The Life we Lead (Monday-Friday That Is)

My cravings for fall and the schedule are satisfied...I want to go back to the lazy days of summer when we didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time and could play outsides all day if we wanted. Every day during the week, we have somewhere we have to go.

• Mondays I switch kids with the neighbors in the morning for 2 hours (all the kids go to one house so the other 2 moms can run errands - or like I did yesterday...clean uninterrupted). Then right after that I load the kids in the car and we go to the library for story time and pick out books. Then in the late afternoon, Julia has her ballet/tap class.
  
• Tuesday mornings Julia has preschool and I volunteer about once a month on in the class - on these days Kurt's mom comes over to watch Jimmy while I am there.


• Wednesday mornings Jimmy has school and I stay with him. Kurt's mom comes over to watch Julia.


• Thursday mornings I have my moms group playgroup/meeting


• Friday mornings Julia goes to preschool and Jimmy goes to Moms Day Out.

Every afternoon we are home bound for Jimmy's nap. During which I usually clean up the disaster left by kids eating breakfast/lunch in the kitchen, check email, do laundry or tackle some other project that needs to be done (that is if I don't get sucked into my email/blog). Julia usually watches a movie or plays in her room. When Jimmy wakes up after 2 hours (if it's not too late & I am motivated), we'll go to the gym so I can workout. If I am lucky I have enough time to shower there before heading home to cook dinner. Feed the kids. Clean up the mess left by kids while they play and then herd them up for baths and bedtime. Jimmy usually goes down without a fight, but Julia usually has a few more things to "tell" you. After they are in bed asleep, we'll watch a little TV while surfing on the computer, Kurt will fall asleep on the chair and I will either start some laundry or some other project at 11 or so. Being in bed at 12:30/1am is the norm for me. Then it all starts again at 6:30am or so. This really is not what I envisioned when I thought how my life would be as a stay at home mom of a small family of 2 little ones and a self-sufficient husband.

Before I was a mom and romanticized the idea of stay-at-home motherhood, I thought what a life it would be to stay home with my kids. I always knew that I wanted to stay home. I remember several days at Western, coming back from class and Cas and I lamenting about why were we even getting degrees...we just wanted to be moms. I envisioned a clean, quiet & serene home, where the kids were napping while I was working on scrapbooking the photos that I took the week before to add to the up to date scrapbook that I was working on. After, I'd work on a delicious balanced meal made from scratch and then wipe down my kitchen when I was finished. I would watch daytime TV when I had a moment, I would visit my Grandma weekly with the kids, because I could. At night after the kids were in bed, my husband and I would sit and talk, watch the same TV shows and go to bed at the same time. I could go on and on. I really thought that all of this was possible...even up to the day when I had Julia. How wrong I was.

Now I know moms that accomplish all of the above and seem quite normal. They are always quick to discuss what great meal they prepared the night before, how their kids don't watch TV and how after the kids were tucked in bed by 7:30pm, they were in bed by 10pm. I listen and smile and shake my head like I know what they are talking about. But my life is not so much like that...while I am "living the dream" - my life is very hectic. I know it is what you choose it to be and quite honestly, I wouldn't really change it, because I know that this is my life and the life of my family and I want to live it in the best way possible. If that means running around at 5pm, looking through the freezer for some ground turkey to throw dinner together, then so be it. I will not catch up on my scrapbooks until the kids are in school full-time (which is why I can't go back to work). But all of this is okay. Because my family is pretty happy. Yeah, Kurt would probably like the "girl he asked to marry him" back (he sometimes requests the house be "Clean like you want to get engaged."), but the facade of our lives is pretty unimportant...it's the memories we're making and how we're living our lives that we will remember. I much more prefer to stay up late and do the mundane instead of do it while everyone else is awake (Kurt included). While all of this is not what I envisioned - my life is fantastic and I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe a day with no where to go once in a while would be nice though.