A Typical Day

I start my day at 6:15 a.m. I creep downstairs and open the door to greet a dad with 2 babies. The 2 year old, goddess bless her, goes down in a crib and right to sleep. The 2 month old sometimes goes back to sleep, and sometimes performs an intermittent performance of whines, snorts, and spit-ups for the next 2 hours.

At 8, I call out to my boys to get up, eat, and do whatever they have to do to get ready for homeschooling. I drink my coffee, flip through channels and find TV still sucks. But it wakes me up.

At 9, I either grab a bottle for the baby, or my younger son and his Pre-Algebra book, depending on who is ready to be serviced. Sometimes I'm doing both at once. Formula stinks, expecially when it's coming back out of the baby. I change the baby, pat her down, and lay her in a seat. I call up to Red and ask what he's doing. "Reading." OK, I'm tired and too busy, so I trust him.

At 10 Jac wakes up. I change her, dress her, and give her breakfast, which she can eat herself with not too much mess. Then I start language arts with the boys, if they're ready.

At noon Randy comes home and makes everyone lunch on most days, bless his heart. Then we sit in the "teachers' lounge" (the living room, which is off limits till 1).

The afternoon is Algebra, and History, and sometimes we get a little more in. Jac goes back down for a nap at 2 or so and usually sleeps till dad comes to get her at 3:30. Jules gets another bottle at 1, spits up 3, 4, or 5 times, and might sleep here and there for 15 minutes at a time.

At 3:30 both BB's leave. I dismiss my sons, who I've been struggling with to keep focused, and let them go off on their own.

Sometime between 4 and 4:30 I get ready for work. I put on some makeup, because if I don't my face will turn all red when my allergies start acting up at work. I do something with my hair to look presentable. Last, I throw together something to eat at work.

DH cooks dinner for us almost every night, and does Science and Spelling with the boys twice a week.

I start work at Big Box Mart at 5PM. I work till 11. My job is to sell window treatments and wallpaper, cut window treatments, downstock merchandise, check previous sales, and run around the store filling in where needed. The store closes at 10, but I've got to stay till 11 and clean up. It doesn't matter if my department is clean. If it is, I'm to move on to another department. Cleaning my department consists of vacuuming out the blind cutting machine, sweeping, dusting, taking out the trash, and "fronting and facing" the merchandise. I also have to tape back boxes and stuff curtains back into packages that rude people have opened. By this point, I've been standing on a concrete floor for the better part of 6 hours; I'm dirty, sweaty, and my head is buzzing.

I go home, eat something, clean up, and watch TV till I fall asleep, which is usually about 12:30-1am.

I do all this 3 days a week. I also sometimes drive my daughter to work, or go to a doctor's appointment, which is really a lot of fun with 2 babies that have to be accounted for.

On the nights I don't work, I'm usually vegging out in front of the computer to clear out my head.

I'm just trying to tough this out till June. The babies won't be here in the summer, because their mom is a teacher. (This woman has a hell of a day, getting 3 kids out the door, working with special needs kids in wheelchairs that wear diapers and have to be spoon fed, and then feeding, changing, bathing, and getting her own kids to sleep which is no easy task.)

I figure I'll work as much as I can at Big Box Mart during the summer, and then quit in the fall. Hopefully, between my DH and I, we can save enough money to buy carpet for the 4 bedrooms before I quit.

If I've gotten through my day with no major catastrophes, and I know where everyone is, I count that as a good day.