Today I....

*6:30 Alarm goes off and is conveniently silenced. The burning feeling in my eyeballs tells me that I may have stayed up too late last night... Lindy climbs in bed with me, asks me to make her some dinner (breakfast) and quickly falls asleep again, snuggled close to me.

*7:30 The other kids are beginning to stir, so I face the inevitable. But not before retreating to the bathroom to, besides the obvious, delay the morning by checking stuff on my phone and deciding what we will be having for breakfast. I get so sick of deciding what every meal is going to be. Anyone else?

*8:00 Oh Shoot! Lindy has that early tumbling class at 9, and then we have to book it up to SLC for a homeschool field trip. (Just because it's summer doesn't mean the learning stops!) Throw some cereal on the table, make a Kiefer smoothie to ease my mom guilt about feeding my children a semi-unhealthy (but necessarily quick) breakfast.  The kids pour themselves the biggest bowls of cereal known to man, and then reach for the milk carton, which turns out to be...light. No problem, Mom can fix that! I take the almond milk carton to the sink, mix in a little water- Ta-Da! But even that isn't enough! So I take some of the whole, cow's milk I just poured into my Kiefer start and strain a bit off into each kid's bowl. Yep. That's how we get breakfast done! Boom!

*8:30 Chaos! Change a poopy diaper, fix girl's hair, start a load of laundry, coach son on his dishes responsibility for the day, clear off the table, rush the kids to do their animal chores, say prayers, and make their beds, roll in garbage and recycling cans, start to lose my mind, and oh-what else? I feel like I'm missing something... Clothing. Yep, getting dressed would be a good idea.

*8:52 The essentials: I change my underwear, put on actual clothing, brush my teeth, put on deodorant, somehow manage to get a bit of makeup on, leave bed-hair in a high bun (so classy), grab a water bottle, some browning bananas, and a half eaten clamshell of blueberries, and we're out the door!

*9:05 Lindy is only mildly shy this time and seems to genuinely enjoy her tumbling class. Her teacher has prepared such fun activities! Miles makes a friend with another boy there (no surprise), Gwen inserts herself into the gymnastics class as a volunteer helper (no surprise), and Benson has decided to try and wear me out before lunch (no surprise).


*9:45 Book it up to SLC to tour the LDS humanitarian center. Last week, we all got together as a homeschool group to tie a couple of quilts we wanted to donate. So today, we skipped swimming lessons and a scout hike to have this experience. Some things are more important than others.  I'm incredibly grateful for my smart phone and it's direction giving abilities. We make it to welfare square, but no one else is there. Turns out, Welfare square and the Humanitarian center are 2 different things! I whip out my handy-dandy gps to find the new place, get half way there, and then it dies. If you don't know me personally, let me just tell you I'm one of the most directionally challenged people out there. So on a scale  of 1-10, my anxiety level during finding new places is usually right around the level where you want to curl up in the fetal position.

*10:30 Everyone makes it and we start the tour. I'm blown away by the good that is happening there! WOW! Clothing, medicine, clean water, wheelchairs, disaster relief, education etc... And though our 2 quilts are small, I'm crossing my fingers that my kids get that good feeling in their hearts that you get when you know you've played a part in something wonderful.


*12:30 I only get slightly lost trying to find the freeway back home (small victories people), and I spent 50% of the drive back listening to Lindy make up her own songs (cause she doesn't like listening to books on CD), and flinging my free arm behind me to whack Benson in the legs, desperately trying to keep him awake!! We all know what happens when babies fall asleep for 20 minutes before their official nap time and then you have to get them out of their carseats.... it's not pretty.

*1:00 Eat a quick lunch and send the kids to separate spaces for quiet time. I am a firm believer in alone time. Everybody needs it! So when they sneak into each others rooms, I go separate them-again and again and again... Finally I let them play together, and wouldn't you know it- they can't seem to play for more than 10 minutes before there is a fight of some sort. So during what is supposed to be my break-time, I'm up and down 83 times. Super relaxing. My episode of "The Office" is interrupted more times than I can count! (Good thing I've seen every episode a million times, whew!)

*3:30 I tell the kids to clean up their rooms while I go mow the lawn to surprise Dad-who broke his pinky toe last night, poor guy! I mow front and back, AND hang up a load of laundry. When I come back inside Miles is all ready, but the girls haven't touched their rooms at all. Each conveniently claims the other one is to blame...

So here's how I handle it:

1. "Hey guys! Let's not tattle on each other, let's just please pick up your room. Then you guys can have computer time! Yay!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

2. "Gwen and Lindy, let's get going! You've already had 30 minutes to get this done, and it could have taken you 5! You can do it!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

3. "Get going! I'm setting a timer for 10 minutes and if it's not done when the timer goes off, neither of you get computer time!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

4. "GET YOUR ROOM CLEAN NOW!!!! YOU PUT THAT BOOK AWAY! YOU PICK UP THOSE CLOTHES" etc. The room actually gets clean! And they wonder why I act like a crazy person sometimes!??

*4:30 I get some yummy kisses from Benson, the kids take turns on the computer, work on their summer bingo charts (A genius idea I had last year. I'll post more later), and I start a batch of bread. Mama Garner comes over to drop of some healthy dog food for Ginger. (I usually buy whatever is cheapest, so Ginger is in for a treat!) We chat for a bit, I pick her brain about plants and recipes and find out that what I thought were turnips that I had planted are actually collard greens....So yeah, I don't remember planting those, I've never prepared them...This should be interesting!

*6:30 We eat a simple dinner of scrambled eggs thanks to our chickens out back,  and our spinach out front. Now if I could just make my own cheese! Miles makes some toast from the fresh bread, and as we're finishing, Dad comes home from another window job. He's totally beat, so I'm still on full-time parent mode. The kids work on their chores, and then I tell them that if they help me pull some weeds out in the garden, and harvest some peas quickly, they can watch some of a movie.

*6:40 I'm not as zen as I wish I was, and I have to bring Benson back inside after 2 minutes cause he's pulling entire pea plants out. The kids and I do what we can, then they go in to watch a show, but I stay out. It's that magical time of evening where the entire garden is shaded. It's almost completely quiet outside and I just lean into that ache in my back that's still there from yesterday when I had to replant all of the green beans. Of the many lessons to be learned from the garden, one that's always at the forefront is "try, try again". I weed the beds with the peas in them and harvest a small bowl.  Our garden is too small to produce much in the way of canning and preserving, but it's a great size for snacking.

*7:30 I hang up another load of laundry, my favorite chore, and let Richie shell the peas with his injured foot elevated. He's visibly excited when I tell him tomorrow I'll attempt his mother's "creamed peas and potatoes" recipe with our fresh peas.

*8:00 Woops! Did I miss bedtime? Must be because the kids are quiet, and I'm busy checking Facebook and Instagram...again...

*8:30 Alright, alright. Time to get this show on the road! Cause the sooner the kids are in bed, the sooner I'm a free woman! Richie handles most of it and tells me to sneak out to the gym. He didn't have to fight me too hard on it.

*9:30 When I'm at the gym I love catching up on my reading, people watching and, oh yeah, exercising. But my favorite all time activity is the sauna. It feels great, yes, but the best thing about it is the awkwardness. Just sitting in a small, dark, incredibly hot room, sweating with a bunch of strangers. Yep. I get such a kick out of it. Usually I just close my eyes, deep breathe, and let my mind wander. But one of these days I'm going to write a book about my conversations and observations of my time in the sauna.

*9:45 Get home, put my feet up with some almonds and chocolate chips, Richie and I manage to squeeze in an old re-run of "Monk" before his eyelids weigh a thousand pounds, and then I offer my classic line, "I'm almost to a good stopping point on (whatever it is I'm working on). I'll be in to bed in just a second." Richie never believes it, deep down I know it's not true, but for some reason it always comes out.

*12:26 am Contentedly typing away, trying to avoid thinking about the chaos that will ensue tomorrow morning the moment my eyes open.