What Do I Do All Day?

Just in case you're not sure exactly what goes into my day as a stay at home mom, here's a look at what today, a pretty typical day, was like:

6:30 I got up. Erik, who had guitar ensemble practice early this morning, was long gone. I started laundry, let the dogs out, did dishes, and checked my email.

7:00 Thomas up, dressed, got him started on breakfast.

7:10 Alex up, dressed, got him a bowl of cereal and my laptop to play games on PBS Kids. I ate breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen.

7:30 Play time in the living room. Mr. Potato Head, puzzles, books, bean bag jumping, I'm not sure what else.

8:15 Play moved to the basement. Put clothes in the dryer. Played with Alex: 3 games of Feed the Kitty, one game of Magic Labyrinth. Set Thomas up with some toys at the table with us so he wouldn't whine/destroy our game. Worked out okay.

8:50 My mom called, talked to her for a few minutes while putting clean sheets on my bed. Not sure what the boys were doing during this time, I think Thomas was walking around playing with a Wii remote, and Alex was waiting very impatiently for me to read him another book.

9:00 Snacks for boys, got myself dressed and organized, diaper change for Thomas, bathroom trip for Alex, etc.

9:30 Trip to Hands on House

11:45 Return from Hands on House. Lunch for everyone.

12:15 I vacuumed the living room while the boys played. I cleaned under the couches because they like to sit on them while I move them and then jump back and forth from one to another while I'm vacuuming.

12:30 Alex did stampers at the table while I played with Thomas.

12:45 Books, boys in nap.

1:00 My time = treadmill, stretching, showering, dressing, starting dinner, and sitting down to check email, take care of a few moms club things, go on my Daily Mile running site, started this blog post. etc. This was a very rare day that I had a full 2 hours of nap time, usually it's about 1 1/2 hours. Often while Alex wakes up I'll give him something to do while I finish getting dressed and drying my hair.

2:50 Alex up. Reading, Candy Land

3:20 Thomas wakes up. Snacks for everyone, dishwasher unloaded. Diaper changing, bathroom trips, etc.

3:45 Trip to the library. I have a love/hate relationship with the library. Love it because it's free entertainment for the kids, they have fun things for them to do there, we get books, and sometimes it's just nice to have a place to go. The hate it part? Well, let's just say that taking Thomas to the library is a blog post in itself.

5:20 Dinner. Obviously, I had to have it made ahead of time, because once 5:00 hits these kids are HUNGRY and there is no waiting for me to cook anything. Dinner was just me and the kiddos, because Erik was teaching a guitar lesson. (Almost a 12 hour day for him today). After dinner I kicked the kids into the living room so I could clean up. That lasted maybe 10 minutes, Thomas was pulling on me and yelling some toddler jibberish and Alex was calling for me to come read his library books.

5:50 Reading library books to Alex, playing doctor kit with Thomas

6:20 Erik comes out of his lesson, we try to have a simple conversation but Alex keeps throwing books at us and Thomas is just LOUD.

6:30 Erik and I attempt to change into cozy clothes, the boys follow us, Thomas begins screaming, I give him a banana. It is LOUD.

6:35 Alex turns on the Beatles. Thomas dances. Erik talks to Alex about the Beatles. The boys do some more bean bag shopping. It is LOUD.

6:45 TV is turned on. Tonight's first selection is the Backyardigans (thank you, Netflix, for the abundance of kids programing). The boys are in the den, we are in the living room on our laptops, and it is almost --ALMOST -- quiet.

7:00 Alex is yelling that Thomas turned the TV off. My dear sweet husband takes Thomas to bed.

7:15 Backyardigans over, snack for Alex, switch to Bob the Builder. During this time I am often cleaning up, doing laundry, etc. but somehow I am actually on top of all that, so I am online writing this.

7:40 Bob over, I do bedtime with Alex.

7:50 DONE. Time to hang out with my husband.

A pretty good example of what is typical in our house.

And that's a day in the life on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly