Thursday

(More than you ever wanted to know...)

7:15 ::Woke up. Took more Ibuprofen for cramps and back muscle pain.

7:45 ::Got up when it became obvious that I wasn't going back to sleep.

Took shower. Made bed.

Couldn't stand the quiet. Put on Princess Bride for company. PERFECT!!

Bagel with cream cheese, OJ, and vitamins for breakfast. Huge smile on my face from all the quotable lines in the movie.

Computer time. Laundry. Dishes.

(Not perfect, but much, much better.)
Finished getting ready.

10:15 ::Headed to hospital for chest xrays. (Put my new phone in my purse. Leif threw my other phone in the bathtub. The new one Russ purchased for me has military specs. Indestructible, hopefully.)

(Gray, misty day.)
Got xrays done. Picked up book I left at the doctor's office yesterday.

Target (again), Craft Store.

Went to my favorite local pizza joint. Finished Deconstructing Penguins.
1:00 ::Home for more Ibuprofen.

More laundry. Put paper in glass cabinet doors.(I started keeping all my extra decorating stuff in the cabinet, but the cluttered look was killing me.)
(I don't like seeing the edges of the paper, but it will do for now. Maybe I'll re-do it some day with wrapping paper or fabric.)
Got together supplies for Spartan toga costumes. (Finally picked up the leather cord while at the craft store.)Computer time. Cleaned up stacks of paper on the kitchen counter. More computer time.The Princess Bride is playing for the third time. I don't know what to do with myself. I decide to clean up the playroom. (Ugh.)

4:00 ::Shan arrives with the big boys. We chat. Levi gets ready for TKD. Shan takes him to class and Luke on errands. Doctor's office calls and said xrays are negative. (See, all in my head.) I finish cleanining up the playroom.

(Yes, the walls are a mess. I have some decorating ideas for this room, but it is not even close to the priority list right now.)
5:00 ::Head out to pick up Leif. Chat with mom and dad for a little bit.

5:30 ::Back home. Put on a show for Leif and thaw chicken for dinner. I call Russ to make sure he can pick Levi up. He sounds groggy and tells me that he was taking a nap under his desk at work. Hmm. I can't believe it took this long for the nasty cold to hit him. At least he's smart enough to take a power nap rather than drive home tired...

6:15 ::Shannon comes back with Luke. Leif gets his finger smashed in a door.

7:00 ::Russ arrives home with Levi. We sit down for chicken, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower, and bread.

7:30 ::Boys get into their jammies, brush their teeth, and snuggle on the couch with daddy to watch a few minutes of Penelope.

8:30 ::Luke reads a couple little books to me. Levi reads to himself.

Boys in bed. Ahhhhhh.

9:00 ::I clean up the kitchen from dinner. Do dishes. (Okay, I did leave the pans to 'soak.') Run the dishwasher. Luke won't stay in bed.

9:30 ::I post on my blog and head to bed. Maybe I'll read for a couple minutes before falling asleep....

The Real Wednesday

I read Ali's blog today, and realized that it wasn't fair to the idea of the project if I left out details of my week. I also know that some of you are thankful when I add the not-so-fairy-tale details of my life, and you get to think of me as a real person. I also can't really share the details of my Thursday without explaining a little about the rest of Wednesday, so here it is in a nutshell:

10 something pm (Tuesday): Leif finally falls asleep. I'm in pain and worried, but I try to get some sleep as well.

12 something am: Luke wakes up crying and crying, saying his knee hurts. He comes to bed with me and cries more. I can't get him to stop. I give him some Ibuprofen and get Russ from his office. Luke finally settles down and we all try to get some sleep.

The rest of the night is blurry, but between Luke and Leif (and hurting and worrying), Russ and I were awake most of the night.

7 something am: Levi wakes up and I get up because I'm still hurting and worried, and staying in bed isn't very much fun.

8:30 am: I call the doctor three times waiting for them to start answering their phone so that I can make an appointment. Levi is on the couch watching a show. I'm in the corner of the school room crying. I finally get a hold of the doctor and make an appointment for 11:15. I call my mom, and she cancels her plans for the day.

9:45 am: Mom comes over to help out and hang out with me. Leif and Luke finally wake up. I think it must be nice to sleep in after being up all night.

10:45 am: I head out to my doctor's appointment.

11:45 am: I'm exhausted and trying to give the doctor a list of vague, random, ever-changing, seemingly unconnected symptoms from the past month (without crying). He is wishing I had hurt my ankle and he needed to tell me whether or not it was broken. He has no idea what is wrong, but gives me an order for a chest x-ray and takes a bunch of blood. I leave feeling like everything is in my head and I can make it go away by not stressing about it.

12:30 pm: I run a couple errands and head home.

1:00 pm: My angel mother goes to Costco to get me some groceries. I feel a little better and become a tornado around the house. Feed the kids. Pick up stuff....

4:00 pm: I'm feeling much better. See? It was all in my head! PMS or depression. That's it. We cheerfully head to piano lessons.

5:30 pm: My angel mother tells me that she and Shannon are stealing the boys so that I can get some sleep. I worry that I will be lonely and depressed and worried without them here, but I know I need some sleep. I make tacos for dinner and get stuff together for the boys' sleep-over.

7:00 pm: The boys are gone. I start cleaning up from dinner and my back muscles spasm. Terrific. Something new. I leave all the dinner dishes, take Ibuprofen, and cuddle up on the couch in Russ's office. He works while I watch recorded episodes of Dancing With the Stars.

10:00 pm: I'm in bed. Other than waking up a couple times and downing more Ibuprofen, I get a decent night's sleep!

It can only go up from here, right?!

Wednesday (In Brief)

I'm editing Wednesday to an hour. It's my perogative since it's my blog, right? We arrived at piano lessons greeted by the cheeriest display of pumpkins and gourds all around the house. The boys were so excited! Sometimes it just doesn't take much. (And thanks for letting us keep one, Lynn!)

We were early (probably for the first time, ever) so the boys went for a quick stroll (run, gallop...) in the orchard.
It's hazelnut season! The ground is covered.


Luke and Leif soaked up a half hour on the play structure while Levi was in his lesson. I doubt we'll have many more weeks of warm weather. Soon, we'll have to head back inside...

An Ordinary Tuesday

I braved the hair salon with three little boys and survived.

We celebrated with a trip to the mall.

And stopped at the photo booth like usual. This time I got to take the pictures.
Bob's Pizza has been a favorite since before I was married. The same lady has worked there since Levi was a baby. I've spent 5 or 6 years rolling up to her counter with the stroller. Now I have three little boys standing there doing their own ordering.
If this picture doesn't perfectly depict the majority of my shopping trips, I don't know what would:
I don't know how the boys got recess before we even started any school work...

Bambi came to pick up Leif for their routine afternoon together (sleeping on the couch).
And we got down to business for a couple hours. Reading. Grammar. Piano...
...and of course Math.
Daddy came home early and paid for admission into the park.

Where he finished his cell phone conversation...

...and then took Levi to Tae Kwon Do. He was nice enough to take the other two boys out of my (short) hair for a while before we met up for dinner at a local burger joint.
Now, if only Leif would realize that it is waaaaay past his bedtime.

A Week in the Life...

I very badly wanted to participate in Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life this week. It appears I'll be doing a pared down version as we are still not up to speed. Luke and Leif are still congested, wheezy, and coughing. It seems I'm getting a sinus infection to add to my list of annoying ills at the moment. (Do I sound whiny?)

Ali asks us to keep it low-pressure and not worry if our life isn't perfect at the moment. Sounds good to me. Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

The boys watching morning television. Leif asks for Cheerios and juice as soon as he wakes up and always sits on the ottoman to watch shows.
Eggs, OJ, and spinach smoothie for breakfast:
Leif rarely consents to sit in the highchair anymore. He is a big boy, don't you know. I'm gonna miss our red highchair when it is no longer in use.
Our school books and papers awaiting us:
(My boys do occasionally wear shirts, I promise.)

We do all our reading on the couch. I love snuggling. (Luke is a great photographer, no?)
When does laundry ever end? I could take this picture daily:

You could tell that I've been sick the second you walked into my house. I can't believe this arrangement was still up over my mantel. I couldn't stand it another moment.
I didn't have the energy for a big re-do, but this quick-change is much, much better.
I still couldn't stop fussing with it, so I added a couple other things. It will probably stay like this for a little while, though:
What did you do yesterday?