A Day in my Life: Tuesday

The alarm goes off every weekday morning around 4:45 am, that is for Cliff. He kissed me goodbye this morning around 5:30 a.m. I went back to sleep.

Today I got up around 7:15 am which is a sleep in these days. Usually on school days (not summer vacation) we are all up around 6/6:30 a.m.
Cameron was up first at 7:30, then Catie and then Claire. They all played lego whilst I got ready. By getting ready I first make our bed. Then I grab towel and hit the showers. A quick fast shower every morning. I find when I shower and dress and put on a bit of make up I feel better.
Carly is up. 7:35 or so.

I walk into the living room to open up the blinds and Catie is in the exersaucer. I yank her out. Oh goody. I have many more episodes of this today. Reminds me of all of the kids before who would try out the exersaucer again! It think that is cool that my 5, and I lent the saucer out at one time and it was given to me in '99 from another Mom friend of my Mom's. In total we have had 7 kids use it, and no doubt there is still good life left in it!

7:45 a.m. Check emails etc.

Cameron already fought with Claire over her using his "wheels" from the Lego. They were fighting. I broke up the fight.

I ask Claire and Carly to go get dressed, put away pj's and make beds.

8:00 a.m.Collect laundry, take it downstairs. Catie slides downstairs and helps me there. Sort laundry from yesterday. Pull out and wash Darks. Catie helps me load some.

Back upstairs, girls are dressed. Go check their beds. Not made. I make them. Catie comes in. I change her diaper and get her dressed. Send her into the playroom to get her shirt to put on. She took it out and brought it to me earlier. I also found clothing that needs washing so I bring to our room to the laundry basket. Too bad I missed getting these items in the wash.

8:11 a.m. Caroline still sleeping. Good, time to throw on the pork loin for dinner into the crock. Claire handed out the vitamins for the kids.

Get waffles onto the table. Get kids to clean up table as best as they can.

I make juice, and all 4 big kids stir the juice with wisk. One after another. (Juice as stirred on first stir but that is OK they had fun doing it!)

Unloaded dishwasher whilst kids were eating. Loaded breakfast stuff in. Had a glass of water and my vitamin.

Go onto Kidswap and answer a few posts. I need to eat. Caroline is still sleeping.

Send Carly to the washroom, as I see she needs to go. Pour a cup of milk for Catie.

8:50 a.m. Catie and I switch over the wash to the dryer. I start a baby load of laundry. Carry Catie up the stairs, but I stop at the mirror and make faces with her in the mirror.

Carly comes out of the washroom. I make sure she wiped, flushed and wiped and washed hands. Give her Barbie purse back lol.

I eat a banana. Sort of, Catie eats a chunk of it. Off to sweep the kitchen.

9:00 Caroline is awake. Got her out of her crib, and Catie off of her crib rails. Took her to our bedroom to change her diaper. Carry Caroline in my right arm, and take Catie off the bed with my left arm. Walk to playroom.

9:15 am. Feed Caroline, burp. Carly requests to hold Caroline. I oblige. We watch the Magic School bus. Still listening for my laundry to stop.

Caroline into the exersaucer, and then Claire spun her around, so into a time out she went. She apologized and she went back to the playroom. Go to internet for a few minutes.

10:00 a.m. Snack time for the kids. They all went and washed hands, I prepared and then gave them vanilla yogurt with a sprinkle of cranberry granola. I had a bowl too when Caroline was happy in the exersaucer. Ran downstairs to the laundry. Pulled out one load with Claire's help. Claire helped me load up the dryer with the baby load. She started the dryer for me. Came upstairs. Searched for Catie's missing sippy cup. I spied it, Cameron found it and put it back in the fridge. Catie done, wiped her down, let her loose lol. Washed snack dishes. I smell dinner in the crock. Smells yummy already. Caroline is crying now. Tend to her now. Kids outside to play in the yard. Nice day out there. 10:20 am.

Changed Caroline's poopy diaper, had Catie help me lol. Sat down on the couch to feed her. Watched some of the Mom Show on Life Network. Just finished now. 11:25 am. She is in her crib. Checked on the kids in the yard. Everything is good. Two kids have come and gone to the washroom in this time.

Thinking about lunch, and I am going to go fold my dark load of laundry. I will also check on the other load in the dryer. Just got back. Caroline started crying. Changed her diaper and changed her outfit as there was a bit of poop on it. Ran up and down the stairs to get the laundry upstairs, then downstairs as I needed to bring more dirty clothes downstairs. Caroline still crying. Will need to feed her once more. Checked on the kids they are digging up the space under the swings. Catie also had a poopie diaper. Changed that and then washed my hands. I asked the kids to then put the dirt back. They listened. Washed Catie's hands. Folded the dark laundry which is sitting on my bed ready to put away. Also need to fold the baby laundry now! On my bed also.

It is now 12:01 and no lunch. Stuff happens. I am going to try asap. Fed Caroline a little, Carly held Caroline while I made lunch. Managed to get lunch on the table and finished by 12:30. They had organic tortilla chips, pineapple (canned) fresh straberries. Some had wiener, some had cheese some had left over salad. I had tomato/red pepper/feta in balsamic/EVOO salad and a few crackers to dip into dressing. Caroline sat on my lap whilst we ate. Put her in the saucer whilst I got to the clean up of first Catie, and then the table. I took Catie to her crib for a nice long nap (I hope lol) and then I put away the dry dishes from morning snack and then washed and put away lunch dishes. The three older kids went back to play. Pulled frozen tortilla rounds out of the freezer for dinner and found taco shells in pantry for dinner. Crock pot smells awesome. I miss Cliff and wonder what time he will be home tonight.

Carly just came in the house with no shirt. Apparently the "Guys" meaning Cameron and Claire got dirt on her shirt. I asked her to go get it and I would clean it off. I did, I banged it on the porch rails and asked the kids not to put dirt on her shirt, and asked them to put the dirt pots on the grass and not on the deck.

12:47 going to sweep the floor from lunch and then hopefully feed and settle Caroline so she will go down for a nap too. It is nice with both youngers nap at the same time. Caroline is now in bed, awake. I hope she naps.

It is 1:15. I now have Carly watching Carebears on TV. The two olders playing outside. The house is quiet. Going to go get the bucket and wash down the tables/chairs and any yucky walls or doors/knobs/switch plates that need washing up. Shouldn't take too long.

I chatted with my Mom for a few minutes. I also chatted with Cliff for a few minutes. He called to say hi. That was nice.

Went downstairs to get the bucket, and Caroline was crying again. So, I fed her again and finally she is SLEEPING in her crib.

It is 2:09. Checked on the kids and they are making dirt birthday cake and having a birthday party. I have my bucket and now I am going to do my wipe downs. I am sure Catie will be up shortly! Then it will be snack time! Yikes. Where has the day gone?

2:30 Tidy up the playroom. Clean up is done of surfaces/knobs/doors/switched and some door trim with obvious dirty spots!...always dirty on the lower 1/3 rd of the doors...why might that be. Cleaned up. All 4 older kids are in the house. They are done making dirt cakes. They have all washed their hands. Going to put a movie on for them. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I will make them popcorn for a snack/treat. Folded the baby laundry. Not put away yet. Caroline is in the room. Do not want to disturb her.

In the last hour I brought the bucket back downstairs, looked at more laundry to wash for tomorrow. Got some cheese out for tonight from the downstairs fridge. Washed the popcorn dishes, picked the newspaper off the front stoop. Checked on the kids as Cameron and Claire went outside and Catie and Carly are back watching Charlie and the CC. Caroline is still sleeping. She is having a nice relaxing nap. I went to my favourite site Kidswap again. I ate a handful of popcorn and some nuts and dried fruits. Answered some emails and now here. It is now almost 4 pm. Wow, this day is going fast.

Caroline woke up at 4:30. Straight to the exersaucer as I was just was about to cut the tomatoes for the tacos. She needs a diaper change.

4:44 pm. I just finished opening up the taco shell box, cut open the soft shell package. Layed out shells for the oven. I will heat up the oven when Cliff walks through the door. He is expected to be in a few minutes late tonight. Hopefully within the next half hour. I read the local paper. I precut the tomatoes and grated the cheese for the pork tacos tonight. I also cut up some raw brocolli to snack on. They are all thirsty so a cup or two for the water colour. I also gave the kids a mini cheese to tide them over. They have all come into the house now. Now the crazy day begins. It always begins right before Cliff comes home. I also made some of that Nestea Iced tea in a glad premixed for Cliff and I, so when he walks through the door he has something to drink if he wants. If he doesn't we will have it with dinner. That is my thank you for his hard work during the day.

I am going to go change Caroline's diaper, and check Catie's diaper and make sure all of the kids wash their hands for dinner time. Caroline is now crying and the exersaucer is getting banged around. Time to get busy again. Oh, only 3 and a bit more hours until bedtime of 8 pm. It is a long day today lol. So far, 9 almost 10 hours with the kids by myself.

All kids accounted for and all staying out of trouble which is marvelous. I think they are tired out from making so many mudcakes etc. So much fun to be a kid. Remember when summer lasted forever!

I brushed my teeth. Went to the bathroom to freshen up. Made sure again that all of the "cake makers" hands were washed and ready for dinner. Check, they are.

Cameron, Claire (holding Caroline) and Catie are watching cyberchase in TV. Carly is in her bedroom playing dollies quietly. She needs time away from the others as she gets tired of being around everybody and wants quiet.

I am going to go relieve Claire of holding Caroline and feed her, so that I can eat when dinnertime rolls around. I sure hope Cliff gets home soon so we can eat before 6 pm.

Cliff got home at 5:25 pm. I was sitting on the couch with all 5 kids. I was feeding Caroline. Oven is warming up for the shells. Looks like we are on plan. Cliff is washing up as I type this. Kids are all hungry and all of their finger nails will need clipping before bed as they are very dirty from cake making lol.

We didn't eat dinner as a family tonight. That bugs me. Usually we do. Tonight Caroline wanted dinner first. She ate first. The kids ate 2 taco's each. Catie had one. Cliff ate with the kids. I ate alone, but Cliff kept me company. Caroline stayed in Cliff's arm. Nothing has been cleaned up. It is 6:44 pm. Claire and Carly are in the tub. Two down, two to go. I am going to go clean the dinner mess now, and pack some up for Cliff's lunch tomorrow.

7:12 - Cliff bathed all of the kids (minus Caroline) and then we treated the kids to a cookie on the deck. Cameron keeps showing me his very loose front tooth. He should just yank it out but he won't. I did the cleaning whilst he did the bathing. Dishes into the dishwasher, hand washed the pans. I started the dishwasher as it was full to the gills with dishes. I also changed the water in my vase from the flowers Cliff brought me home on Saturday! They still look beautiful. It was nice to get flowers. That is rare, but I know he loves me whether he buys me flowers or not!

Carly helped herself to water, and spilled, and then cleaned it up with the proper cloth. Cliff is working on something from work with Caroline in his arms, and Claire asking many questions. Cameron is in his room. Catie helped Carly clean up the water. Next is tooth brushing, and then bedtime for the kids.

Caroline is squacking, and the kids need to brush and then settle in for quiet time before bedtime. Hopefully before 8 pm tonight.

Carly painted toothpaste on her eyelids like eyeshadow lol. I just sprayed down the main bathroom again. It always amazes me how far the spritz from a toothbrush can travel. Times that by 4 kids! Wowweee!

7:37 time to kiss the kids goodnight. Start dishwasher again because Catie turned it off.

On the way back to the kitchen I picked up a couple of straggly toys in the hallway. Put then back in the playroom, and cleaned up what didn't get put away this evening.

Catie is protesting as per usual. I know they are all tired. I hope they sleep soon. 7:44 pm.

Caroline needs a feed. I will take my position on the couch for the next few hours I would say. I am hearing monkeys in the girls bedroom. I hope they are not jumping!

It took a few visits to the girls room to settle them. They finally did. They fell asleep around 8:15 or so.

I have had Caroline feeding and playing about since 8 until now. I also talked on the phone with my friend Lisa.

Had some cookies and milk as a treat tonight. Caroline is still awake and it is 9:37 pm. Hopefully she will go down for the night. All on her schedule.

Well, Caroline stopped feeding and settled in Cliff's arms. It is 10:45 pm. All 5 kids down to bed. Dishwasher is unloaded (thanks Cliff) and now I am going to get ready for bed. I was having the nods on the couch.

Good night. Tomorrow comes quickly.

Shoot, I just remembered about the dirty fingernails that need trimming. I will put that on my list for tomorrow when get to kiss them all good morning and start all over again. Ah, the life of a stay at home mom to 5 fabulous kids.

Cathy
10:48 pm.