A Day in the Life of a Busy Stay at Home Mom & Spread the Kindness Link Up On the Edge #825

We are two weeks into the new school year and I feel quite like a chicken with its head cut off. Running around in a frenzy all the time, trying to keep the schedules of four people in order and get everyone where they need to be on time. Mom’s Uber service runs 24/7 it seems…however, Dad’s Uber service takes over after dark. My old eyes play wicked tricks on me in the darkness which makes me feel very unsafe if I have to drive by the illumination of headlights and street lamps.

My younger child likes to quip that while he’s at school all I do is sit on the couch and watch television. Ha, freaking, ha, kid. So I’m going to use this post to set the record straight for this sweet sassy ass child of mine.

red and white floral maxi dress, red bandana print ruana wrap topper, black cowgirl hat, black Salt Water sandals, summer boho outfit, Shelbee on the Edge

The Morning Hours…

With a 4:15 alarm set for every weekday morning, my bladder usually alerts me around 3:45 a.m. that wake up time is near. I try to ignore the initial bladder alarm, but I’m usually only successful for about 15 minutes. So I slowly drag my tired perimenopausal body out of the comfort of my bed and make my way downstairs, being careful not to trip over one of our feline babies swarming my feet as I descend the stairs.

First I turn on the coffee maker, then I feed the cats. They are like four little furry scavengers acting like they haven’t eaten in days, mewing at me and getting under my feet even more. Then I go the bathroom and brush my teeth while the coffee brews and I wait for Jeff to join me. He sleeps straight up until the 4:15 alarm wakes him. By the time he gets downstairs, I’m finished in the bathroom and either sitting on the couch with my coffee in hand or laying out the yoga mats for a good morning stretch.

On yoga days, we are on the mats by 4:35 and finished by 5:00. We try to do yoga at least 5 days a week but we’ve definitely been slacking these last few weeks as we make the transition to the school schedule. At 5:30, I make my way back upstairs, gently give the children their first wake up notice, and get in the shower. After my shower, I promptly put on makeup, fix my hair, and get dressed for the day. This usually takes me until 6:00 which is the time for the children’s second wake up nudge.

After a few minutes of cat snuggles, Ralph gets up without much issue as Jeff begins making his way upstairs to get ready for work. Archie lays in bed until about 6:15 or 6:20, at which point I have to start yelling at him to get the heck out of bed. His response is always a very tired whine of, “I know, Mom. I’m getting there.”

By 6:30, everyone is dressed and downstairs eating breakfast. Jeff and I tend to split the breakfast making depending on who is downstairs first. Both kids have a plethora of breakfast choices, both hot and cold, made to order.

Jeff leaves for work at 6:45 and I continue on with morning chores, packing a lunch for Archie (Ralph prefers school lunch), and constantly reminding my kids of the time. At 7:00, the children brush their teeth and hair, put on their shoes, pack their bags, and we are in the car between 7:07-7:13. The drive to school takes approximately 3 minutes so they arrive with time to spare for the 7:25 bell. They need to be in homeroom/first period by 7:30.

red and white floral maxi dress, red bandana print ruana wrap topper, black cowgirl hat, black Salt Water sandals, summer boho outfit, thrifted necklaces, Shelbee on the Edge

The Morning Hours Continued…

Depending on the day, I either head back home to finish the morning chores (dishes, laundry, cat boxes, etc.) or I drive straight to Walmart to do some early morning grocery shopping before hoards of people overwhelm that place. If you’ve ever gone to Walmart after about 10:00 in the morning then you know the chaos. My nerves can’t take that many people crashing into me as I turn the corner into each aisle, but I find that the early morning shopping hours are quite pleasant. Most employees on duty that early look to be elderly part-retired folks and they are generally very pleasant and welcoming. It always makes me giggle when a young person is working the early morning shift at Walmart because 9 out of 10 times they are utterly miserable. Early morning is definitely an old person preference! The kids don’t like it so much.

If I’ve gone grocery shopping, then of course I have to put it all away when I get home. If I’ve not gone shopping, then I generally spend an hour or two on my laptop doing bloggy things. By about 11:00, I’m starting to feel hungry so that’s when I take a break. I make some food and then I sit on the couch in front of the television for the duration of one episode of whatever show I’m currently watching. Right now that show is The Crown but will soon be American Idol and The Voice. I try to give myself a whole hour to just sit and chill…which takes me right to the afternoon.

The Afternoon and Evening

Afternoons are varied. About 3 to 4 days a week, I spend a large portion of my day in the kitchen prepping food. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I make, the leftovers disappear within 24-48 hours, sending me straight back to the kitchen. I don’t mind it though. I love cooking and feeding people is my love language. Anyone who has ever come to my house knows this…if you leave here hungry, that is 100% your own fault!

The afternoons seem to fly by the quickest. School is dismissed at 2:25. Right now Ralph is in football season so he stays for practice from 2:30-5:00. He’ll go right into swim season after that and then he’ll have a long break before track season starts. During that long break, he stays after school almost every day with his Gifted and Talented teacher to work on special projects. Archie works 3 days a week (and one weekend day) at the hardware store directly across the street from his school. On work days, I meet him at 2:30 in the parking lot of the hardware store with his work clothes and a bag of snacks and we chat about his day for a few minutes before he starts work at 3:00. The other days, I meet him at 2:30 in front of the school to bring him home where he eats something, changes into his workout clothes, and then I drive him to the gym. If his gym time lines up with when Jeff leaves work (around 3:45), Jeff will meet him at the gym, work out with him, and bring him home. When Jeff can’t, then I head back to the gym to pick him up, come home for a few minutes, and then head back out to pick up Ralph from practice.

On Archie’s work days, I’m back home by about 2:45 and usually have some abandoned food prep that I return to. At 4:45, it’s time to go pick up Ralph from practice. I bring him home, feed him, and then head back out at 5:45 to pick up Archie when he finishes work at 6:00. Jeff will do the evening pick ups when he can, but next week he starts teaching an evening class for his union from 6:00-9:00 every Tuesday night and from 9:00-5:00 one Saturday a month. The union hall is hour from our house so those are really long days for him.

Once I have all of my people safely at home with me, I turn off my cell phone ringer, I smoke some weed to decompress, and I feed anyone who hasn’t eaten yet or needs to eat more. It sure seems like teenage boys eat all the time. On a regular night (one without a football game or some other sporting event or band concert), I try to have my butt on the couch by 7:00, but lately it’s been closer to 8:00, where I promptly doze off while Jeff and I watch the evening news (recorded because we never get to the couch in time to watch it live). Sometime around 8:30-9:00, I head to bed in the hopes of getting a solid 6-7 hours of sleep. However, that rarely happens and the best I usually get is 6-7 hours of very interrupted and restless sleep. And then I begin the whole process again at 3:45 the next morning.

This doesn’t even account for appointments when I have to pick kids up from school and return them to school, or when a kid gets sick at school, or when they forget something that I have to drop off at school, or when I volunteer to help at school.

Although it’s chaotic and I often feel like that headless chicken I mentioned above, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I mean, boredom isn’t really great for humanity anyway. I always say if we aren’t busy doing, then we’re probably busy dying. So I’d rather being doing all the things!