Busy Signals

Okay, some of you may have noticed and some of you might not have. My trusty little blog here has become deprived due to the insanely busy schedule I currently have. Let me try to outline my routine in a nutshell. A large, overwhelming nutshell.

6:50 a.m. - If I'm lucky, the alarm will wake me up. Typically, I'm awake 30 minutes or more before the alarm goes off desperately trying to squeeze any more seconds of sleep that I can before I absolutely HAVE to get out of bed. Mosey over to the shower.

7:00 a.m. - Pry my kids out of their comfy beds and get them ready for school. Showers - depending on morning, baths, clothes, comb hair, eat breakfast, make their lunches, sign papers, fill out book orders, brush teeth, grab backpacks, find shoes.

7:58 a.m. - Send kids out the door to catch the bus, quick kiss and hug, bye sweeties, love you!, have a good day today, see you soon, be good!

8:00 a.m. - finish getting myself ready, get Maddie out of bed if she isn't already, bathed, fed, dressed, hair combed, teeth brushed, find shoes. She attends preschool with me twice a week and goes to her favorite sitter on the other days. (It's the funniest thing to hear her call me Miss Kim.)

8:45 a.m. - head downstairs to beat the first parents to the preschool. Once in a while, parents come a little early and find me hollering down the stairs, "Sorry!! I'll be down in just a second!" Set out name boards, dry erase markers and sock erasers, library cards, and clothespins. Wait for all the preschoolers to arrive.

8:55 - 11:40 a.m. - PRESCHOOL!! (There's just too many details to fill in right here so I'll spare you.)

11:45 a.m. 3:00 p.m. - clean up preschool, eat lunch - location always changes from home to Jeff's work to lunch dates with friends or a drive-thru. This is my only window of free time to get all my errands done before having to pick up the kids from school. This is when I try to schedule any dr. appts, dentist appts., haircuts, visiting teaching appts., the bank, prepping for upcoming preschool activities and all the other running around I have to do. Housework is also squeezed into this little window but since I'm rarely home during this time the housework tends to suffer.

3:00 p.m. - Head over to the school to pick-up the kids. I know. I make them ride the bus in the morning for my own selfish convenience. I can't imagine having to squeeze in a drop-off to school in my morning routine. They don't really like riding the bus so I told them if they would only ride it in the mornings to help me out I would pick them up everyday in the afternoon.

3:30 p.m. - get home, kids start homework, and I start dinner. I KNOW! Who the heck starts dinner at this hour in the afternoon? That would be me. I also help kids with their homework while making dinner.

4:30 p.m. - Eat dinner, clean up dinner.

5:00 p.m. - get boys ready for football. Find all their gear. Never in the same place twice. We need to work on that. Find the blasted shoes!

5:15 p.m. - head over to football practice. On the complete opposite end of town.

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. - Football practice. Luckily the boys are at the same exact place, just different fields. Let girls play on playground or with all the other little sisters who are dragged to practice. Make any phonecalls to friends or family to kill 2 hours.

7:50 - 8:00 p.m. - get home (if practice ends on time), finish up any homework, get kids ready for bed, showers, pj's, teeth brushed, prayers, get kids in bed.

8:00 - 9:00 p.m. - Still trying to get kids in bed. Yes, they know bedtime is 8:00 but it's rare to ever be on time in this house. If they are actually sleeping by 9:00, I'm happy.

9:00 p.m. - I can finally sit down. Usually it's at the computer to check blogs. I never have time to comment so I'm sorry, but I am still reading them! I usually have something on TV that I've DVR'd but it's all usually deleted before I can watch it! No time! Sometimes I actually get the floor mopped at this hour to prevent the little footprints that would smear it all up again, but don't worry, the footprints will surely be there by 8:00 the following morning.

10:00 p.m. - midnight - my bedtime. Very rarely am I in bed by 10. Okay never. But it's my goal. I'm exhausted and would love more hours of sleep! But my schedule keeps me going and sleep usually suffers. And I can never turn down a GNO if it's after the kids are in bed! Love those, need those! If I'm asleep by midnight, I'm happy!

6:50 a.m. - that darn alarm goes off again forcing me to drag myself to the shower and start this schedule all over again!

This is about what my schedule looks like on any given day. Throw in FHE on Mondays, Activity Days, Cub Scouts and early release on Wednesdays, Weight Watcher meetings on Fridays, football games for 2 boys on Saturdays, a date night with hubby if we're lucky, a potty-training failure, grocery shopping, housework, yadda, yadda, yadda.

That's why I truly love Sundays. Our commanded day of rest. Heavenly Father knew exactly what we needed. That, and there's nothing a little comfort food can't fix, right? Hence the Weight Watchers meetings on Fridays.

So in case you're wondering what I've been doing, consider yourself enlightened!