Thursday, March 28, 2013

This Morning's Adventure




So this morning I decided to share a little piece of our day.  Okay, I started out thinking I would type out the whole day and than realized it would be way, way to long and no one would ever read it.  Wonder if anyone will make it to the end of our "exciting" four hour journey of our cozy little house:

6:10 am- Wake up to a screaming Mae Bae.  Feed Patrick quickly while Paul goes downstairs with the girls.
6:15am- Hear Mae screaming, Mama!!!!  Mamaaaaaa!!!!!!”  Pick up Patrick who is dozing off to sleep again.  Tell him it is actually morning despite how we both feel about it.  Go downstairs.
6:17am- Tell Mae that she has to wear pants.  No really.  She has to.  It’s too cold not to.  Pick her up.  Hold her while Paul gets the Tylenol and pants.  Day 2 of a fever.  Put her in the monkey pants which she simultaneously loves and hates.  Tell her stop unbuttoning buttons on the cardigan she insisted on putting on as soon as she got downstairs, because she’s unbuttoning so that she can cry that they're unbuttoned.
6:20am- Cuddle on the couch with sick Mae. 
6:25am-  Ask Paul if he’s going to get ready first (he’s trying his best to catch a few more minutes of sleep on the couch).  Point out that Mae will scream her head off if I go upstairs.  Make him promise that, on the off chance I do slip away, he’ll wake up to make sure Mae doesn’t attempt to waltz with Patrick, whose happily playing on a blanket on the floor.
6:28am- Tell Mae that that is the top button and it is buttoned and there are no other buttons that can be buttoned.  Repeat ten times.  Repeat in intervals all morning long.
6:31am- Sprint to the stairs when Mae gets up off the couch and ambles to the other room.  If she doesn’t see me go up the stairs she doesn’t get upset.  Unfortunately she has a sixth sense about these things and catches me nine out of ten times.  Thankfully, today is that tenth day, and I make it upstairs without hearing screaming downstairs.
6:35am- Check emails, blog comments and facebook debates.  Gather up some fabric that I’ll need for the days sewing downstairs.
7:35am- Come downstairs dressed, hair up, and ready to start the day (Yes, Paul is awesome and gives me a bit of time each morning to get things done!  He realizes that this keeps me much, much saner than I would otherwise be.)
7:36am-Begin asking Paul if he’s going to go get ready.  Because really, I want his seat on our couch.  Take advantage of Patrick being asleep and Paul going upstairs to hold Mae Bae in a blanket on the couch.  Halfway through the cuddle Mae screams in rage and gets up, because she’s in the “wrong” blanket apparently and is furious about it.  Cuddling resumes once I wrap her in the correct blanket for this morning.
8:07am- Patrick begins to cry.  Wrap Mae in her blanket and lay her on the couch. Go into the kitchen and change Patrick.  Convince him to take his binkie while determining that the dishes in the dishwasher are not clean (we’re waiting on a part for the repair, so it’s really a toss up whether it works or not each time we run it), and squeeze a few more dishes in.  Start it and hope that it works (it does... most of the time).  
8:10 am-  Decide that bacon is the way to go this morning.  Peel an orange for Sadie. Wash an apple for Mae when she turns her nose up at the orange.  Begin cooking bacon.  Pack Paul’s lunch.  Forget to write “Paul” in pink sharpie with a heart like I do most mornings (it’s the running joke in this house).
8:29am- Think “I’m getting really good at this whole bacon cooking thing.  I think I’ve got it down.”  Wince as bacon grease pops and splatters all over my shirt. 
8:30am- Hear Sadie say:  “Maggie’s being naughty!” for the first (but certainly not last) time of the day.  Run into the room.  Find Mae Bae playing in a puddle of water after removing a sippie cup top.  Mop up some of the mess, then hand Mae a small blanket and tell her she can clean up the rest.  Be thankful because, on a naughtiness scale of 1-10 this is a 1. 
8:32am- Remember the bacon.  Race back into the kitchen.
8:33am-  Pour bacon grease into bacon grease jar and do a little dance (okay, in my head, it’s still too early for real dancing) when I realize that it’s full and I pretty much have enough grease to last for the indefinite future!  Marvel that I’m that excited over bacon grease. 
8:46am- Run downstairs to turn off seedling glow lights.  Sympathize with seedings who are confused because they sometimes get a full 24 hours when I forget to turn off the light at night.  Note that of all the rows, only the single row of non heirloom tomatoes have not sprouted.  Make mental note to soak peat tablets tomorrows so I can start the other seeds… which I should have started like… last week.
8:47am- Remember why I’m downstairs.  Because Mae has decided that this is a “naked day” and I’m getting a sleeper to put an end to the otherwise endless rounds of diaper removal.
8:48am- Find diaperless naked toddler and wrangle her into her sleeper.  Consider putting the sleeper on backwards.  Decide to give her a chance to prove that she can wear it like a big girl without stripping down.  Give thanks that there are no puddles on the living room floor.  Ask where the old diaper is.  Follow the preschoolers instructions and find it on top of a chest on top of a pile of blankets, along with toddlers other clothes.
8:50am-  Begin work on the first quilt top of the day.  Sew standing up at the counter while answering the little girls clamoring questions.  Wonder where on Earth Paul is.
9:00am-  Sooth Patrick.  Put on an Audio Sancto sermon about Peter denying Christ.  Continue to sew, while the girls play/ destroy the living room.
9:26am- Look at the clock.  The quilt top is half done.  Wonder if I need to go up and make sure Paul hasn’t fallen and been knocked unconscious or had a heart attack.  Begin to worry about the amount of bacon I cook.
9:37am- Hand Sadie a kiwi.  Tell her that “no, cookies aren’t for breakfast.”  Continue sewing.
9:38am- Sing to Patrick, who’s bassinet sits next to the sewing machine so he can watch me sew. 
10:00am-  Worry about Paul some more.  Hear him coming down stairs.  Ask him where he was.  Learn that he went back to sleep.  Stifle annoyance since he hardly sleeps at all and he has let me take two naps this week, which is some sort of a record.  Feel annoyed.  Remind self about those naps again.  Hand him his lunch.  Say goodbye, while telling Patrick “Yes that’s Daddy!  He’s wearing sunglasses!”  Realize, by Patrick’s scream, that he is not convinced and is pretty sure that the sunglass wearing man in our kitchen is an intruder.  Get him to stop crying after Paul says goodbye and walks out the door. 
10:10 am- Finish quilt top…  Think, I need to make 6 quilt tops today before I go to sleep and tonight needs to be a peg doll painting night.  Realize that getting to bed before 1am is likely out of the question.  Try not to add up the hours between 10 and 1…

6 comments:

  1. This may be a help...
    Did you know you can cook bacon in the oven?
    http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/breakfastcookery/ht/bacon.htm

    Trust me, it is yummier and much easier than pan frying and you can still save the grease! May give you an extra half hour to catch your breath in the am :)

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  2. This actually makes me feel better. At least my toddler isn't the only one who gets upset about silly things and we have to talk about them 5 million times. You're very inspiring!

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  3. On the cooking bacon in the oven. It works great but I haven't found a way to keep from having a bacon grease mess in the oven. I'm the odd ball that prefers to microwave it.

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  4. Thanks for making me feel like I'm not alone!! We, too had the "cookies are not for breakfast" fight, only it was over crackers.

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  5. I need a nap after reading this!!! How do you do it???

    Marie

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  6. @Karen- use a jellyroll pan!!

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