This Crazy Life We Lead...

At 7pm as I was starting the bath for my girls I thought to myself "Gosh why does today feel like its been going on for 3 days?" Do you ever go to bed and wonder where the day went, what you did all day, and why you are so damn tired. All these daily tasks seem so trivial at the time but have you ever sat down and added them all up. An entire day in the life of a mom, or a dad, a parent, caretaker, its exhausting.
As a mother of a 6 and 7 year old I definitely feel some relief with my daily routine. I'm sure my list of accomplishments was so much longer when my girls were younger. In fact as I watch my friends with younger ones, I often wonder with two kids just over a year apart how the hell I did it and lived to tell about it.

So tonight just for the sake of curiosity I decided to make a list of all the things, trivial and non-trivial I accomplished today. Hopefully it'll make you start to wonder yourself why you are feeling so overwhelmed and can barely keep your head above water. Or maybe its just me? In that case please help me!

My Day (as best as my memory serves me at this ripe old age)

Awakened by Logann at 5:30am (not normal but she has the stomach bug)
Get her some wet washclothes, medicine, drink put her back to bed
Let the dogs out to pee
Back to bed thankfully
Wake up at 7:30am late yay!
Check email with iPad thats sitting on my nightstand - emails to respond to already, put that off.
Get Sophia up(a chore), get her clothes laid out
make her breakfast, brush teeth, hair, tie shoes - when is she finally going to tie a decent shoe lace?
rescue a shoe out of the mouth of the puppy
feed both dogs
look up the Wake County lunch menu - yummy cheese dunkers, yes she's buying! she needs to do that more.
pack her snack and all her school papers - that in itself I think is a full time job
get Logann all snuggled up on the couch - she's still running fever and staying home today
make John's coffee, no bagels left - sorry John no b'fast
get Sophia on the bus - phew we didn't miss it.
go to living room to find the dog has chewed up a book,nice mess,clean
Logann wants me to cuddle she's still really warm, cuddle, cuddle
kitchen is a disaster cant stand looking at it
unload dishwasher
wash a bunch of pots from last night
logann offers to spray/clean the counters, that lasts all of 2 seconds.
dog is eating some tupperware she probably found in girl's room, go rescue that
sneak away to get to work on my computer
fix birth announcement,
place order
upload a bunch of collage examples for client - tedious, time consuming parts of my job
get called into bathroom logann has diarrhea still, great!
save another shoe from dog's mouth
10am logann is hungry, make egg sandwiches for us & banana to hopefully get rid of this diarrhea that she's had for 3 days now
remember the probiotic i need to give her, mix it into the applesauce - spoon feed/force it down her throat
she wants to read me some books - we read a few books
sneak back to computer - finish editing headshots
logann races back to bathroom, calls me in, as i wonder/wish she would prefer her privacy while she is pooping
start to email over headshots
phone rings - chat with my friend Kelly for a few, mainly a back and forth of "boy we suck at making it all happen, how do all these other moms/business women do it?
while i'm on the phone i have a free hand....i must multi-task, no time to waste....change the girls sheets, pick up all the crap on their floors, throw in a load of laundry
look at a basket of clean clothes and consider putting them away...but i don't
logann finds me "what can i do" - guess the medicine is working, she's back to her old self
my cell phone dies, lose kelly - another thing i suck at, charging my phone : )
i tell logann she really needs to take a nap so she can get better, she pleads with me to lay down with her, she wins
12pm we lay in bed and watch 30 minutes of Where the Red Fern Grows on the iPad, nobody sleeps
Logann's bored - of course she like me can't sit through many movies
another trip to the bathroom for us -when is she going to be better?
I talk Logann into playing a couple games on the iPad as I am noticing how dirty my carpets are...must vacuum
I vaccum the upstairs
I clean up the puke I find in my walk in closet - dog puked great!
I sweep the studio
organize some new props i received last week
Logann still on computer I sneak back downstairs - need to finish catching up on emails
First I goof off, facebook....nothing exciting luckily.. I am off quick
UPS comes with client photos
package up all the photos
Logann is done playing
We decide to go to the gas station down the road and get her a popsicle - our big outing for the day
Neither of us are dressed though - yes by now it is 2pm!
Get me dressed
get her dressed
2 quick ponytails, teeth,ready to go
Before we leave I see the dog out back what does she have? - a bag of Miracle Gro topsoil that was under the deck apparently. great! fertilizer ingestion, another trip to the vet i bet.
a big struggle ensues as I race outside and wrestle this bag out of her jaw. Topsoil must be tasty, she wasn't giving in
Of course she is now covered in topsoil and decides to jump all over me
Back upstairs, new outfit
pass by fridge, "shoot what are we going to have for dinner, everything is frozen!" take some chicken out to thaw - luckily dinner doesn't have to be done til 9:45pm when John gets home.
get our goodies at the gas station - a cherry slushy for me, craving sugar all the time lately
back home in 10 minutes
clean up the dirty miracle gro dog
get on the internet to see if i should be concerned with the Miracle Gro ingestion...think i am safe.
find a few more school papers I need to fill out - permission slips, scholastic order forms, (never ending school stuff)
finally get back to my computer to send the email of those headshots
done
sign and collect all the checks i still need to deposit in the bank, though i know i'll never get there today either
take a couple photos of the dogs that are lying pissed off by the front door, they haven't had their walk today and they are mad
Logann wants to go outside so we go out to play basketball - its cold,she's still sick, we don't last long
4pm Sophia gets home
I round up the dogs, give the girls the phone and the lecture and lock the door behind me I have to get the dogs a walk around the hood and me some exercise before they(we all) go nutso - don't judge me here
Edgar gets all muddy on the walk
clean another dog
give the dogs water & dinner - they are early birders
kids are on the computer so i attempt to recreate my business cards - don't get very far, everything i need is all over, turns into a project I don't want to deal with
fight kids off computers
they go play while i try to figure out what to feed them
bagel bites, bananas and yogurt for dinner - its usually better than this, i'm desperate,not a good meal today
while eating sophia finds another pile of dog puke under kitchen table, of course right on area rug! puke is so much fun to clean up
dog steals half of logann's meal while i am cleaning it up - luckily logann isn't hungry anyway so dinner is over
homework time - thankfully they are both in a good mood and we move through it fast - not always the case
Sophia remembers that she has to read for 15 mins, so she reads me 2 books, the same ones Logann read me earlier, good and bad, at least I don't have to focus on what she is saying....yes that is terrible to admit
While she is reading I am generating a to do list I feel like I've gotten nothing done today!
7pm bath - wish they would just take a shower
luckily its a pretty good bath night - no fighting, no crying
pjs,
downstairs get them their snacks & drinks
7:30 both kids in bed, pat myself on the back
back to the emails, write long email and decide i'm done working today!
shit i haven't started dinner for john yet...
make chicken curry & jasmine rice - easy meal tonight. he never complains, i could feed him dog food and he'd like it, i'm lucky there
logann is up now screaming bloody murder,
back upstairs
her knee that she skinned a couple days ago is hurting
downstairs for motrin - the cure all right? and a bandaid - remind her that she is just really tired that it can't hurt that bad, get back to bed!
what is that smell though? find out that logann puked last night on her blanket how did i not see that earlier
blanket needs to go in washer
shoot there are clothes in washer from early this morning and clothes in the dryer too, hate when that happens! throw the clean ones on the dryer, there's always tomorrow when it comes to laundry
kitchen timer goes off dinner is done
go out to kitchen to find dog chewing on wooden spoon from curry...urgh! puppies what was i thinking?
put the dog in the crate i'm tired of dealing with her
dvr glee - the only show i watch now
realize i'm starving, guess i only had that slushy for lunch
about to dish me up some curry when sophia comes down from bed to give me her assignment for her secret pal, school project
she talks me into to letting her play club penguin while i eat- i'm easy i give in
eat, yum!
9pm i'm dog tired, john's not even home yet, still have to get Sophia back to bed.....
and so it goes

So now that I've written all that down I feel like I'm complaining. I'm not! I just really wanted to see where my day went. I find it amazing how much stuff we go through in a single day. Me, I consider myself lucky, blessed. I'm just an average mom, I bet I have it easier than most. I'm not a single mom, my kids are healthy, i don't have 4 kids like so many i know, i don't work two jobs, I get a lot of breaks. My life should be so easy but then why does it feel so crazy? What am I doing wrong? Is there a class for this, a magic pill, a fairy godmother. Its not that I'd ever trade all of this in, I'm just saying....when are you suppose to sit back and enjoy life, take it all in. How do you stop moving, shut off your brain, but still keep it all together? My million dollar question.