A day in the life

Arriving home after 3 EXTRA hours in the car is never an easy thing, especially when you walk in the door 2 hours past dinner time with 5 hungry little peeps and an equally starving Mama and Daddy who are trying their darndest not to eat their young! Before we knew it, we had catapulted into emptying the car of all of its equivalents, minus the crumbs left from hours of not stopping to eat. As the last piece of luggage entered our crowded front hallway, we sent youngsters spiraling up the stairs to wash off all of the road gunk that certainly settles on your skin when you use bathrooms at the Cracker Barrel, Zaxbys, and even a rest stop or two. Shoes stayed at the door to be properly de-germed, and clothes were stripped and put in hot water. The little monkeys galavanted in the tub while I hastily began a load of laundry and sat online trying to order a Dominos pizza to quiet our yowling stomachs. The five littles were fed, as they laughed with glee at being home again. Instead of being exhausted, their voices ramped up to levels only a dog should be able to hear, and DH & I tried to keep from saying, "Be QUIET!" too many times since they had been held like caged animals for an entire day. Our day begins in the dark hour of 6am, but our children were not ready to settle down and go to sleep. Coughs, "I need water!", "I need milky! and Lambie! And Night Night", all filled the air as DH & I tried to get them to go to sleep so we could have a few hours of sanity. I ran around unpacking what I could, and finally took a shower to rid the last person of any remnant of nasty road germs. I hardly remember falling into bed and before I knew it, it was oh-dark-twenty and I had to wake up and start a new day.

Clothes were laid on each child's bed, lunches were made, and backpacks were at the front door. It should have been an easy morning, but it wasn't. One child squealed like a high-pitched pig because they didn't like the way their pants were fitting. Said child did his/her best to wake baby #5. I did my best to hold it together, and I was not 100% successful! No one ate their probiotic yogurt at breakfast, so who knows what germs they'll pick up today with unprotected guts! The fab four left, and I felt sure I could unpack some more, do a little laundry, and maybe even make it to the store, but Hurricane had other plans. Every 2 minutes I had to take her to the bathroom or change her clothes, or put on another part of her Halloween costume. There was no time to look for the I Pod that is missing that my OCD mind will not quit obsessing about over and over again. The next load of laundry was not started and I just loaded the dishwasher. "Forget it", I thought to myself. "I'll just go to Target and pick up those bikes". That should be easy enough. I stuffed the ballerina fairy-clad Hurricane into the car, and raced to pick up the 2 bikes that need to be hidden for Christmas. The bikes were signed, sealed, and delivered, and were supposed to be happily waiting for us at Customer Service. But that would just be WAY too easy. I gave Jesus my claim ticket, and he went in search of the bikes, after repeatedly asking me if I had brought the bikes to the store after having them at home. "No, I BOUGHT the bikes here last week. DH said one of the brakes was hitting the wheel, so your bike guy was checking both bikes for us. I just need to pick them up & take them home now". I don't think he ever fully understood. He said to give him 5 minutes, and I had to give him 5 times 8 minutes (40), and I almost lost it. I called DH in tears after I had bought soap and batteries and entertained Hurricane as best I could with her exposed top. Finally FINALLY the bikes were found. Then they had scratches, so we had to wait for MORE bikes. At long last, 2 shiny new bikes were loaded into my car and Hurricane and I sped off into the sunshine.

The bikes are happily hidden at a neighbor's house and now I was able to sit and write a minute before tearing apart the rest of my bedroom in search of that silly I Pod!! OCD wins once again:). Happy Monday, y'all!

Oblivious

Don't you just love it when you're trying to take a really good picture and people around you are totally in la-la land? I mean, really, peeps, I didn't come to the beach to take a picture of you and your beer gut. I'm here to take pictures of my 5 little darlings. People like the ones below just kept getting in the way. Thankfully I finally did get a great picture!

Today

Today has been a day like any other day. I awoke to the sounds of, "Hold me, mommy. I want Mommy's bed," while little fingers pulled my head to hers. "Dip it, mommy, dip my paci... in da water. Dip it." So I obliged. And yet another day began with a quick shower before suiting up in my short order cook paraphernalia to hand out breakfast to our 5 chirping little ones. "I want milk! May I have a waffle with cream cheese? He took my seat!!!" Ahhh.... what a peaceful way to start the day!

Our Tiny girl has had terrible asthma for the last few days. She was looking too pekid, so we called our pediatrician and settled on an 11am appointment. After struggling to get everyone dressed and all beds made, we tumbled out the door and ran a few errands before Tiny's appointment. The frame shop is not open on Mondays, so we went to the library to return books. Apparently I am not a good book caretaker, and was told I would be charged for the book I just read because of some water damage (note to self, you just can't read in the bathtub!). This made me mad at myself that I had wasted money on a book I've already read when I am trying to watch how I spend. It ate me UP as I drove to fill the car with gas. Everyone was still happy go lucky as we refilled the car on our way to the bank.

Next we had to have four forms notarized for school. Imagine the bank's delight when I walked in with not one, not two, but FIVE little ducklings all in a row. Everyone began to shift and wiggle and giggle and drive their mama crazy at this point. "Are they all YOURS?" and other questions followed. You've never seen a notary fly through forms so quickly. I think that will be my new plan of action when I need to be in and out quickly!

At last we went to the pediatrician where the crowd was even gigglier, wigglier, and wilder. We beat all pediatrician world records and were in and out of the appointment and BUCKLED IN THE CAR in 22 minutes. Perhaps Dr. B was ready to move on to the next patient after being accosted with 45 thousand questions! Tiny was given a steroid to help her little lungs, so it was off to Publix.

We sashayed into the store amidst looks of terror and fear. The questions began immediately. "Are they all YOURS? Certainly there are twins in there somewhere. Two girls and a boy. That's unusual, isn't it? At least you got your boy. I know your husband's happy." I smiled, answered as best as I could, and moved on.

My brilliant friend, W, had told me that you can EAT right there in the Publix. It was 11:30am and the troops were beginning to show signs of hunger, and my short order cook ensemble was at home. We meandered over to the hot and cold food section and managed to eat for $10!!! That is less than $1.70 a person! You beat that! While I was waiting to pay, the Publix lady let a man go in front of me. After he realized that I was waiting to pay too, he apologized and said he thought I was waiting for something. I was a little miffed because I had been waiting for a lONG time to pay (they didn't have a cashier so a sub maker had to do it), but I kept quiet. I told him it was okay, and was glad to know he didn't do it on purpose. Well, wouldn't you know we were sitting there eating our goodies and someone came from behind, put their hand on my shoulder, and said, "I felt so bad about jumping in front of you, so I bought you all dessert." He handed me some delicious Klondike bars and we all thanked him profusely. I told him he did not need to do that, and he said, "Yes, but it's kinda fun," and walked off. The children were so surprised and happily gobbled their treats!!

Then, as we left, the bagger, an older man in his 70s, gave each child a quarter. They left saying, "This is the NICEST store! I can't believe that! That man gave us ice cream and then the other man gave us a quarter!"

So, if you need to borrow 5 little peeps for your shopping pleasure, just give me a holler!

A Day in the life

I wrote this a week ago on Mon, Feb. 9th, but this is a typical day!

Monday was a day like any other. The triplets went to school at 8am, and then I took K at 9am. H & I then went to our local Greenwise, a new concept by Publix. It is a mixture between Whole Foods and a regular grocery store. The food is wonderful! You can buy great sandwiches, salads, and pizzas there too. It took us about an hour to shop, and we raced home since we had some shrimp in our bags!

I unloaded the groceries, finished cleaning up the kitchen, and ran a load of laundry. Then, I had to sort through paperwork to organize our tax information. April 15th will be here before we know it! The next thing I knew, it was time to pick K up at school, so we raced to get her!

We came home & moved the trash cans back behind the house, and then I fixed lunch. I had a BLT & K had some bacon and fruit. H ate a little bit of many things. I rocked H & put her down for her nap, and then picked up in the upstairs bedrooms.
Then I prepared our chuck roast for dinner and put it in the oven so that it could cook all afternoon.

I spent a lot of time on hold sorting out bills. I had to fax something to the water department here to avoid a $140 deposit! All of this took a lot of time. Then, I tackled more of our ever-growing paperwork and never-finished laundry. I wash an average of 3 loads a day.

I also cleaned up playdough and folded more laundry. K & I played together some too. At 10 till 3, we woke up H & raced to pick up the triplets. On the way home, we dropped off DH's drycleaning. Once in the door, everyone unloaded book bags and had a snack while I packed the lunches for Tuesday. CP helped me with the lunches, which was nice. The children played outside and I folded more laundry, peeled potatoes, and worked on dinner!

At 5pm, I put everyone in the bathtub or shower for baths. H & K need special attention, so I put away clean clothes & made D's bed while they played in the tub. Of course I forgot about the potatoes boiling on the stove, so I had to run downstairs a time or two. That is when I decided it is dangerous to cook when you have young children!

DH came home & we all had dinner. Notice I sad we HAD dinner. I'm not sure we enjoyed it. I had really knocked myself out with homemade mashed potatoes, roast beef, roasted carrots, corn and French bread. The children wouldn't eat & the battle began. It ended with me showing the children the Sam & Esther video. I told them that it's okay to not love everything on their plate, but to eat it anyway, because there are children who have NOTHING. I think the video helped them understand. We all cried.