A Day in Our Crazy Life II (Snow Storm Edition)

About six months have passed since my last day-in-our-life post, so I had planned on toting my camera around with me today to put together another one.  It's fun to see how much one's daily routine can change in six months!  It turned out to be an atypical day for us, but I recorded it anyway.  Enjoy!

5:00 AM: I am half-conscious of M's alarm going off.  I hear him leaving the bed to go for a run before work.

5:30 AM: M returns to bed.  He whispers to me that there's tons of snow on the ground, all the schools are cancelled, and he's going to work from home.  Hooray!

5:52 AM: I hear the pitter patter of little feet in the hallway.  L, all rat's nest hair and warmth and fuzzy softness in her robe, tumbles into bed with us.  She hits me in the face with her elbow.  "Sorry Mama!"

5:55 AM: L says, "Mama, can I have a drink... and a snack?" I reply "Let's go have breakfast."  As she rises, L notices the lump that is M next to us in the bed.  "Daddy, will you come have breakfast with me?"

(a morning snuggle on the couch)

6:00 AM: As I'm preparing breakfast for L and myself, N emerges from her bedroom.  M goes downstairs to do some strength training since it's too snowy to get outside and run.  Before he does he checks the school closings and confirms that N's preschool is closed.  Snow day!!

6:12 AM: C is fussing in her crib.  I'm almost finished getting breakfast ready for N and L, but C sounds pretty agitated so I interrupt myself to go get her.  As soon as I come into the room she's all smiles.  I put her in her booster seat with a bottle of cow's milk (no more nursing!) so I can finish getting breakfast ready.

6:25 AM: Breakfast is served.  A poached egg for N, two blueberry pancakes for L (leftover from the batch Daddy made yesterday), one blueberry pancake for C.  Each girl has a drink of milk and a handful of quinoa granola on the side. (I tried making this at Sarah's recommendation, and we've already gone through three batches... the girls loooove it so much.  I highly recommend it!  Delicious and super healthy.)

Two poached eggs and coffee for Mama.

(This isn't a typical breakfast for us... usually it's cold cereal on school mornings, but today we had more time.)

6:40 AM: The big girls have finished and get down from the table to play.  C and I linger together while she slowly cleans her plate and I drink more coffee.  M comes upstairs and gobbles up some breakfast, then retreats to the bedroom with his laptop to start working.

7:00 AM: C is finished.  I wash her face and hands and get her down.  In my haste to get breakfast prepared, I never changed her diaper... so we head to her room to get that done.  All the time, N and L are playing "hunt" together with flashlights.  Not sure what they're hunting for... but that's what they call it.

7:05 AM: C's diaper is changed, and I figure while I have her on the changing table I'll just get her dressed.

(always grabbing the camera, this one)

7:15 AM: C is dressed and I carry her around the house as we look out the windows and survey the snowfall outside together.  I'm beginning to realize that a lot more snow has fallen than the 3-5 inches they predicted on the forecast I watched before going to bed last night.

Ugh.  We're going to have some work ahead of us digging the cars out.  I had hoped to get to the library with the girls this morning-- we've had a lot of at-home time this week what with all the "worker mans".  Well, at least M is home and he says he can take a break from work mid-morning and do some snow-blowing.  The snow is predicted to taper off throughout the morning.

7:20 AM: I find clothes for L.  We take of her pull-up from overnight, use the potty, and put her clothes on.

7:40 AM: I instruct N on where to find her clothes from the previous day.  (We're trying to teach her to re-wear clothes that are still clean so we can cut back on laundry.)  She finds them and dresses herself while I clean up the breakfast table and load up our brand new dishwasher!!

(insert Hallelujah Chorus here)

I start up the dishwasher... we just had the final plumbing done yesterday, so this is its maiden voyage.  It works beautifully.

8:00 AM

(on a normal Friday, we would be leaving for school by this time... everybody would be dressed and groomed, and lunch for N would be packed... but we had the luxury of taking our time this morning!)

I bring all of the girls with me to our bedroom and dress myself.  There are several interruptions but eventually the task is finished.

8:20 AM: We all traipse to the bathroom for morning grooming.  The older two wash their faces and brush their teeth by themselves.  N brushes her hair by herself and I brush L's (after much persuasion... what is it about the age of two and refusing to have one's hair brushed?  N was the same way at that age).

C just wants to stand up on chairs and steal everyone else's toothbrush (despite the fact that she has one of her own).

8:45 AM: We're getting ready to go down to the playroom and have some fun.  The girls grab their sweaters and put warm socks on (our playroom is not heated... next home improvement project?)

8:49 AM: We realize we're all hungry and need a snack before playing.  Back to the table we go for clementines and avocados.

N loves a little slice of avocado on a Wasa cracker... and she also loves to say "Wasa"

C ate half a clementine and almost an entire avocado

L, as usual, devoured about 3 whole clementines

(Do you see the little aquarium behind L?  Those are our new pets, 2 fully grown grow-a-frogs, that somebody was giving away for free on craigslist and the girls really wanted them.  N named her frog "Rosie" and L named hers "Rosie-Charlie".  The previous owners obviously did not clean the aquarium very often.  We put some clean water in but we haven't had the chance to give the tank itself the deep-cleaning that it really needs.  Hopefully this weekend.)

9:20 AM: Finally, down to the playroom we go!

The teddy bears came to the teddy bear picnic.

I attended the wedding of Princess Presto

and Whyatt

I folded a load of clean laundry while the girls played, and started a new load in the washer just around the corner from the playroom.  Just before we went back upstairs, I switched that load to the dryer and put a new load in the washer.

While I'm down here, I might as well show you what else the "worker mans" did:

If you didn't know, there used to be huge stove pipe holes in both of the walls pictured above.  You would never know it, eh?  You can sort of see on the playroom wall where the paneling texture doesn't quite match, but overall it's a pretty good job, I think!

10:45 AM:  We're starting to get hungry again, so we head upstairs to get lunch started.  I whip up our favorite smoothie for the girls to have while they wait for lunch (Grandma's recipe):

(1 cup OJ, 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 cup blueberries, 1 banana.  Today we did the smoothie straight up, but sometimes we add stuff... chia, flax, spinach... or you could substitute kefir for the yogurt.  Smoothies are great for sneaking healthy things by your kids!)

(blend. enjoy. yum.)

The girls stay near me on the kitchen floor, sipping smoothies while I make lunch.

N and L are pretending something.  C is tapping on a tupperware lid with a spoon, singing "Here I am, Here I am..."

11:30 Lunch is served.  Smoothies, grilled cheese, stove-popped popcorn (N's request), and more avocados for N & C.

This is an atypically elaborate lunch for us too.  Normally it's just me, L, and C, and we're in a hurry to go pick up N at noon, so usually it's a cold sandwich, a quick heated-up soup or mac-n-cheese with some fruit.

12:10 PM: C is rubbing her eyes in her booster seat so I wash her up quickly.  Daddy's taking a lunch break and getting ready to go outside and clear snow, so he's able to watch the bigger girls for me while I change C's diaper, read her her favorite Look at Me, feed her a quick milk bottle and lay her down in her crib with her blankie and pacifier.

12:30 PM: I come out and the big girls are grouchy and squabbling, so I know it's time for them to take a rest as well.  I set the timer for five more minutes of play and then we read stories-- a chapter from Little House and a little bit of their children's Bible.

1:00 PM: We're finished reading and I take L to the potty and put on her pull-up.  N picks out books to look at while I settle L into her bed and give her a kiss.  I then settle N onto our bed (she requests "slow tickles") for her rest (she doesn't usually sleep... just looks at books for an hour).

1:10 PM:  I take a minute for myself... use the bathroom, check my email, look at the forecast.  (By the way, it's still snowing.  About 18 inches of snow has now fallen.  3-5?  Yeah right!)

1:30 PM: I get a text from our neighbors across the street... the kids are going out to play in the snow, and would we like to come play?  (We have the nicest neighbors... they have a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl-- she and N almost share a birthday.)  Although there's laundry to be folded and lunch to clean up, and N usually has her violin lesson during this time, I can't pass up the opportunity for N to get out, since she's been asking all morning.  While the younger two girls sleep I interrupt N's resting time and get her bundled to play outside.

2:00 PM: We venture out and find our neighbors in their yard.  I chat with their mother while the kiddos play.  (I should mention that M is just now going inside after clearing our cars and driveways.  Nearly two hours of shoveling.  M gets the Dad/Husband of the Year Award.)

3:00 PM: N is having a blast, so when she is invited inside for hot chocolate I can't refuse.  I have to get home to check on the other sleeping babies (since M is still trying to get work done) but I tell our neighbor I'll come back soon to pick up N.

I go back home-- everyone's still asleep.  I clean up lunch, switch a load of laundry to the dryer, and begin folding the clean laundry.

3:30 PM: C wakes up.  I change her diaper.  Check in with the neighbors, N is having a great time, she can play until 4:15.

4:00 PM: I put on some pasta to boil for supper.  M is finishing up work and L is starting to stir.

4:15 PM: I walk over to the neighbors' to pick up N, she (very reluctantly) takes off her borrowed tutu and puts her clothes back on to come home.

4:35 PM: We arrive home and Daddy and L are eating.  They need to be finished and L needs to be dressed for gymnastics class within 10 minutes.  Daddy hands me L's leotard and I help L finish up eating, wash her face, and quickly dress her in gymnastics clothes.

4:50 PM:  Daddy and L are out the door on their way to gymnastics.  C is clamoring for food, so I serve her up some supper and put N's in the oven.  It's leftover night: C has spaghetti (and finishes two whole bowls of it) and N has a cheese quesadilla and salad.

I have my own bowl of spaghetti.

5:30 PM: Everybody's finished... C and N go straight into the bath tub.

6:00 PM: I get C out of the bath, put her lotion on, and then diaper and pajamas.  N is playing in the bath while I do all of this on the bathroom floor.

6:15 PM: Daddy and L arrive home.  I steal away to C's room to read to her, give her another milk bottle, and put her to bed.  When I come back out I find the popsicle twins:

6:45 PM: Daddy's off to spend the evening with a friend.  I help L change in to pajamas, and the girls watch a bit of "Tangled" while I clean up dinner.

7:15 PM: I help the big girls use the potty one last time, eat their vitamin gummies, and brush their teeth.  They opt to play a few games of Star Wars Angry Birds with me on Daddy's iPad instead of reading stories.  We find their blankies, I give them each a kiss and a snuggle, and they're in bed for the night.

8:00 PM: Mommy time!  I opt to forgo my usual evening run on the treadmill to save my muscles for a long (hopefully 13-miler) early tomorrow morning.  I retire to bed with one of my favorite desserts-- a dish of Cheerios with whole milk-- to upload pictures and compose this blog post!

Whew!  Busy day.  I'm tired.  Good night!