What a day in my life *really* looks like...

As I was going about my day today, I started thinking about what it takes to maintain life in my household. Not necessarily sanity...I'm convinced that is a lost cause.

I am often amazed that people think that life with a large family is unthinkable. They think that it must take a special person to handle it. Obviously they've not followed me through my days. I am NOT special. I am very average. Average height. Average weight (more than is good for me!). Average educational level. Average. Average. Average.

Then, this morning it hit me. The math. THAT is what people have trouble with.
The eight people in the house.
Which means 7 beds.
And at least 16 sets of clothing every day.
Which adds up to at least 2 loads of laundry, every day (which is why, on any given day, Mt. Laundry IS going to blow!).

The eight place settings at the table.
At every meal.
Which we usually manage AT LEAST 3 of those as SIT DOWN TOGETHER meals, per week.
Which adds up in terms of food.
Like the stew I made this morning.
1 1/2 pounds of stew meat.
1 pound of carrots.
5 pounds of potatoes.
There's a little bit left over...but then Jason and the two oldest kids didn't eat at home tonight.
Milk...3-5 gallons per week.
Cereal...at least one box per day. (We quit buying in boxes...they're too small).
Eggs...one dozen at a time.
Bread...sandwiches for everyone requires one whole loaf.

The sheer overwhelming numbers of activities.
School...3 in elementary school, 1 in middle school, 1 in high school, husband in grad school.
Church...
Small groups from church...women's group, men's group, military affiliated group
Marching Band.
Concert Band.
Middle School Band.
PTA activities.
Military community activities.


SO, my schedule today was fun...and I thought I'd throw it in, just so you get an idea....

4:00 a.m. Alarm goes off. I turn it off, shake the husband, and crawl back in bed.

5:00 a.m. Second alarm goes off. I turn it off, dress and wake up oldest child. Fix coffee, go for a walk.

6:00 a.m. Grab a cup of coffee and walk oldest daughter out to meet her bus (which picks her up at 6:10 a.m.).

6:30 a.m. Finish second cup of coffee, grab purse, keys, and list, to run to the grocery store for potatoes, carrots, milk, butter, bread. (had coffee on the list, too, but not enough $$).

7:00 a.m. Back from the store, put things away. Get the rest of the kids out of bed. Spend time doing emails, catching up on facebook, email lists, doing childrens' hair, motivating (yelling at) children. Also wash and cut up potatoes and carrots for the stew for supper, and saute the stew meat, then dump in the crockpot. Load dishwasher.

7:45 a.m. Out the door to wait with the 3 elementary-aged children for their bus, which supposedly arrives at 7:53 a.m. Chat with neighbors.

8:15 a.m. Suddenly remember I have a dental appt at 9:00....gotta MOVE.

8:30 a.m. Out of shower, kicking 12-year-old out to catch his bus...which supposedly arrives at 8:40 a.m. Let my work know when I'll be back.

8:45 a.m. Load 4-year-old in the van, complete with bag of toys, x-rays from dentist in MT, name and address of dentist in MT, and dental insurance card.

9:00 a.m. Pshew...I made it. I can relax and fill out myriads of paperwork, gag on the x-rays, and get my referral to an oral surgeon.

9:58 a.m. Home again, time to get busy on my WORK for the day! First get 4-year-old her snack, because she STARVING, MOMMY, STARVING!

12:00 p.m. Take a break from the computer long enough to fix sandwiches for myself and 4-year-old. Forget that I was supposed to go to gym.

12:40 p.m. Neighbor girl shows up, reminding me that we were supposed to go to the gym at 12:30. Change clothes and head out for 30 minute workout.

1:45 p.m. Home again, and back to work. Started load of clothes.

3:00 p.m. Oldest child home...snack time!!

3:30 p.m. The elementary school bunch gets home.

4:00 p.m. The middle schooler is home.

4:30 p.m. Jason walks in, updates me on things, and leaves again, taking the oldest two with him (he's dropping the oldest off at her school for marching band performance at the football game, and taking the 12-year-old with him to his two softball games.).

5:00 p.m. The 4 left at home go out to play, leaving mom inside to have some peace and quiet.

6:00 p.m. Start gathering everyone in for supper. Get all the riding stock put away in the garage.

7:30 p.m. Supper is done, kids are in PJs. It's movie night...tonight we watched Cars.

9:30 p.m. Movie is done, kids get in bed. I leave to go pick up oldest from Marching Band. Home, feed her (more...she also ate at the game), start another load of laundry.

There's my day. I'm exhausted. I don't think I could cram one more thing in there, today. Maybe another day...but I don't know.

I LOVE having a big family. I can't imagine it any other way. But some days? I just want some sleep!!!

It was SUPPOSED to be a productive day...

...and then I got up. Honestly, I am looking around my house right now, and can't for the life of me figure out what I've done over the last few days. My house is a WRECK.

I KNOW I have washed dishes everyday, but they're all piled up on the counter again.

I know we've done multiple loads of laundry, and put away mountains of folded laundry, but the hampers are all overflowing and the sofa is covered in clean laundry again.

We've picked up and cleaned up, and put away, and washed, and dried, and folded, and swept, and taken out garbage, and done homework, and made it to baseball practices, and gone to the grocery store, and gotten everyone on their respective busses on time, and worked, and cooked meals, and eaten meals, and gone to various meetings....

....but somehow, if someone walked into my house right now, you'd never know that I cared about how it looks. No one could tell that we picked up several trees' worth of paper off the dining room floor, or that the whole alphabet has been put back onto the refrigerator 15 different times. Or that the pantry and refrigerator have been systematically emptied by the voracious beasts in my house.

Is it any wonder that mothers feel unappreciated? That we don't ever have the satisfaction of a job well done...especially since the job never is done, or once done, it is UNdone again in about 10 seconds flat....

So, for the record, I want you moms out there to know...I appreciate what you do. I appreciate all the long hard hours you put in. The lack of proper acknowledgement.

So, go, reward yourself. Go find those chocolates you hid away, make yourself a cup of hot tea or coffee, sit back, put your feet up, and remeber that you've earned your 10 minutes of rest and relaxation. But hurry, before the hooligans get off the bus, and you have to start all over again!!

Pet Peeves

****Since this is gonna be a whiney post, take note now. If you don't *do* whining, don't read this.**** Starting off the new year right, by airing my pet peeves now, so people know where I stand. Dirty landry on the floor, when there's a perfectly good hamper to put it in...and not even full, I might add. And, if by some coincidence, your hamper is full, EMPTY IT!!! Dirty dishes left all over the house. This is our new house....er...apartment/townhouse....who knows. It's new to us. AND, I might point out, there is BRAND NEW carpet on the floors upstairs. We have laid down the rules...NO FOOD upstairs. Period. Not even for mom and dad. So, why am I finding glasses, cups, bowls, etc., upstairs? Obviously we need to review the rules. Toys all over the place. All. The. Time. Second house rule. Toys are to be PUT AWAY when you are finished playing with them. Immediately. Again, rule review time. Virginia drivers. They're CRAZY!! Driving home from Curves this morning, I was in the midst of coming to a stop at a RED light, when flying right by me comes this little car with a guy definitely intent on killing himself, and several other people in the process....I mean, the speed limit was 45, and the light was RED, and he ahd to be going at least 55 when he buzzed right thru that RED light. Fortunately, the people coming the other direction were paying a lot more attention that he was. We've also been cut off...more times than I care to count (and we've only been here a little over a month!)...not just from the lane directly beside us, but coming from *3* lanes over, attempting to get off on the exit directly to our left. Crazy, I tell you, CRAZY!! People who expound on things about which they know absolutely nothing. 'Nuff said. People who steal from stores, other people, their place of business, etc....I worked for 3 years at Walmart. People who steal from Walmart....okay, at least the ones I experienced...are nuts. Like we can't tell what they're doing. Or somehow they aren't being watched on the 90 million cameras that are on, all the time, all over those stores. While I was working at Walmart, a kid (12-14 years old) was caught leaving the store with 2 bottles of $50+ weight-loss medicine. Never mind that he had no need of this....he was stealing it. He was caught. His mother was called. She came, and was overheard severely castigating her son...."I told you never to steal anything worth more than $10.00!" WHAT?!?!?!?? This mother was basically telling her son that it was okay to steal, as long as it wasn't too expensive, and/or he didn't get caught. That is one parent you really want to slap...and then throw in jail, herself. Oh, and don't think that this stealing doesn't affect you because it's not you doing it. If you're not stealing from the stores you shop with, I applaud you. Thank you. But realize that those people that ARE stealing ARE affecting you. THEY cause prices to be raised, to compensate for the losses that the store is suffering. Oh, and those grumpy cashiers....they just had a really bad day, because of that kid stealing from the store. He just cut their bonuses in half. Give them a break! People who ask stupid questions, or make stupid comments. "Are they all yours?" No, I go pick kids up off of street corners, and bring them home. What do you think?!? "Don't you know where they come from?" We sure do...and we LIKE IT! If you get your parents permission, we'll let you in on it, too! "You sure have your hands full." As opposed to what? I could have 1 kid or 2 kids, and have my hands full...having 6 kids does NOT make me some kind of super-woman, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I am HUMAN. I have bad days. I still love my kids, and no freaking way am I going to choose between them, to figure out which one I'd rather keep in some ficticious scenario. Stopping there....I'm sure that's WAY more than you'd rather know about my pet peeves....