A Day in the Life...

We might only be in to the 3rd week of school for Ally, the 2nd week of school for Bo and the 1st week of school for Kelsey, but we are in full swing here at the Jackson House. Usually things start off a little slower and as the school year goes on, it gets a little more demanding. After this shotgun start, I am hoping that as the year progresses, we will fall in to routine a little better and it should get easier, right??

Bo's day starts at 5:00 with a work out and I am up at 5:15 to get myself ready and to get everyone else ready for work and school. Most importantly, I have to pack lunches and pump. If there's a little extra time, I might clean a bathroom or throw in some laundry because it's the only time of day I'm not chasing kids. At 6:15, Ally wakes up and we start getting ready for school...breakfast, get dressed, hair, brush teeth, out the door with dad by 6:50 for the bus. By 7:00, my kids start showing up...first Caroline, then Asher and Max, and last Madison. By 7:30, Drew is awake and needs fed, Kelsey is up and needs breakfast and it's time to get ready for preschool. We do another round of breakfasts, getting dressed, hair, and brushing teeth. Thankfully, Caroline and Max take an early morning nap while most of this is going on. At 8:30, I load up 6 kids in to the car and drive 3 miles to preschool and drop off Asher and Kelsey. Thank goodness for carpool, because if I had to get out of the car with 6 kids and then load them all back up again, we might have to rethink this preschool thing. I get home with the 4 kids I have left at 9:15 and we eat or sleep. Drew goes down for his nap, Caroline eats breakfast, and Max takes a bottle while Madison eats snack. Drew wakes up at 10 to eat again and then we have some time to play. 11:00 starts the hour of power. At 11:00, I eat lunch. Because if I don't, I won't have time later. At 11:15, Caroline eats lunch. While she is eating I get lunch ready for all the big kids...Kelsey, Asher and Madison. This way it is ready to go when we get back from school. At 11:30, I feed Caroline a bottle and change a few diapers. At 11:40, we are out the door to carpool so I can get in line to pick up the kids. If I am much later than that, the line is atrocious. It works out well though because, while we sit and wait, I feed Drew. 11:45 is his time to eat anyhow. As soon as he is done, the kids roll out and away we go. We are home by 12:15 and Caroline and Drew go to bed immediately. Asher, Kelsey and Madison sit down to eat and I feed Max his bottle. Max gets to bed about 12:30 and then Kelsey, Asher and Madison follow suit by 12:45. That leaves 2 hours for me to get things done around here before the bus arrives with Ally and Molly. Caroline goes home and it's me and 7 kids. I feel like Snow White only my dwarfs aren't typical dwarfs. By this time of the day they are no longer Happy, Bashful and Doc. It's more like Whiny, Hungry, and Sassy. Sleepy and Grumpy stick around too. Between 4:00 and 5:00 all the kiddos that aren't mine head home and we finish out our nightly routine...homework (which is no small task in 1st grade!!), dinner, story time, and bath...but not necessarily in that order. On Thursdays, we throw dance class in to that mix. By 6:45, Ally and Kelsey are in bed and very close to snoozing. Drew and I spend a few quiet minutes together until he gets grumpy and then it's off to bathe and feed him. By 7:30, all the kiddos are soundly sleeping. And I breathe a quick sigh of relief. Only because there's still more to do...clean up the house from the day and try get dinner ready for Bo and I when he gets home from tutoring at 8:30 or 9:00. And then of course, there are the things I like to do...scrapping, embroidery, blogging, catching up with friends on Facebook and catching up on some TV. At 10:30 I head to bed after pumping one last time. And by the time I get up the stairs and changed in to PJ's, I simply fall in to bed.
My moment of clarity...we do all this because it affords me the opportunity to be at home with the kids and it allows me the chance to help others with their kids. And, while we are working hard now, it won't last forever and it will be well worth the effort down the road. There is certainly no glory in changing dirty diapers and cleaning up spit-up all day, but it's my life...and I'm happy for it!!