I love reading those posts where people write out everything they do on a random day. Love! So I wrote one, only it took me a while to get it finished and posted and everything because I was kind of busy having another day that looked pretty much like that day. But here it is now, this was Monday! And with a few variables, pretty much every school day around here.
5:30 AM- start waking up
6:00 - Make breakfast for the baby. I don't want breakfast, but the baby demands hardboiled eggs, flaxseed waffles, blueberries, and keifer. I just want coffee, so I have some of that, too.
6:15 - Actually post something on my blog, and try to hack my way through my poor neglected feed reader. Also multitask by simultaneously painting my fingernails and doing a little face mask, because if my feed reader is poor and neglected, then I don't even KNOW what to call my skin and cuticles. Zombie-like, maybe?
7:00 - Joey and the boys stumble out the door and to the gym. I turn on the news and the sprinklers, restart the dryer, pre-heat the oven, and do a quick sweep of the house for anything that looks out of place.
7:30 - Realize I have no time for yoga AGAIN because I took so long getting out of bed. Reflect on the need for a new yoga DVD or something because the app on my phone is becoming pretty unappealing and it's not like I need more excuses to not-yoga.
7:35 - Get dressed and everything. Getting to wear a cute, new maternity top inspires me to actually do my hair and spend more than five seconds on my make-up. Which I am almost out of (make-up, not hair, thank goodness!) because my sweet babies found it on the counter the other day when I was taking something out to the recycling bin and used up mostly all of it.
8:00 - The guys get back from the gym, so I get out the blender and mix up breakfast protein shakes, and dole out morning vitamins, supplements, and medications. Turn off the sprinklers and water the inside plants.
8:10 - Put a mini-pizza in the oven for the girls' lunches, then make their breakfast and pack up my lunch, Joey's lunch, and their lunches. The boys eat at school, or else I'd just spend all of my time making lunches. With ducky cookies!
8:25 - Get the girls up and dressed and do their hair. Nessie is all about the pigtails these days, which takes a little while because she is not all about the holding still, but Ariel is at a point now where she can get herself 90% undressed and dressed and make her own bed, so it evens out.
8:40 - Girls eat breakfast and chatter at the boys, who have mostly finished their post-workout
8:55 - Crowd everyone into Joey's truck and book it to school, which is fortunately only five minutes away from our house.
9:00 - Drop off my things in my classroom, then take the girls to the other end of the building to put away backpacks and lunches and get some last-minute hugs in before leaving them in Kanga's classroom.
9:15 - Go over lesson plans and checklists for the day, put recitation poetry on the board, review student folders to remember where they all left off on their current writing assignments. First bathroom trip of many. No, really, MANY.
9:45 - One-on-one reading remediation lesson. Yes, nonsense words sound dumb. I promise there is a reason for them. A good reason. No, that isn't a Russian word, but feel free to read it with a Russian accent if that makes you happy, dude. You also have my permission to sing the Thrift Store song every time you come across the words thrift and/or store. As long as it's the radio version, because don't think I don't know what word is really lurking between the "this is" and the "awesome." I do.
10: 30 - English class. Students recite their poem, then I pass out their writing folders and remind them of what they are working on. After they get settled in, I alternate between making a ridiculously detailed folder for my maternity leave sub and correcting their rough drafts as they turn them in.
11:20 - Bathroom
11:25 - English class. Step out for five minutes for a quick conversation with awesome principal of awesomeness. Step out again to check on Joey's class so he can give her more information. Confiscate a cell phone from one of his students. Very nearly weep tears of joy over a rough draft I'm grading.
12:10 - Lunch break! Run out to the playground to give Ariel a kiss and hear how recess is going. Have a lengthier conversation with principal. I always feel guilty for chatting with her so much, but enjoying your boss's company isn't such a bad problem to have, right? Anyway, we have the problems of the world to solve!
12:30 - Heat up some Thai coconut soup and take it to my classroom, where my co-workers hang out and chat with me, which happily distracts me from the fact that I am only eating Thai coconut soup and a protein bar, rather than ALL THE FOOD, which is what I want to be eating. Also solve many world problems, etc. Bathroom again.
1:05 - English class. Which begins, not with a poetry recitation, but with me trying to figure out how to unlock the handcuffs that one student has trapped another student in for reasons unknown. I wouldn't mind, ordinarily, but it's a writing day and he kind of needed the use of his hands to complete his work. Take confiscated handcuffs to principal, so they can keep all the confiscated cell phones company. Settle students way the heck down so they can actually write some papers and stuff. Explain the same phrase on the outline approximately fifteen times.
1:50 - English class again. Devoted almost entirely to one student who yes, really must write words down. On the paper. In complete sentences. Legibly. I know, it sucks. You may as well resign yourself to your fate.
2:40 - Bathroooooooom!
2:45 - Supposed to be making costumes, but I've run out of raw materials and the big five dollar bag sale at the thrift store (Your grandad's coat! I know!) isn't until this weekend. Was going to finish my sub folder instead, but INSTEAD instead ended up supervising a group of misplaced drama students who needed to finish up some artwork anyway.
3:30 - Dismissed! Sign chore slips, clean dry erase board and put up tomorrow's recitation work, clean classroom, organize papers.
3:45 - Upper school meeting about how to not misplace drama students, and the play in general. Commence freaking out about the thirty medieval costumes I will be making in the next six weeks. Ignore conversations about sword-fight choreography in favor of obsessive costume listing and dramatic sighing.
4:45 - Meeting ended by the appearance of Kanga and my baaaaaaybeeees! You wouldn't believe how extra adorable they look when I haven't seen them for hours. Hustle everyone back out to the truck, which is even more crowded with an extra boy who needed a ride home. Joey drops us girls off at home and takes the boys to Aldi to get their snacks for the week, because we don't let them graze the shelves of Whole Foods all willy-nilly. Because that would cost five million dollars. I know, I checked.
5:00 - Let the girls play outside while I put away backpacks and lunches, and then spend TWENTY minutes trying to get a My Little Pony bubble blower to work for them. There were YouTube videos involved. Frightening, disturbing videos that involved grown men acting out conversations between the bubble blower pony and other, normal ponies. Am scarred for life, people. And the end result was a bubble blower that, yeah, didn't really work anyway, just like the Amazon reviews say.
5:30 - Snuggle with Nessie on the porch swing, consoling us both from the debacle of the Bubble Blower.
5:45 - Boys home! Joey makes fajitas for dinner and I chop the vegetables for him while the girls dig out the Barbies and the boys take some old stuff out to the curb for trash pickup. Everyone discusses the happenings of the day at top volume.
6:30 - Gather everyone to the table for dinner. Lengthier, yet food-muffled conversations about classmates.
6:50 - The girls finish eating and Ariel starts counting to play hide-and-seek with Nessie. Both teenage boys leap up from the table to hide, too. Joey and I stay at the table to hold hands and laugh at the game of ninja-style-hide-and-seek-with-toddlers that follows.
7:15 - Joey gets the girls into their pajamas and brushes their teeth, I sing the bedtime songs and read the bedtime story from The Blue Fairy Book. About thirty-bazillion goodnight kisses later, we actually make it out of their bedroom.
7:45 - Clear the table, do the dishes, clean the kitchen, tidy up the playroom, and fold and put away a load of laundry. Get the boys settled in with their evening study assignments - reading The Giver and taking a practice test for the Critical Reading section of the SAT, respectively. Yes, you have to. Because I am mean and also mad with power. Mad, I say!
8:30 - Joey and I attempt to watch TV in our room, but instead fall into a lengthy discussion about the inadvisability of just going to bed at 8:30 PM and leaving the boys to their own devices. Voice of reason (yeah, that would be me) says, highly inadvisable. Even though it is really, really tempting.
8:45 - Undercover Bosses is just not interesting enough to distract us from the lure of sleeeeeep, so we decide to hang out in the living room with snacks and a game to keep us going until The Blessed, Joyous Hour of Lights Out. I make another protein shake for him and some prenatal health tea and some grapes for myself, and he pulls Farkle out of the game closet. Have you ever played Farkle? With all the dice? Good times, that.
9:15 - Stop playing to hear a narration of a chapter of The Giver and grade a section of SAT practice test. Joey explains the rules of Farkle to the boys and they dig out their stashes of cookies, Pringles, and chocolate milk before joining us.
9:30 - Threaten to make everyone play Candy Land tomorrow night, just to see if they will get equally competitive over that.
9:45 - Probably there would be less inappropriate wordplay with the title of Candy Land than there is with Farkle, too.
9:50 - So close...
9:55 - So very close...
9:58 - ALMOST THERE...
10:00 - Oh, happy day! Time for bed! Reminders about cleaning up snack messes and taking nighttime meds and GOODNIGHT, GENTLEMEN!
10:10 - Get into pajamas and out of makeup. Collapse.
10:15 - Snuggle up with Joey and watch an episode of Big Bang while figuring out some plans and logistics for the next day and getting nice and sleepy.
10:30 - "Are you still watching this?" "Huh? Did you say something?" "Turn the TV off, babe." "Mmm. 'Night." "Goodnight."
And repeat!
I can't believe you have all those teenagers in the house plus the babies AND the baby! You are like super mom. I am tired just reading this!
ReplyDeleteI am feeling extra, super-duper lazy now. You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteGirl, I know it is. S exhausting as it sounds! Two things: doesn't that baby ever insist you eat some ice cream or something? You are such a great pregnant woman! Also, I would love to see a post that clarifies how your teens come to be with you, like how are they referred and what the parameters of possibly leaving are; I just thnk it sounds like a wonderful and interesting thing. I know you've written some about it before, just interested in hearing more. You know, in all your free time.
ReplyDeleteYou get so much done in the morning! Maybe I need to start getting up at 5.
ReplyDeleteI have over 1000+ unread items in my reader. Pathetic. I never go there because it's too overwhelming, but then I find new posts from you and I think "Yay! I should check my reader more often!"