This SAHM Life

Do you ever have those days that just seem shot? Like "what did I do with my life today?" I had one of those days today. Sometimes being a stay-at-home-mom means the day gets away from me. It's just swept away with all of the crumbs and board books and tiny socks. Boom. 24 hours gone. And logically, I realize all of the tiny things add up and are valuable to our family, but dang I hate that feeling. So I felt like I should jot it all down. What did I do today? For myself in the future - to read and reminisce. For new SAHMs who are spending their days changing diapers, nap trapped for hours, sniffing laundry to decide if it has spit up on it, counting down the minutes until someone else gets home to hold the baby for 10 minutes so you can get a hot shower or eat food before it gets cold. I remember those days all too well! But here is what my day as a SAHM with a 3 year old and a 5 year old looks like...

6:30 - Rise & Shine! Really, my first alarm goes off at 6:21, then a 9 minute 'snooze,' then about 10 mins of checking email & FB for important news I missed while sleeping. Then it's time to wake up the girls & get them dressed.
7:00 - Breakfast, pack lunch, brush teeth, find shoes
7:30 - Ben and Charlotte leave for school, Natalie & I finish breakfast, Nat watches a cartoon while I drink coffee. Then I clean up the dishes, get dressed, start a load of laundry, scoop cat litter.
8:45 - Leave for preschool.
9:15 - Follow up appointment for my obnoxious heel spur. Plantar fasciitis started bothering me over a year ago, but got really bad at the end of February/beginning of March. Turns out I should have gotten help for it a long time ago, because now I have this terrible hook thing jutting out of my heel! My doctor gave me a shot of cortisone in my foot right before our trip to Ireland, which helped tremendously, but it is not a long-term solution.

9:45 - Meijer for Easter eggs & goodies to put in them for Natalie's preschool egg hunt.
10:30 - Home to separate eggs by color for other parent volunteers to fill with their goodies. Sweep kitchen floor, make bed, scrub cat barf out of the carpet.
11:15 - Head to preschool for pickup. Check email in parking lot, receive notice I've forgotten to pay this month's tuition. Curse at clock for not having 7 extra minutes to run back home for checkbook. Squeeze Nat Nat & hear all about her morning. ❤
12:00 - Return to preschool with tuition check.
12:15 - Lunch
1:00 - Quiet Time - I finished reading The Woman in Cabin 10 while Nat played on her Kindle & sang to Donny for a while.
2:00 - Folded & put away laundry. Tickle fight with Nat.
2:45 - Leave to pick up Charlotte.
3:15 - Park!

4:00 - Home to unpack backpack, empty lunchbox, play.
4:30 - I sneak a shower while the girls are busy playing 'school.' Luckily, there aren't any nuclear bombs dropped in the play room while I'm busy.
5:00 - Time to fix dinner! Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fruit. Yum!

5:30 - Dinner. They ate!!!  I like having this 'no one complains' meal about once/week.
6:00 - Peg + Cat
6:30 - Kids clean up toys while I clean up the dishes from dinner.
7:00 - Upstairs to brush teeth, put on PJs, read books, and the goal is for lights out around 7:30. It's usually closer to 8:00 because my God, the stalling. Tonight Ben came home right at 7:30 and the girls just had to show him some dance they'd just made up 5 seconds beforehand because Daddy will love this dance (he did). But it's really just stalling. And we're on to you, girls.
8:00 - Tonight I put goodies in Nat's class's eggs, emailed a teacher, and wrote this blog all while watching the new Louis CK special on Netflix.

photo credit

These days as a stay-at-home-mom can be mundane and lack glamour, but I know I'll miss them (or at least certain parts of them) when the kids are both in school all day and/or I go back to work full time.
Of course not every day is like this - some days I am babysitting an extra kid or two, some days I do temp work at a local printing company, some days the kids are sick & I'm in my pajamas all day with them. Some days we have play dates, or visit family, or hang out around town at the library, mall, children's museum, neighborhood parks, etc. Some days we have errands like doctor's appointments, groceries, volunteering at school, or helping friends/family with their full plates. I'm so glad I get these years as a SAHM while my girls are little.

Not included in today's log: all of the trips to the bathroom (can't wait for them to have total independence in there!!!), all of the "Mommy, open this," all of the "Mommy, I can't reach ____," all of the "Mommy, watch this," all of the "Mommy, can you help me?" There's a lot of that.