A Typical Day for the Wilsons

Hi there. I haven't learned anything 'earth shattering', but I do want to do better at keeping up with my blogging now that I have the time to.

So, a typical day for us. We'll start at midnight, seeing as that is the 'official' beginning of a new day, right?

We seem to have about a 50-50 chance that one child or another will wake up between 3am and 5:30am (not ONE of my children needs to be out of bed before 5:50am). IF I'm lucky, it will be closer to 3am so that I can actually get back to sleep again; rather than at 5:30am, when I have no hope of even completely relaxing before my alarm goes off at 5:50am (like this morning *rolling my eyes while I yawn*). While I'm awake for said child, I will invariably end up using the potty and rechecking all of the doors to make sure that they are locked (OCD thing, I KNOW that I lock them before bed, and double checked them before getting into bed...but, none-the-less, I WILL check them again). So, at 5:50am, my alarm goes off, I hit snooze and wait for 6am (OK, truthfully, my clock is set almost 10 minutes fast, so I'm getting out of bed before 6am). I get up and make sure that Ariel's up and going...sometimes I have to make sure she remembers to eat something (she's a teenage girl, with asthma issues that suppress her appetite sometimes, this IS a challenge!). We leave here before 6:25am for early morning Seminary at the church building (I've NEVER been so grateful to live only 3 minutes from church in my life!). I get home at about 6:30, and this is when I stomp on the kitchen floor. No...I'm not doing this out of frustration, or to keep myself from falling asleep again...Tori's bedroom is right below the kitchen, and it's time for her to get up now. I clean up some kitchen things, or the table, or, maybe just sit down for a few minutes. I make sure she's up here by 6:45 to get breakfast, etc. I sometimes get breakfast during this time, but sometimes I'm actually finishing getting dressed (yes, I've driven to Seminary in my PJ's with a jacket over them and barefoot). I remind Don when it's 7:00am, he rarely acknowledges me with much other than a grunt. Get Tori out the door by 7:15. It is my habit, now, to stand outside with the kids while they wait for the bus, this gives me some quiet, more personal time with them (I get that 3 minutes with Ariel each morning too LOL). Back inside at about 7:20 or so, set a timer for 10 minutes and turn on the lights for DJ & Jr to start waking up. When the timer goes off, at 7:30, I have to convince two sleepy children that they really DO have to get up now. I also remind Don that it is now 7:30, and he thinks about waking up. Then it's upstairs for breakfast (I have a 75% chance that they're going to ask me to make oatmeal, so this is not a time to sit down and relax), brushing teeth and hair, and getting dressed. I make lunches as need during this time. Usually, Don's up here by 8:00 to shower, etc., but not always. At 8:15am, it's outside to wait for the bus. We have a bench that's by the garage that we sit on right now (I'm not sure what will happen when the snow flies, but I like having the bench there). Sometimes I'm actually brushing Jr's hair at this point, or getting things into backpacks that were almost forgotten. I get back in the house at about 8:25am, then I get my breakfast (if I haven't eaten it already), and clear what's left on the table. If Don's not already up and going, I go remind him that it is now 8:00am, and he really ought to get to work before 9. My day often gets into full swing right away as I'm afraid to lose the momentum! Laundry gets rebooted, dishes get rebooted, floors get picked up & vacuumed or swept, stray items get put where they belong, e-mails get read, and I chat online with those I can. Phone calls and lunch and other cleaning up projects (lately it's been getting our bedroom moved downstairs, look for pictures soon!). By 3pm, I brush my hair again, check to make sure I remembered make up (more often then not, I haven't), and have a quick snack so that I'm ready for the kids. 3:20pm: Ariel and Tori come bursting in the door (yes, literally...they generally race up the driveway to see who gets into the house first...unless it's raining, then they take their time; teenagers are weird!). This is when I get Ariel's 'play-by-play' of her day, and Tori tells me what she can when Ariel takes a breath or answers a text (I make sure to take full advantage of pauses in Ariel's stories so that I hear from Tori too, sometimes, I make Ariel wait for Tori to talk first...this doesn't set well with her, but they deserve equal sharing time). Ariel MIGHT be done telling me about her day by the time DJ & Jr get home at 3:50pm. Then it's all homework, checking on homework and rebooting the laundry one more time. Texting and computer have to wait 'til homework is done, so Ariel his HIGHLY motivated to get it done; Tori, not as much, but she gets the computer first if she gets homework done first! More likely than not, I've forgotten to plan toward dinner, so at 4:30, I start scrambling around to figure out what to do. I'm going to get back to my menu planning again so that I at least have ideas in front of me so that we can sit down to dinner more often than not. Don generally gets home at 5:30-ish (depending upon the day, sometimes it's before 4, sometimes it's after 6), and we try to eat by 6:00. At 7:15pm, it's time to start getting DJ & Jr ready for bed, brushing teeth, etc. 7:30: family prayer and hugs/kisses all around. Don and I take turns putting DJ & Jr to bed (so that they can say their personal prayers with us), and this is often when I take the time to finish clearing the table and doing dishes while the girls finish up any homework (or use the computer). At 7:45, I start getting the girls through their showers; this SHOULD take about an hour or so total...but it never works out that way. Generally, Tori showers first and is out by about 8:30-ish. Then I have to somehow get Ariel to shower (this means stopping her online chats, e-mail and her texting, so it's not an easy task!). I can usually have both girls to their rooms by 9:45pm. That's when I collapse and try to watch some TV (if anything's on), OR when I finish cleaning up and straightening up so I can start it all over again the next day. I'd like to be able to say that Don and I get to bed by 10:00, but we're often up past 11:30pm with watching TV, taking care of my chores, or being on the computer. And that, my friends, is a day-in-the-life. I'd try to tell you how Wednesdays go, with the girls having their Church activity and me having a presidency meeting 3 Wednesdays out of the month (did I mention that I'm now the 2nd counselor in Relief Society?), but I'm too tired from looking at my day laid out in front of me! As you can see, there is plenty of learning time in there...so I try to make the most of it!