A day in the life

I thought it might be good to paint the picture of a typical day so far. I usually wake up between 7-8am. If I'm lucky, I will have gotten 4 hours of consecutive sleep. The baby still wakes up once a night at least. There are nights when others join him. Last night was one of those. My son, #3, peed his bed in the middle of the night. When, I wake up I immediately serve cearl to #3 who is ALWAYS the first to get up. It's the first thing he says every morning "can I have cearl?" I make coffee. Somewhere in there, I feed the cats and dogs. Then its probably time to get up #5. I change his diaper and feed him breakfast. By then all 5 are up so I change #4s diaper. Everybody gets breakfast. Sometimes, its farm fresh eggs, today it's watermelon and cearl. My babies drink soy milk so they can get constipated easily, so I like to serve a lot of fruit. Right about now, I get to sit down on the computer for a few. Drink my coffee, FB, blog and check my email. It's my "me" time. Everybody gets ready, dressed, brushed, and cleaned. I try to start homeschool between 9-10am. It usually depends on the night we had before or how much work we have to do. From about 10-noon, I juggle schooling my girls and entertaining my boys. My mom comes over to help a lot. Then it's lunch time. I make lunch, serve lunch, clean up after lunch. If all goes well with the babies, #4 & 5, go down for a nap. It's back to homeschooling. Now, on Tuesday and Thursday, we bump nap up so we can go to homeschool P.E. at the YMCA from 1:30-3. We haven't mastered homeschool so it varies when we finish. I try to fit in an activity that we can all do together like play dough, painting, or if I'm really tired, a movie. Then it's time to make dinner, serve dinner, clean up the kitchen. I usually do dishes in the morning and evening. Hopefully at some point I threw a load of laundry in. If the girl are working on something independently, Ill fold clothes while they are on the computers for school. My oldest has a lot more independent work than #2. Dinner time is at about 5. Sticking to a schedule makes life abit easier. My kids thrive on the routine. Heaven forbid I try to stray, that's when we have meltdowns and freakouts. It's never a good idea to miss nap or a meal. It does happen, I usually accept my fate if I veer off schedule. After dinner, I clean, put away clothes, give baths, feed pets, and read stories. It's been nice, there is no furniture in the living room so we wrestle on the floor, play superman(I lift them with my feet), and read books. I'm pretty darn tired by 8pm. The kids realize we begin a countdown til mean mommy shows up. Everybody brushes their teeth. I tuck them in. In their own rooms...every single one of them. It is so neat they all have their own rooms. In SD, the three oldest shared one room. Bed time takes longer but its ok. My patience lasts about to that point. Its when they get up, get water, go to the bathroom, or do things they should have done already that then I start making threats. The baby has started going down around the same time so Ive been getting  a couple hours at night. I blog, FB, or search Craigslist for furniture. My husband and I chat on the phone. Ive even been reading.  I switch between a book for entertainment and a Buddhism book every other night. Sometimes, I stay up too late reading because I relish the alone time. Like last night, I was up til 1am. shame on me. So that's that....a typical day!