One Day

2:35 AM Luke wakes up crying. I cover him up and tell him to go back to sleep.
4:45 AM Leif wakes up crying. I bring him back to bed with me to nurse.
5:00 AM Leif is still awake. I pray he goes back to sleep in his bed.
5:10 AM I get back up. Bring Leif back to bed. Nurse him longer this time.
5:30 AM I think he’s asleep now. Put him back in his bed.

Luke climbs in bed with us at 7:50. Decide to get out of bed since church starts at 9. Put kids on couch with dry cold cereal. Down a granola bar and hop in shower. Russ gets ready in 3 minutes and gets the kids dressed. (Luckily I ironed their church clothes yesterday and set them out, otherwise who knows what they would have been wearing.)

Russ puts the kids in the truck while I grab the last minute stuff. We get to church on time (for once).

Levi and Luke go to their Sunday school classes. Leif makes it through worship service and then decides to compete with the visiting speaker. Russ heads out to walk with him. We’d put him in the nursery if we didn’t think the whole family would be sick by Wednesday.

After church the truck mysteriously steers itself to the local donut shop. Not sure how that happened. Levi and Luke take 20 seconds to down their rainbow-sprinkled donuts. On the way home I mention that I have a massive headache. Russ (realizing that when momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy) swings through the corner store drive-through and gets me a 32 oz. Dr. Pepper. The amount of sugar consumed by this family on this morning would give a whole army a lovely high.

Russ does something to the TV (with Luke’s help, of course) while I feed Leif a yogurt. The boys get their grubbies on, and I put Leif down for a nap.

I head out to see what the big boys are up to while Leif settles down to sleep.

Yep. He fell asleep.

The big boys are outside, baby asleep…I head to the couch for a nap. Okay, not really. I put in a load of laundry. Empty the dishwasher. Clean up the remains of last night’s fiesta. Pick up the church clothes strewn all over the house. Straighten up from the morning’s getting ready whirlwind. Maybe I’ll get to read last month’s Better Homes and Gardens. Nope.

Luke managed to get soaking wet (again). Strip his clothes. Get dry clothes on. Feed him a tortilla with cheese and some juice. We sit in the rocking chair in the bedroom with his blanket and Fox in Socks. I tuck him in bed for a nap after putting on some quiet music and turning the fan on. Leif starts screaming. I head into our room where he was napping and pick him up. I’m thinking he didn’t like the fajitas, salsa, and dulce de leche icecream as much as I did last night. We snuggle, and he starts to fall back asleep. I lay him down, and he starts wailing. I decide to give him a little bit of time to go back to sleep while I switch the laundry.

Russ is wondering where lunch is. I head back to get Leif who is not anywhere close to being asleep and put him in the high chair with a cracker while I get lunch for Russ and Levi.

I decide to check on Luke to make sure he went to sleep. Ha! I lay him back down and bribe him with Go Diego, Go! if he’ll take his nap. (Bad mommy!)

I scramble to heat up leftover fajitas for the boys and take it out to the back porch (Russ was up on the roof with the hose…they’re both soaking wet now.) Leif is getting fussy, so I grab a jar of baby food and feed him. Apparently I will just be snitching the salsa for lunch today.

I go back to check on Luke. He decided on quiet play time instead of Go Diego, Go!

Naked (in the middle of potty training) almost-3-year-old covers himself in band-aids. More laundry. Messy diaper and bath for 8 month old...



Russ decides to borrow a pressure washer from my parents. My mom invites Levi to spend the afternoon, but he’s soaked. They come home. Levi gets changed into dry clothes and goes to play up in the playroom. I grab Leif who is army-crawling all over the dirty floor and getting into everything. (Gotta get those gates up!) I nurse him while Levi and Luke start fighting upstairs. Luckily ‘Bambi’ shows up to take Levi away.


They don’t get away fast enough. Tired Luke goes running after them, crying and trying to get his boots on. I grab him and set him down in front of the TV. I know I promised Go Diego, Go! if he went to sleep (he didn’t) so I figure I’m not giving in if I put on Little Einstein instead. Right? Russ is on the roof again. Leif goes down for nap #2. I pray he stays asleep for a long time.

More laundry. I clean up the lunch mess. Meal plan. Grocery list. Clean out fridge. More dishes. Put on Zoboomafoo for Luke. (Bad mom!) I give him celery, a carrot, and watered down juice to make myself feel better. Actually, Luke doesn’t watch much of either show…to busy getting into things.

I sit down to clean up/organize a little bit in the school room. Maybe get Levi’s school work together for the week. Leif starts screaming. Less than an hour. !@$#%$@! I go in to see if I can get him back to sleep. (Just for kicks, ya know.) Oh. My. Word. It worked. I put in another load of laundry.

Zoboomafoo is over, so I decide to head up to the playroom with Luke to clean up. Multiple phone calls, four very strange girls knocking at the front door, a potty accident (and 4th change of clothes) later, the playroom is clean enough.

I leave Luke upstairs playing with blocks and head back to the school room to clean and organize when I remember that I really needed to transplant my basil seedlings. Got that done just as Leif is waking up. Two hours. Much better.

I manage to get a couple of worksheets copied while Russ gets cleaned up. We go to Costco and spend waaaay too much money. I buy books (of course). Russ decides to buy a pressure washer. He wants one with some real power. The boys get hot dogs. We pick up Levi on our way home.

I unload, put away, feed Leif avocado, fold and put away laundry, make a couple phone calls, order a book from Amazon… while Levi and Luke play computer games in dad’s office. Russ gets out his new pressure washer and starts in on the front porch. He comes in the house soaking wet with a huge smile on his face. ‘Now that’s power,’ he says.

Russ wants me to come out and ‘oooh and ahhh’ over the clean porch and roof. Nice.
I finally get the boys from the shop. Luke needs a bath. Luckily he was missing his pants. One less thing to wash. I make the boys a bedtime snack. We brush teeth and get them in jammies.

I read our children’s devotion book and a couple pages of Ben and Me while nursing Leif. Levi reads a few sight words flash cards. I put Leif in his bed, tuck the bigger boys in and leave them listening to The Horse and His Boy on CD. All of them are asleep within 5 minutes. Maybe that’s because it is already 9 PM. Even when I have wonderful intentions of getting them down early, it never seems to happen.

Russ finally comes in and gets cleaned up. I clean up the kitchen (again), run the dishwasher, close the curtains, straighten up. Russ heads out to fix a client’s computer. (Yes, he keeps odd hours.) I play on the computer--returning emails, blogging.

It's 11 PM. That seems to be the magic hour. Unfortunately I can't ever seem to get to bed before that. Hopefully Russ will get home soon and get a full night's sleep. Pray that the kids decide to sleep all night!!!

Thanks for spending the day with us!