Typical Tuesday

My typical tuesday:

8:00 – I awake to Mady coming into my room needing help with her socks. The only time she will get up and immediately get dressed is if she wets the bed. Sigh.

I look at the clock and realize that Kate slept for 8 hours (yeah!). This also explains why I'm in pain and my shirt is soaked (Too much information? Well that's the reality of a breastfeeding mom).

8:05 - I get Mady some breakfast as she points out that my hair is all curly. No honey, Mommy's hair doesn't have a single curly strand. That's just bedhead.

I go wake Kate to feed her (I would have let her continue to sleep and got more things done if I wasn't NEEDING to feed her. Sigh). While I feed her I check e-mail, Facebook and start reading my blogs for the day. Except half of them are from yesterday because I'm usually behind.

8:30 – Kate is done eating and very awake so I know she won't be sleeping for a while (sometimes she'll eat in the morning and go right back to bed. I like those days). So that means I won't be showering for a while. I finish up some e-mails and then go clean up the kitchen. It isn't super messy, just a few leftover dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher last night. I empty the dishwasher. Mady asks to colour. I go find paper and crayons (I think it's impossible to finish one task in one sitting when you have kids. Someone always needs something). I reload the dishwasher with the leftover dishes and hand wash the other dishes that can't go in.

9:15 – I remember that Mady wet her bed and I haven't dealt with it yet. I go in, strip down her bed and start the laundry. I have a theory that fresh sheets make her wet the bed because I always wash her bedding on Mondays and she always seems to wet the bed that night. Ha!

9:30 – I eat breakfast. It's amazing that I remembered.

9:45 – Kate is getting cranky so I put her down for a nap. This is the only time I get to shower, so I drop her off in her crib, inform Mady I'm taking a shower and go to do it quick. I really shouldn't inform Mady that I'm showering. If I do she comes in and talks at me the whole time. But at least I knew she wasn't getting into trouble! Today I got a play-by-play of her own bathroom excursions, if you know what I mean.  Someday I will get to shower alone. It will be lovely.

10:30 – I'm showered, dressed, hair and make-up done. I get Mady a snack (we have now enforced certain times that we eat because she likes to snack all day and skip meals). While she eats I go and wipe down the bathrooms (a trick a learned from the Flylady and is invaluable when you have a 2 year old who feels the need to soap the entire bathroom when washing her hands. Its even worse when her soap is green or purple).

I strip down our bed to wash our bedding (I do this every Tuesday) and take it down to switch the laundry around. On my way upstairs I stop by the freezer and pull out meat for supper.

10:45 – I sit down to jot down a few notes for this post because at some point earlier today I thought you might find my day interesting. Hopefully it is, but not TOO interesting if you know what I mean!

11:00 – cuddles on the couch with Mady. :)

11:05 – Since Kate is still sleeping I take advantage of the time to do a morning clean up of the toys with Mady. I try to do a quick tidy in the morning and again in the afternoon. This keeps things under control and I find she plays better with her toys as she can actually focus on what is in front of her instead of being overwhelmed by mess. While she cleans up the toys I go from room to room in the main part of the house and tidy up stray items. I do this every day. How is there ALWAYS stray items? I also pull out bananas from the freezer to make muffins later.

11:30 – I tackle the tupperware cupboard. It's the one cupboard that always needs help. I've decided this means I have too much in there and need to purge items. Halfway through pulling them all out Kate wakes up. Of course. I realize I didn't dress her this morning so I change and dress her and then sit down to feed her. Again this is when I work through some blogs. As soon as Mady sees the computer she asks to have a “dance party,” which basically means she wants to listen to music. She used to dance, but now she tends to sing along while running in circles. Her favourite song is The Hokey Pokey. We get a lot of our music from here.  Its set up sort of like iTunes in that you use credits to purchase the tracks or albums you want. She sings the songs at church so she loves them.  That works well for us. Lately she has been more interested in singing all the words. Lately I have been more interested in finding some new songs she likes so that I don't go crazy.

11:45 – I go switch the laundry and remake Mady's bed. While I'm in there I put away the girl's laundry that I had folded after they were in bed last night. I come out to find that Kate has figured out how to climb up the fireplace hearth. It's about 1/3 the height of a stair, but that means they are next. Ack! She gets into enough with her current access, she doesn't need more freedom!

Noon – I sit down to pump. Kate hasn't eaten off the middle of the night extra supply and I'm going out tonight so Daddy may need to feed her. Win/Win. I help Mady make her lego car tower more secure. Physics are lost on a two year old.

12:15 – I make Mady some lunch. Home made chicken nuggets (don't be impressed, when I say home made I mean from the freezer bag and not McDonald's, not that I took fresh chicken and covered it with my own crumb coating.) I keep them pre-cooked in the freezer so I just have to warm them up on busy days (I would die without the help of my freezer), and cucumber sticks and cheese. There isn't enough for me so I pop a freezer sandwich (something else I sometimes keep around if I think to make them) into the oven for me. But it will take longer than Mady's to heat. I give Kate a cucumber to work on and while they eat I finish the tupperware cupboard (this is a project best done when they're preoccupied). My lunch is still not ready so I use the time to do my 15 minutes of deeper cleaning in my kitchen. I work on one area of my house a week (something else I learned from Flylady) and I do 15 minutes every week day. That keeps everything under control. I wash the window (just the inside, still waiting for the world to thaw and then I'll do outside) and clean the microwave inside and out.

12:45 – Lunch is ready so I sit down and join the girls. Kate has done pretty good on the cucumber (for only having 2 teeth). I add some cheerios to her tray so she can work on her pincer grasp. She's getting it, but hasn't figured out how to chew the cheerios so it was more “put the cheerio in, spit the cheerio out. Good Kate” (My family will understand the book I'm referencing from Grandma's house).

1:00 – I clean up the lunch dishes and go switch the laundry for the last time of the day. I remake our bed. I hate putting quilts into duvet covers that are larger than twin size. But I love duvets for sleeping with so I'm stuck with this chore.

1:15 – I set the timer and let Mady know that in 15 minutes its time for a nap. She responds so much better when it's the timer telling her play time is up rather than me. I did it on the weekend in front of Mark and his eyes almost popped out of his head when the timer went off and Mady put herself down for a nap! Kate is starting to fuss to I decide to give her a head start with the nap. It's much easier if she falls asleep before Mady gets in there. I change her and put her down for her nap. While the timer ticks away I mix up the muffins.

1:30 – Nap time. The Mommy equivalent of a coffee break. I'm hoping to get some things done today. I put the muffins in the oven, clean up the kitchen. I realize I forgot to get Mady to pick up the toys before her nap so I do it because I don't want to trip on them all afternoon. Then go get the last load of laundry from the dryer. I put it all away. I do all this with punctuated reminders to Madelyn that it is nap time and that she needs to quit entertaining her sister and lie down.

2:00 – Mady has grown quiet so I'm hoping she's asleep. Kate is still fussing. I know she's tired so I don't go in right away. I would like to make a call to a possible day-home, but figure that crying kids in the background maybe isn't a good first impression, so I put it off for either later or another day and instead sit down to peruse some recipes. I have a meal plan, but sometimes I just don't feel like eating what is on the agenda. Ya know?

2:03 – Mady comes out (darn!) and informs me that she's not tired (I don't believe it). And that she wants a muffin. Uh ha! I knew there was a real reason she was still awake. I take her back to bed, resettle Kate and remind Mady to not talk to Kate (this is very hard for a chatter-box).

My muffin timer is beeping so I go check them. My oven runs hot and so I have to turn down the temp and bake things longer in order for them to turn out. It's annoying. The tops are done, the bottoms are not, so I cover them with foil and try another 5 minutes.

2:10 – Back to recipes. I find a new burger recipe to try for supper. I'm craving BBQ, but it may be too cold. The back up plan is the george foreman. If it can't be summer, I'm going to pretend.

2:15 – Muffins are finished. Conveniently Mady appears to go potty (I think she heard the timer). Back to bed she goes. I regret having started the muffins in front of her. I give up on the girls falling asleep together and bring Kate out and feed her. Hopefully the warm milk in her tummy will put her to sleep and Mady will go to sleep in the meantime without anyone to entertain. More blog reading while I feed Kate. I have no idea how I will ever do it when I'm no longer feeding a child and back to work. There will be no time. I will miss my bloggy friends, so I'll probably find a way. :)

2:45 – Kate has fallen asleep nursing so I take her back to bed. Mady is still up. I fear this will be one of those days she doesn't sleep. I read blogs and facebook.

3:15 – Mady comes out again. This time wearing only a shirt. I fear she has wet her bed, but go in to find that she just felt it necessary to try on her entire closet. I put the clothes back in the closet and lock it. If she's not asleep in the next 15 minutes it's probably not going to happen. Sigh. I pull out my choir music in case this is my only chance to look it over.

3:30 – They're asleep. Finally! I practice choir music, blog, build stuff on my Silhouette studio (it's addicting, I tell you!)

4:30 Kate wakes up to eat. I feed her and we play for a few minutes.

5:00 – I mix up the burgers. Mady wakes up. I cut up potatoes to make home made fries.

5:30 – Mark is home. He tells me the BBQ is too cold and snow covered so I have to settle for using the George Foreman. Mady sets the table (again don't be too impressed. It's the two year old version. Everything is on the table and pretty near the right person, but not set in the proper order or anything.)

6:00 – We eat supper.

6:30 – I give Kate a “top up” feed in hopes that she won't need a bottle while I'm gone. It's just easier that way. I get ready for choir (read: I change into a non-spit-up covered shirt. Ha!)

6:45 - I leave for choir. Alone in the car I turn up the radio and sing along. Loud.

7:00 – Choir starts. Have I mentioned this is my favourite part of my week? I love making music with this group. It's amazing! We're doing a concert the end of June that will be all music from movies. I was part of a concert like this in college. They're so much fun!

9:00 – Choir is over. I chat with some friends and my brother (he sings in the choir too).

9:30 - I stop off at the grocery store for milk and some fresh veggies that I'll need for supper tomorrow.

Then swing by the Library on the way home to return our books that are due tomorrow.

10:00 – I arrive home. Mark and I veg on the couch just chatting. Its nice to talk without the Littles interrupting. 

10:40 – We go watch Sarah 101 (yeah for PVR's). We love Sarah Richardson! While I watch I finish this blog post.

11:15 - I go to bed. Whew, I'm tired and hoping for another long night from Kate. Tomorrow I get to do it all again! Good night!