my day with three

Three. Oh it’s a magic number. Yes it is! Vests & purse above compliments of Joules. Sneak peek from my post for Monday (yes, Nell did a photoshoot in her backyard and showered.)

We are three strong now and boy sometimes the days are long loooooong long. You know what I mean. I cannot complain {just did} but wow. The 12 hours my husband is gone can really stack up. I’m very glad he has a job and one he loves. All the same, my job kills me somedays. I love it too. But death. Chocolate. Whining. Crying. {me & them}. You know.

But I digress. The day! The day! How we get through it! Grace just did a great post on a day in her life. I was inspired. You won’t be by mine. My girlfriend Kate is doing a great series interviewing moms with children aged 7 & under & over. That magic age when they’re more involved and helpful. Check it. And my dear friend Cynthia reminds me these are the three toughest ages to have, with the oldest only just 4 this summer. I sure hope so.

Carry on.

6:30am. AA kisses me goodbye as I roll over to nurse the le bebe and I bleary eyed whisper DON’T FORGET YOUR LUNCH OR YOUR GLASSES before nursing said bebe back to sleep.

6:59am. SuperBoy bounds into our room shouting triumphantly It’s 7 O’CLOCK! I convince him to play with his baseball cards while I “care for your brother” aka try to sleep a few more minutes. He plays, he peppers me with questions about who is who and who got traded and who got injured and who is going to play next season. I convince him to bring me a clean diaper & wipes. Quick diaper change. Back to feigning sleep. But.

Lots of questions.

Few answers.

Maybe I arise, get dressed (if you can call what I wear daily dressing), and get SuperBoy to work on opening his curtains, picking out his clothing, and helping me wipe up his brother’s spit up. This is a spitty baby. Meanwhile we have every fan blaring so that SweetPea can get more beauty sleep.

She’s a regular fire breathing dragon in the morning. No, literally, she has a deep raspy voice that grumbles and rumbles.

8am. I check on her. Yup, she’s up.

MAMA! I’ve been playing with my baseball guys and Chloe and Big Darling don’t like them. They need surgery. She pauses to wipe the hair out of her face. Not the dollies. The baseball guys.

You can tell she’s her brother’s sister.

Breakfast of oatmeal with milk & syrup tapped from our neighbor’s trees in Wisconsin. Whole rolled organic oats. Whole organic milk. And plopped in frozen organic blueberries. I wish we could say they came from our garden. The blueberries have not been wildly successful as of yet. Maybe some whole wheat toast with raw honey & cinnamon on top, butter butter from Hope Creamery–hand churned in Southern Minnesota–WOOT! Whole milk smoothies? Bananas, strawberries, and said milk.

Vitamix. She tells me THAT HURTS MY EARS everyday. Every time. Before I start it on low. Sensitive lady.

9:15am. We play, they play, I knit and bounce Mr. Spits. I definitely call my sister Molly to see if she can FaceTime. Maybe I try to nurse him down for a nap while they playscreamfight.

10am. Academy time! That’s right, people, our homeschool preschool is named “the Academy.” Kinda the opposite of the renegade homeschoolers we are, but it works. We do it from 10-10:59 each day. A little special room upstairs filled with coloring, painting, crafting, carding, books, pencils, you name it’s there. More on how we roll that out later.

10:59am. Post Academy let down. I may nurse the baby down again, or just start lunch. We usually eat by noon. Unless I’m desperate to get them down for an early nap. Then we eat at 11:19. Or maybe we walk to the park, or just down to the Cathedral a mile+ away. My only exercise de jour. Or maybe we play with friends and scrap the Academy for that day.

Noon. Lunch! Usually leftovers from the night before, or honey & almond butter sandwiches on crackers. Fruit? check. Veggies? check. Hoping they actually eat it all? check. I’d say lately I’m pushing for eat eat eat and they’re all can we play with the glue sticks??? She’s been picky lately, and he’s been squirmy. The trough is laid. Whether or not they eat is up to them. My favorite toddler/kid friendly meals guest posted over here —>

1pm. NAP NAP NAP alert!! Mr. Spits is generally awake by now so I deposit him on the floor on a playmat in SuperBoy’s room. He reads him baseball cards. She & I do the potty-toilet-dance. Though potty trained when awake, she generally still uses her diaper for number 2. TMI? {mommy blog} We read a little, sing an assortment of Jesus songs, kiss her dollies goodnight, ensure her entourage is all with her, and their toys, and their blankies, AND HER FLAXSEED PACK because if someone gets injured during nap time.

Trouble.

Then I’m in patient number 2’s room. He lays in bed while I read to him–usually Old Mother Westwind stories {childhood fav!} and bounce BabyLoves on my knee, spitting up, maybe nursing, maybe nursing while standing and rocking and reading. Sometimes the chapters are very short. *wink*

1:35pm. me! my time! clean the house. do the laundry. return phone calls. nurse the fussy baby. nurse him longer. make lists of things to do. don’t do anything on the lists. scroll the internet on my phone while he dream nurses. work on sewing projects. in my head.

3:30pm. They’re awake! The internal clocks have struck! Now it’s afternoon with time to burn. Dinner prep? Maybe. Bocce game with my dad? Probably. Playing outside? Getting dirty & wet? Definitely. This goes on indefinitely. Or until AA comes home at 6+. Or until their fighting and unhappiness is enough to garner room time/timeouts. We eat dinner by 5:30, then begin the long wait til their dada comes home.

6:30pm. Handoff the kiddos. Put out the husband’s dinner on the table. Stagger upstairs. Check email. Realize I have so much to do. Nursing le bebe. Realize the big kids are gone to the park so maybe I can . . . nope. BabyLoves wants to go to sleep. So we’re off to nurse and snuggle for the majority of the next hour+.

Baths, bed, reading, prayers, lights out by 8pm. SuperBoy pops up a few times with innocuous excuses I’m just struggling a little bit. My baseball guys fell behind my bed. I need someone to sit in the room the whole time while I sleep.

Or they take selfless with Dada. HAHA!

At some point everyone is sleeping, except that’s when I’m up. 10pm-12am are my work hours. Nothing like being productive in a quiet, happy house. And then we do it all over again.

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Remember Sample Day in the Life of Two Kids? Me neither.

Are you still reading? Don’t you want to go and buy this Healthy Living Bundled up bundle? Well, did you even read about it??? I bought it and have already gotten my mooolah’s worth. Do it!