need to vacuum/wipe out cabinet first.  Vacuum cleaner is backed into a corner by school stuff and furniture that is in “transition”.  Dig out vacuum cleaner, in the process uncover gardening supplies and seeds.  Put gardening stuff away.  Discover EZ Bake oven in place where gardening stuff goes.  Discover cookbooks piled where EZ Bake oven goes.  Get everything squared away, then discover I need to put lid organizer together.

I may or may not have cursed IKEA at this point.

Put organizer together, vacuum cupboard, put away dishes.

11:00 AM – Tell Mr. S for the 10,000 time I will help him with science fair project this afternoon and GET YOUR SPELLING BOOK.  Phone rings.  It’s the landlord letting me know that people are coming today to fix the dishwasher or look at it, at least.  OK, need to load dishwasher and run it quick before they get here!  The DW works, but one of the racks is broken and keeps falling out.

Load dishwasher.  It’s not full, but I need to clean out the fridge and I don’t know if the dishwasher people are going to leave me without a washer for a bit.  I prefer to wash tupperwares and plastic in the dishwasher because it’s easier to sanitize the plastic.  Clean out the fridge.

At this point, I should note, I have a stack of cardboard and plastic on the counter.  We got a new trash service today and they offer recycling, but the bin is at the curb and I am not going to run ever piece of plastic doo-dad out there.  I’ll wait until the trash comes, put the recycling bin by the garage door, and do it all at once.

Anyway, I’ve abandoned the schoolroom at this point to clean out the fridge and retrain the 9 yo on how to nest the clean tupperwares so they don’t fall off the shelf. Deny a child a pickle.

11:20 – Landlord calls again to let me know the oven people will be here early afternoon.  So I finish up the dishwasher, turn it on, then realize that even though I didn’t USE the stove yesterday it’s still grubby.  Clean stove, and since it’s a repair person, I feel the need to detail it wiping down the knobs, under the burners, and the front of the glass.  Deny a child a pickle.

11:40 Baby A is ready for a nursie and a nap.  Deny a child a pickle.   Decide to live blog my day while nursing her, remember that the library books are due today so I click over and renew them all (no way is a trip to the library happening today) and field a couple more phone calls.  Update my teaparty website with meeting info, but don’t finish.

12:00 – Let kids watch Sid the Science Kid while Baby A naps, realize I need to make lunch.  It’s PB&J today because I don’t want to use the stove and I’m just plain busy today.  Baby A prefers to tuck her head under my arm when she’s done nursing to nap.  So sweet, but also so… limiting.  I love when she nuzzles her fuzzy little head up to me.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>

Continued:

12:30 - Put baby down, find scissors for Mr S, wipe a hiney.   Mr X did number 2 in the potty, but number 1 all over the bathroom floor.  Clean up.

Check over Mr. P’s spelling.  I am hungry.  I ate a bowl of Grape Nut flakes 4 hours ago, and nursed the baby twice since then.  Assign Mr. P to make sandwiches for the littles, open a glue stick, wonder why READING comprehension needs to involve scissors and glue at all.  Deny a child a pickle.

Realize that yesterday with all the furniture moving, husband dear moved my seedlings outside, where they spent the night.  Go survey the damage.  They look okay, but I decide to water them.

Look for pitchers, which have been incorrectly put away on the pantry floor.  Pantry floor is yucky, but the vacuum is still in the kitchen. Vaccum pantry floor, reorganize breifly, and locate a bin to keep extra jars in since they are piled all over.  While I’m at it, vacuum out cereal cabinet and put away cereal.

Oops, the watering. Find pitcher, water plants.  Decide to refill Berkey.  As I’m refilling Berkey, realize dinner’s not going to make itself.  Get london broil out of the fridge, but it has to go in the crockpot.  Oh dear.  Clear off counter, wipe, make space for crockpot.  In the course of clearing off the counter, notice someone dragged off the bin I keep the fruit.  15 apples and 20 oranges are taking up space on my counter, so go find the bin.  Put it in the fridge, fill with fruit.

1:00 PM Open fridge reminds me I haven’t eaten.  Decide to make sandwich.  We’re out of Miracle Whip, my sandwich condiment of choice.  I’ve given it up for our new Real Food eating plan, but only recently ran out and I haven’t even attempted making my own mayo.  Not gonna try now.  Make sandwich with sweet hot mustard, mmm mmm.

Sit down, take a bite, realize london broil is still on the counter in its wrapper.  Decide to eat before making dinner.  Tell child she can have a pickle when her room-pickup chore is done.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>>

1:45 – Oven repair man is here.  9 yo has unloaded dishwasher, still working on room chore/pickle.  Got dinner going, but can’t find my ginger so it’s just going to be beef with caramelized onions.  Vacuum living room and break bad with the crevice tool, which was desperately needed since one of the kid’s stuffed animals got torn this weekend and there are a jillion tiny styrofoam pellets in every nook and cranny.

2:00 – Husband dear gets up and eats some crackers to settle his stomach.  In the living room.  Oven repair guy needs a part, ETA 1 week.  Daughter gets to eat a pickle and paint with watercolors.  Mr. S is on thin ice, and Miss C is out of sorts.  Teach Mr. S how to swap the laundry, so his gi will be dry in time for aikido tonight.

2:30 – not sleeping is catching up to me.  Husband dear suggests going to Starbucks.  I need a nap but an iced coffee will have to do.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>>

3:00 – Husband dear feels a bit better, goes to run an errand.  More random mommy/kid stuff.  Got table moved from playroom to school room and half of school room vacuumed.

4:00 - Snack time, and school’s out so the neighborhood starts showing up at our door.  Nurse baby to sleep.  Tiff with Mr. R over how to spell “hexagon”.  There is some drama with neighborhood girls.

5:00 – Husband dear is back but not feeling well enough to go to aikido so I will take Mr S.  Drop him off, run to HEB and pick up Sprite Zero for husband, then sit through the rest of the class and finish Danielle Bean’s book.

7:15 – home.  Best friend calls but I can’t talk.  Showdown with Mr. R over taking out trash.  Steam artichokes, melt butter, make gravy, cut up meat.  Discover our new recycling bin is missing even though I told Mr. P FOUR times to bring it into the garage.  Yell about it in the front yard.  Make some iced tea.

7:30 - eating time, but artichokes aren’t done.  Discover that half cooked artichokes are really foul tasting.  Cut them in half and put them back on to steam, everyone eats meat and rice.

8:00 PM – Nurse a cranky baby.  Artichokes are done, serve them up.  Yes, after dinner.

Crisis!  It’s reported that there are 6 artichoke halves for 7 children.  I hadn’t planned on the 3 year old eating any, but he loves it.  Miss C throws a hissy fit because we halved the halves, and she doesn’t want to share.  I think I’m going to get to eat hers.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>>>

8:30 – Baby A is covered in peanut butter.  Clean her up with baby wipes as more yelling ensues, this time heartfelt pleas to find the jar of peanut butter.  Open jar of peanut butter has mysteriously disappeared.  Nag kids to do kitchen chores.  Discover SOMEONE ATE THE LAST PICKLE without permission.  Teeth brushing, girl snuggling, shoe putting away, jammy changing.  Apologize to Mr. P for yelling at him over the trash cans.

Be a stay at home mom and you, too, can battle pickle consumption.  Fun times!

9:00 – Nurse baby.  She gets me from both ends with warm liquid. Apparently she wasn’t actually hungry or thirsty, so she filled herself up and spit it right back out.  Thanks, Baby A.  Finally eat my artichoke.

9:30 - Kids to bed.  Surf the net while husband watches Greatest American Hero.  Help him find some soup to eat.

10:00 PM – Go into kitchen, wash up pots and pans, put away food, finishing loading dishwasher.  Find Mr. X’s shoes for school tomorrow and make sure he has clothes (he went through an epic amount of laundry today with the painting and the playing outside.)

The grand plan is to go upstairs to be at 11:00, read for a bit, then go to sleep.  And do it all over again tomorrow.