Where does the day go??

 Every day this week, I have had good intentions. I intend to get things done around the house, get the kids outside and play with them, and feel accomplished. And every day I look at the clock between 4:00 and 5:00 and wonder where the day has gone and what I did all day. At that time, I feel the need to clean up messes (again) and try to get the house looking somewhat decent (again), start dinner, feed the baby (again), etc. When my husband gets home, I want it to look like I did something...anything...during the day. Most of the time it doesn't look that way. And I don't know what happens to the day. I feel like I have ADD when I can't finish one task at one time, but I think it's just called being a mom, and a mom of 5, to boot. There are simple things I want to get done each day, but nothing too big that should be a problem. For example, the batteries in Curly's crib projector are dying, and it makes an awful sound when he turns it on, so that was on my list of things to do this week. Simple enough, right? I finally just did it today, Friday. Every time I put Curly down for a nap or to bed for the night I remembered I needed to change the batteries. That would remind me that I wanted to attach the light up aquarium to Superchunk's crib too (which also needed new batteries). And it took me all of five minutes to change the batteries and re-attach the things to their cribs. (side note, I'm disappointed in both of these toys, as the tabs to attach them to the crib broke off both toys within the first three times they were taken off to change the batteries.)


Yesterday my big plan was to clean the stroller. We have three strollers. One is an umbrella stroller, one is a double stroller, and one is a regular stroller. This one is our original stroller we received at my baby shower nine years ago for Princess. It has been good to us. Maybe I should have been better to it, as I have only taken it apart to clean one time, and that was before Pirate was born five years ago. Gross, I know! So, Wednesday night I decided to take Superchunk with me to Pirate's swimming lesson. We walked to the pool and I pushed Superchunk around in the stroller while we watched. Poor baby doesn't get out for fresh air very much! I started looking at the stroller and realized how dirty it was. I thought to myself that I should clean it soon, meaning sometime within the next two years. When we got home, I left the stroller outside while I changed Pirate into clothes. As we were walking to the car to go get a snowball, I noticed bird poop on the seat of the stroller. That bird decided I needed to clean the stroller sooner rather than later. So, yesterday I brought it in the house, took it apart (which required tools!) and washed all of the fabric parts. I laid them out to dry, in the laundry room, because with my luck if I laid them outside another bird would crap on them. Then I scrubbed, and I mean scrubbed, the frame of the stroller. I even took it outside and hosed off the wheels! Let me just say, the creator of the Magic Eraser is a genius! The stroller went from filthy to new(ish) looking! The tray is still scratched and it has other spots and scratches on it, but for the most part, this stroller looks great! I even put it back together on my own. And this project took me ALL damn day! At 4:30 yesterday, I looked at the clock, looked at the stroller, and realized that was where my day went.

I do the same thing every morning. Feed the kids, clean up the kitchen, straighten up the middle floor of the house, have kids do chores, feed baby. Sounds so simple. Looks so simple in writing. Why does it take hours? This is how today has gone:

Wake up, take Trouble to the bathroom, put on his underwear. Get up Curly, change his diaper, take him to kitchen. Three boys are up, Princess & Superchunk are still sleeping. Break up a fight over who sits where at the table. Pour milk for all three and give to them. Take breakfast orders. (Apparently I run a full service restaurant.) Answer customer questions - "Do we have any more chocolate poptarts?". "Do we have any more pancakes?" No & No - it's grocery day and it looks like Mother's Hubbard's Cupboard over here. Serve blueberry Poptarts. Cut up a banana for Curly. Give Curly half of a bagel thin. Put my bagel thin in the toaster. (Bagel thins are the healthyish alternative to a bagel, I guess. I only bought them because they were on sale and I couldn't find any regular plain bagels.) While the bagel is in the toaster I refill a milk, wipe up milk that was splashed on the table, and tell Trouble to stop sprinkling Poptart crumbs on the floor. Then I smell smoke, my burnt bagel pops up, and the smoke detector goes off. All three boys immediately start crying. Fan the smoke detector, open windows. Crisis averted. Shit, it's grocery day and that was the last bagel. Eat it anyway. Remind myself to be thankful the coffee turned out right. Send boys to play, drink coffee in "peace" while Curly walks around. Tell Curly to stop touching that. And that. And that too. Move recycling bin out of his reach. Move pans out of his reach. Block trashcan so he can't get to it. Remember coffee. Pour out cold coffee and refill. Clear table. Remember dishwasher is clean. Empty dishwasher. Start to reload dishwasher. Break up fight in basement over Legos. Answer phone and feel relief to sit down and talk to my friend for a few minutes. Enjoy coffee while on phone. Tune out the incessant "Mommy" coming from the basement. Finish coffee and conversation. Finish cleaning up kitchen. Trouble comes upstairs to announce that he has pooped in his underwear. Curse like crazy in my head while I dump his poop in the toilet and wipe him. Tell him he's not playing in the sprinkler today. (It's 200 degrees out so we weren't going out anyway.) The Princess awakens and wants breakfast. Run through the pretty non-existent menu and make her a bowl of cereal. Throw in a load of laundry. Think to myself if I had just put the laundry in when I got up it would be done by now. Oh, well. Look at clock - 10:30. Naptime for Curly. Lay him down, wake Superchunk. Get him dressed. Tell other kids to get dressed. Help Trouble get dressed and brush his teeth. Feed Superchunk. Listen to an argument over what show to watch. Listen to an argument over Legos. Listen to an argument over books. Listen to an argument over someone sitting in someone else's spot on the couch. Yell downstairs to stop arguing. Clean up Superchunk's spit up. Change Superchunk's clothes. Clothes? Oh right, put the clothes in the dryer. Get laundry together to put in another load. Wake up Curly. Change poopy diaper. Get myself dressed (finally). Go downstairs to hear another argument over Legos. Yell at kids and threaten to not let them go to pool with my mom and sister, secretly knowing that I will just be screwing myself if I keep them home. Start writing this blog. See that it's going on 12:30. No computer time. Start making lunch. Lay Superchunk down for a nap. Remember batteries and change them. Back to making lunch. Heat up leftover hotdogs for Trouble and Pirate. Make tacos for Princess (leftovers), give Curly his lunch. Listen to Pirate, Trouble, and Princess simultaneously complain about their lunches. I'm sure Curly would complain too if he knew how. Start to clean up from lunch. Trash is full, take out trash. Wipe up spilled ketchup from floor where Pirate tried to clear his spot but the trash was too full. My mom and sister get here. Tell Princess and Pirate to get their bathing suits on. Apply sunscreen. Pack towels, water, snacks, goggles, extra sunscreen. Wave as they leave. Comfort Trouble who cries about going. I know better than to try to send him anywhere with anyone. He's a flight risk and too much work. Lay him down for a nap. Lay Curly down for a nap. Feed Superchunk. Lay Superchunk down for a nap. Breathe a sigh of relief. Watch my soap in fast forward. Remember I need to run dishwasher, fold laundry, and register Pirate for soccer. Remembering to do things reminds me of my blog. Ignore other things and work on blog. 

Trouble is now awake. Curly is starting to make noise. I have the soccer registration screen pulled up but haven't finished it because my wallet with bank card are upstairs and I'm too lazy to go up and get it. The dryer buzzed 20 min ago, but I haven't gotten it out of the dryer. I have two loads to fold and put away, dishes in the dishwasher to put away, and random things that need to be picked up. And oh, look, it's after 4pm. Where has the day gone??

Pool Time!

*I've been really bad about blogging lately. I started this right after Memorial Day, and a week and a half later, I'm just getting back to it. It's been a busy week ;-)

Memorial Day weekend our pool opened, and we spent most of the weekend there. We have not yet attempted taking the whole family to the pool. It seems like it would be more work than fun. Maybe by the end of the summer we'll be brave enough to try it as a family. For now, we take turns with the kids. Only the three bigger kids went this weekend, and they all had a blast the whole time.

Our pool is public, so anyone can pay to go in at any time. We bought a membership because with seven of us, it pays for itself in just a few visits. I definitely saw some crazy things at the pool, and I'm sure there will be many more pool stories before the summer ends. I had to spend a lot of time at the baby pool with Trouble. That's where he felt most comfortable, and the big pool was freezing, so I didn't mind sitting with him in the little pool. He learned baby pool etiquette pretty quickly - where any toys you bring into the pool automatically belong to everyone there. The baby pool is gated, and the huge sign on the gate states that children must be supervised inside the gate at all time. To me, this means that you need to be in the gated area with your child. Apparently that rule doesn't apply to everyone, because some kids were in there alone. All day. I guess the baby pool itself is a babysitter? I don't get it, but as long as they left my kids alone, I didn't care.

Another thing I learned is that not all women shave their armpits. To each his own, but I don't get that one either. I was very surprised when this lady raised her arms to catch her daughter, and her pits were as hairy as my husband's. Speaking of body hair, I also saw a few men with hair sweaters. You know, where their hair covers their chests, stomachs, and backs. I thought they'd just shake off like a dog, but to my surprise, they used towels to dry themselves. I'm not making fun of anyone, just observing. Trust me, someone somewhere is probably blogging about the lady trying to tan her enormous thighs while chasing her kids around the pool. (that would be me!)

I don't understand the use of those giant water squirter things at the pool. Kids in the baby pool (the ones with no parents watching them) were squirting the other kids in the baby pool. More than once, other kids' parents had to tell them to stop bothering their own kids. At the big pool, there were adults standing on the side of the pool squirting their kids, and getting other kids at the same time. If you want to get wet, just get in the pool. That being said, I understand we're at a pool, and the point is to get wet. But I need to get used to the water on my own. I don't need you or your kids to squirt me or splash me. While we're on the topic, adults should not do cannon balls in the 3 feet. You could hurt yourself or someone else, and your butt crack almost always ends up showing. No one wants to see that. And then your kids and their friends follow suit, and everyone is cannon-balling in water that is too shallow, splashing people who don't want to be splashed, and there are butt cracks showing all over the place.

I haven't been to the pool in 2 weeks because we've been really busy. I'm sure there were other stories I wanted to tell at the time I began this post. There's a long summer ahead of us, folks... plenty of pool stories to come!