Today I....

8:01 am Woke up to a Miles boy standing by the side of my bed whispering "Is it time to get up yet and make breakfast?" I have been doing O.K. at getting up before the kids and getting a head start lately. However, this morning I was out cold until Miles whispered in my ear. I tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but while my body was exhausted, my mind was racing. I ended up in a bath, reading a book until I felt I had tired out my mind sufficiently. Which happened to be around 130am.

8:05 Pull Miles in bed with me to snuggle and am amazed that all the kids are sleeping in so late! We say our prayers and Miles takes Ozzy outside while I get breakfast going. Gwen stumbles out of bed and tells me she has peed the bed again (2nd night in a row, even with a diaper on!). I get Lindy, change her diaper, put her clothes on. Make some almond milk, toast some bread, pull out the cereal, make a smoothie.

9:00 I try and do things one-handed as I drink my smoothie and the kids eat, then retreat to the bathroom while the kids are occupied. When I come back out, I come just in time to see Lindy drop her entire bowl of cereal on the floor (not an unusual occurrence). I can feel myself beginning to snap, and it's only 830!

10:00 Bark orders a the kids to get dressed, make beds, say prayers, brush teeth. We take care of the bunnies outside, turn on a learning show for the kids and I run to get ready. The learning show Gwen chose happens to be extra short, but I'm not too worried because I can hear the kids playing happily together. I think to myself, I need to pray for extra patience today. I can feel myself losing it. But I push the thought aside. About 1 minute later, Miles walks in, perfectly happy the moment before mind you, whining that the movie was too short and they want to watch another. I tell him no, I'm almost ready and we'll start school. He proceeds to fall on the floor whining. So I close the door to pray, kneeling over the toilet, for that aforementioned patience, while Miles pounds on the door in a steady rhythm with his feet.

11:00 We start school by reading books on the couch. It's the best way to put me in a good mood before we start the intense stuff. 2 books in, and Lindy has successfully destroyed the front room. I then notice a text I had missed from a lady in our ward who has a girl Gwen's age. We've been trying to set up a good time for them to play forever and her text says Gwen can come over in an hour to play. I know I can't pass this up. I always feel like Gwen is lacking in the girl friend department. So I tell the kids, "Ok, we need to rush through as much school as we can get to, so that Gwen can go play at Gentry's house. Miles, of course, feels left out, so I set up a play date for him with a friend tomorrow.

11:45 We are working on math and I'm feeling the pressure. Both time wise so that Gwen can have her play date, and also curriculum wise. We're not as far in the program as I'd like to be. I'm trying to keep the kids on task, when Lindy tells me yet again, that she has to go potty. She is potty training herself these days, and since I'm not ready to be on board, to me it's about 50% awesome, and 50% a major disruption that I'm not prepared for. I have set up the little potty in the school room for convenience, so I strip her down and tell her to go sit on the potty. She does, I hear a little tinkle, she's happy and I tell her to come get her diaper back on. She thinks it's funny to refuse me, and I don't have time to chase her, so I let her go pants-less.

12:00 I keep working with the kids, and then notice from the corner of my eye that Lindy has found some random paint brushes, and is dipping them in the potty. Wanna know how desperate I am to get math done? I ignore the brush in the pee, and keep right on going, even though she's painting herself all over. Yum. I don't even make an effort to stop her until I glance over, and somehow the "paint" is green. The watercolors weren't open, I seriously have no idea how she did this. I can't ignore it anymore. I wash her up, and get the kids upstairs.

12:30 I shove some food down Gwen and we take her to Gentry's house. Come back, feed Miles and Lindy a proper lunch, read The Friend, Miles practices piano a bit, we read a few more books, and then I get both kids in rooms for naps/quiet time.

1:45 Gwen comes home fully dolled up with make-up. I'm positive she had a blast at Gentry's house. She joins Miles in quiet time to play legos and Kung-Fu Panda. I watch office re-runs and work on the bane of my existence, I mean, Lindy's stocking. (yep, she's almost 2 and it's still not done)

3:30 Miles and Gwen come out and take turns playing learning games on the computer, then Miles heads over the fence to his piano lessons. Lindy keeps napping! When she eventually wakes up, her diaper isn't full! So I take her to the potty and we have more success! We call daddy and celebrate. Richie informs me that he will be extra late tonight so that he can study more for a finance test. He's working so hard on his Master's program. I'm a very proud wife.

4:30 Miles is getting back from piano so we head outside and catch all the bunnies, meet Miles at the fence and rake a few leaves. It's a bit chilly and windy, but still I can't believe how nice the weather is for mid-December!

5:00 We head inside and pick out a show to watch.(Kung-Fu Panda....again) Usually if we have time to watch a full movie, we save it for after dinner time. However, given the circumstances, I let them start one early so that I can make dinner in peace. However, peace is a relative term. While I'm making dinner, Lindy is constantly in need, once even pulling the milk out of the fridge and spilling it all over the floor.

6:30 Dinner is ready, and I must say, I rock at making pizza rolls. We're in the middle of eating when Richie walks through the door. I don't know what it is about him coming home, but it's like something snaps in my brain. What was bearable and do-able before, instantly seems awful and I immediately need his help and to whine for about 15 minutes. He says, "Are you holding up ok?" And really, I am hanging in there, but instead I say, "I'm fine I guess." And about 2 seconds later I'm snapping at the kids. So I give myself a time out while Richie plays with the kids.

7:30 Decide to head to the gym and grocery shopping early and let Richie handle bed-time. It's in everyone's best interest, I promise.

9:30 Get home to my awesome husband finishing up the dishes (typical Richie). He has been watching "A League of Their Own" on Netflix. That show cracks us up. Tom Hanks rocks it. We decide to finish the movie till the end, and I work more on Lindy's stocking. It's a painfully slow process. Hopefully it gets done before this Christmas! We head to bed around 11. And just to round it off to a full 24 hours, it should be noted that we were both awake with an inconsolable Gwen at some point in the night because of another UTI.

The End.