These Days

I want to remember these days.  These sticky, muddy, poopy days.  The giggles, the tears, the blankets and pillows on the floor, the puzzles dumped out, the blueberry pancakes smashed into the seat of my little girl's pants.

So today is going to be a Record-It-All day.  Unedited.  Unpolished.  As real as real gets.

6:13 am:  I roll out of bed, very relunctantly, at the beckoning of Kiahna.  I promise myself that I will go back to bed.  It was after 11 before I got to bed last night, and I was up once with Kamryn and once with Kiahna in the night.  Diaper change.  Nursing in the comfy chair.  Another diaper change.  By this time, I am pretty awake and am beginning to reconcile myself with the fact that I won't be going back to bed.  (This happens every morning.  It's easier to get up if I tell myself that I will go back to bed.)  Kiahna goes back to her pack-n-play.  She is really starting to respond when I talk to her.  Big smile to start out my day.

6:40 am:  Visit with Bryan about his plans for the pork loin I want him to smoke for Kiahna's dedication on Sunday.

6:45 am:  Shower. 

7:10 am:  Coffee and devotions.

7:15 am:  Kiahna, in the swing, won't calm down.  Time for the blow dryer.

7:45 am:  I go to the computer to work on some projects and start this blog.  Unplug the blow dryer.  Kiahna wakes back up.  Move the swing into the bedroom and turn on the blow dryer again.  This time it doesn't work.  Time for breakfast #2 for her.  She doesn't eat well.  Back to the swing.  This time the blow dryer seems to settle her.  Warm up my coffee.  I start working on a chore chart I want to put together for Kyla.  I get a little caught up reading some great mom-blogs.  

8:46 am:  I hear the first tell-tale bumpy noises from upstairs.  Kyla comes down the stairs holding the empty Kleenex box that I put on the floor outside her room last night to remind me to put a new box in her room.

9:15 am:  Kyla eats "crackle pops" for breakfast, with honey.

After she's done, I find her cleaning the stickies off the table with a rag.

9:30 am:  I tell Kyla it's time to make energy balls.  Hubby took all the ones from the freezer to work this morning.

9:40 am:  I hear Kamryn talking upstairs.  Get her up, pick out clothes.  Tell Kyla she needs to pick up her room, make her bed, and get dressed.  Kyla does a great job of making her bed.

Kamryn and I go downstairs.  

I give her her milk.  

She runs smack into a door and cries.

9:50 am:  Kamryn gets yogurt for breakfast.  I love to see her fold her hands when we pray.

10:00 am:  Still wanting to start the energy balls.  Then I remember that I need to send in an Aflac claim form THIS WEEK.  Can't find my policy number.  The website isn't working and leads nowhere every time I log in.  Kiahna wakes.  Diaper change #3.  Breakfast #3.  I call Aflac while I'm nursing to get my policy numbers.

10:30 am:  We're finally making energy balls.  One of the things I love about these things (besides their deliciousness) - you can make them any way you want!  This time, the recipe included oatmeal, flax seed, peanut butter, rice crispies, chopped prunes, chopped chocolate chips, honey, maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut oil.  Kyla and Kamryn "helped," and by this I mean ate chocolate chips and prunes.

10:50 am - I haul some stuff out to the storage room that Bryan built for me.  Oh, how I love that added space to put things!!  The girls come outside with me.  On the way, Kyla stops to gather the eggs.

11:00 am - I start the big project of the day:  cleaning the porch.  Out come all the shoes.  Really, really, I believe that 30+ pairs of shoes is WAY too many for two little girls.

11:15 am - Kiahna has been crying for about half an hour now.  I sit down to feed her lunch #1.  My newest nursing entertainment is Inspector Lewis.  I finished the last episode of the latest season of Downton Abbey on Saturday (sad!).

11:30 am - Finished with nursing, I decide I'd better warm up the pancakes we're going to eat for lunch.  It's at this point that I realize I forgot to eat breakfast.  Kiahna finally falls asleep in her vibrating bouncer.  For lunch, there are 6 small (like 3" diameter) pancakes in the fridge.  This amounts to 2 1/2 for me.  And an apple.

12:00 pm - We're finishing up lunch, and I'm noting the darkening sky outside.  I call Bryan to ask if I should try to put the Tahoe inside.  He mentions that he also left the 3010 outside and hasn't yet put it on our insurance.  Can I put them both inside?  Well, I can try.  I've never put vehicles in the shed before, and I've never driven his 3010 before.  In fact, I haven't driven a tractor for 6 years.  To get into the shed involves passing through a veritable lake of, well, what you might expect to find in a cow corral.  It's sticky, gooey, stinky, muck; and it reaches past my ankles.  As I'm sitting on the tractor, I noticed that Kyla and Kamryn had followed me outside.  Kyla had on her snow pants and winter coat (minus the liner), and she'd put a jacket on Kamryn.  With a little finagling, I did manage to get both the tractor and the Tahoe under cover.

12:45 pm - I'm back inside, and I'm watching the clouds roll in.  Bryan called to see how I'd managed, and I told him I likely saved the county because if I wouldn't have put the vehicles inside, we would've gotten hail for sure.  Since they were inside, we probably wouldn't get any hail.  Kyla and Kamryn make themselves cozy on the chair.  Best friends.

1:00 pm - Kiahna has been crying steadily for a long time again.  I change her diaper and then change Kamryn and put Kamryn to bed upstairs.  I get Kyla started on a vinegar/baking soda fun project.  Then I continue my porch project.

1:40 pm - Kiahna gets lunch #2.  I put her in her swing.  She finally settles a little.

2:20 pm - Time for the blow dryer again.  This seems to work to help her calm down.  Kyla is on the couch watching some TV.  I work on the dishes and eat a cookie.  My pancakes and apple seem to have deserted me.  Then it's on to rolling the energy balls.

3:30 pm - Kiahna is angry...again.  I feed her lunch #3 and change her diaper.  She seems to be happy for the moment.

3:45 pm - I haul a load of the girls' laundry upstairs to put away.  It was washed yesterday and spent the night in the dryer.

4:00 pm - Kamryn wakes up from her nap.  I bring her down, and the girls decide to eat applesauce for their snack.  Kyla makes a mess.

4:05 pm:  After snack, Kyla asks if she can watch more TV.  I tell her she's watched enough for today and tell her to find something else to do.  She asks if they can take their bath.  I tell her that would be a great idea.  Kamryn immediately asks, "Bubble?"  Kiahna has a good 15-20 minutes of being awake without crying!

4:35 pm:  I join the girls in the bathroom and watch them play for a bit before washing them up and getting them out.  I tell them to get started picking up the house before supper.

4:55 pm:  I go outside and check the rain guage.  We never did get any hail, but we got about an inch and a half of rain.

5:00 pm:  Kiahna is (once again) screaming, so I change her and feed her supper #1.

5:20 pm:  I cut up lettuce and green pepper for salads for supper.  Then I butter bread.

5:40 pm:  Kyla and I sit down to play a few games of Uno.  She's a mean Uno player.

Kamryn is getting very hungry and cranky by this time and is begging to eat.  I keep telling her it's not ready yet.

6:00 pm:  Kyla and Kamryn play with blocks while they wait for their Mac n Cheese to be done for supper.

6:20 pm:  Bryan gets home.  We sit down to eat.  Bryan is not a big fan of having his picture taken for no apparent reason.

7:00 pm:  I wash dishes and clean up the kitchen.  Bryan tries to soothe a screaming Kiahna who refuses to be calmed by the blow dryer.  

7:15 pm:  Bryan's mom calls, and I visit with her for a few minutes.

7:30 pm:  Kyla is singing what she remembers of her VBS songs over Kiahna's cries.  I sit down to feed her supper #2.  Don't ask me why Kamryn still doesn't have her jammies on.

They really are best friends.

7:45 pm:  Kathy stops up and visits with me for a little while.  She holds Kiahna who settles right down against her.  I'm grateful, both for the break and the adult conversation.

8:15 pm:  Bryan comes inside.  I feed Kiahna supper #3.  Kyla and Kamryn are excited to play with their Daddy.

8:45 pm:  I give Kiahna a bath, which she very much enjoys, for the most part.

9:15 pm:  Bath time is over.  Time to get these kiddos to bed!  We brush teeth.

I have to snap a quick picture of Kamryn's curls.  They amaze me, and I love them.

9:30 pm:  Both of the older kids go to bed.  I put Kyla to bed, and it doesn't take long since she is very tired and cranky and lost her bedtime story privilege by not picking up right away when I asked her to do so.  Bryan reads a story to Kamryn and puts her down for the night.

9:45 pm:  I feed Kiahna a bedtime snack and put her to bed, all wrapped up nice and tight.  

10:00 pm:  I check on the older two kids.  Kyla is sound asleep, but Kamryn is sitting up.  She asks to be rocked.  I sit and stroke her soft hair and watch the lightening flash across the sky to the south.

So what do I do all day?  If I wouldn't have written it all down as it happened, I wouldn't have thought I did much today.  I cleaned the porch, made a batch of energy balls, and put away a load of laundry.  That's it?  In an entire day?  Well, that...and nursing 10 times and changing diapers 10 times and...well, you saw it all.