Listing My Days

Lately (or always) I often get overwhelmed at the end of the day when the house is a mess, and I am trying to remember what I did that day.  How did we fill the hours?  A little lie that plays in my head says that I didn't do anything that matters.  I tell myself (and Scott, bless his heart, I talk his ears off all the time) that I don't think we just wasted the day away, but what did we do, I wonder? 

Combine that with the fact that I would love to go back and read a record of my mom's or my grandmother's or my great grandmother's days as stay-at-home moms.  I adore Elisabeth Elliot's book, The Shaping of a Christian Family as it is basically a journal of what her mother's life looked like when she was a mom.  I learn so much from reading a record of her days.  I always imagine that one day Ada will come to me with questions when she is also in the motherhood trenches (if the Lord decides to make her a mom).  So, I have started jotting down my days.  Just a list, nothing formal, but a way for me to look back over my days and reflect.  I have only been doing this for two days, but I am loving that it forces me to reflect and see that I am doing something. 

So, just for fun...our day today.

Woke up at 5 am, excited to work out and do my bible study.  John woke up with a vengeance at 5:10 am, waking Ada up with him.  I nursed John (who is supposedly weaned) and then lay down with Ada until 7 am.  I don't think she ever went back to sleep.

At 7 am, got up, made bed, "switched laundry," unloaded dishwasher, swept kitchen floor

John woke up

quick "wipe down" of guest bathroom

John had a "spell," he is worn out from it, I put him back to bed at 8:00

8:30 got in the shower, while in the shower, Ada comes in the bathroom and tells me that she went into John's room but assures me, "he didn't see me." 

Get out of shower, and sure enough, John is awake.

9 am, Jessica gets here to watch my kids while I run an errand for Church

return at 10:30 am

Go upstairs and notice water on the floor of John's room.  I ask Ada if she was playing with water upstairs, and she says, "that's tee-tee."  I never get a clear answer on how tee-tee got on John's floor other than "it dripped."

Realize that I need to clean out our vacuum before I can clean up the tee-tee (we have a Rainbow, which sucks wet spills right off the carpet.  If you are wondering how we ended up with a Rainbow, that's another post for another day)

I push John's high chair outside, put vanilla wafers on the tray, and put John in the high chair.  Ada joins us outside.

I realize the water hose is broken when I soak my jeans, but I manage to clean out the Rainbow container.

I roll John back inside, and I get Ada inside.

I take John and the vacuum upstairs.  Put John in bed, and finally get the tee-tee cleaned up.

Get John down for a nap, fix lunch for Ada and me, eat, and crash on the couch while Ada watches two cartoons.

John wakes up.

Ada, John, and I play with the letters blocks.  I try to teach Ada how to "blend" letters.  John some how hurts himself and has another "spell"

He is worn out again from the breath holding, and I put him back to bed.

While upstairs, I fold clothes on my bed and try to ignore the clothes covering my floor so that I don't become overwhelmed.

Match pile of socks on the floor.

comes downstairs--it's 2:30

I sit down to attempt my bible study that didn't get done this AM, and Ada writes her letters and we review vowels, which she calls "balance" (A "balance" is A).  I try to correct her, but she never hears the word correctly.

And I stopped recording there.  Lots more hours have passed, and now Scott is at Bible Study, the kids are in bed, and I am watching The Biggest Loser.   And, yes, my house is a mess.  A mess.  The kitchen is clean, though.  That's something.

This is my day-to-day.