Day One...of Five!

It's Day One of my husband being out of town for five days for business travel and so far I'm feeling pretty good about the situation. Admittedly, was feeling a little nervous when I first became aware of this trip. And, yes, I do stay home with my kids the majority of the week on my own - so it was never a question of capability - more like a question of mental stability. Let's face it, while I love being home with my children almost every day, there are days when I have a running countdown to when my husband comes home from work and I can change the order of command to Daddy. (Mommy is on break!) I have always been in awe over single moms who don't have that outlet when they need it the most. So, on some level I was going into these five days with the mentality of a single mom. So far, this is how it has played out:

5:20am - hear husband's alarm clock go off and thank GOD I'm not the one who has to catch an 8:50 flight to Vegas.

5:45am - kiss goodbye from husband (still 70% asleep).

6:15am - Three-year-old (will now be referred to as TYO) is suddenly laying in bed with me. She's still and quiet so I don't care too much.

6:20am - One-year old (will now be referred to as OYO) is half talking, half crying in his room. Fab.

6:30am - OYO is quiet and TYO is asleep (God Bless!)

6:45am - Cell phone right next to bed starts ringing, VERY loudly for this hour of the morning. Scramble out of bed superfast (while still 70% asleep) so to not awake the TYO.

6:46am- Heading downstairs to retrieve husband's record number (written on a Post-It) for his flight for which he has an e-ticket and cannot check in without.

6:48am - Digging through trash for said PostIt. No luck.

6:55am - Following husband's directions to access his email to retrieve record number from his inbox. Success.

6:56am - Head back upstairs to bed (TYO is still sleeping soundly), but wait - OYO is up.

7:00am - Downstairs with OYO for breakfast.

7:20am - TYO stumbling downstairs crying b/c she couldn't find me. Good morning.

7:30am - TYO is eating yogurt for breakfast. Take opportunity to check email.

7:34am - TYO and OYO come down the hallway laughing, look up to see LOTS of yogurt in OYO's hair.

7:35am - Wipe yogurt out of OYO's hair with paper towel. Am not giving bath at 7:30 in the morning.

8:00am - Announce "PJ Car Ride" so Mommy can get her Starbucks fix.

9:15am - OYO is going down for nap, he was up early!!

9:30am - Get fantastic idea to paint master bathroom toilet closet (you know, the room where the potty is.) TYO is watching TV downstairs.

9:45am - Have all paint supplies assembled, ready to go. Have caught the attention of TYO who now wants to help.

10:00am - Am doing superb job simultaneously painting and talking TYO out of helping me.

10:05am - TYO has paint on bottom of foot. Must act immediately before paint footprints appear on carpet.

10:10am - Back to painting.

10:15am - Dry, clean roller that TYO has been playing with apparently now has a bit of paint on it - not so good for pretend painting anymore. Banish roller from TYO's hands and come up with Plan B for TYO...bath in Mommy's big tub!!

10:20am - TYO is playing with toys in Mommy's tub - which we are both equally thrilled about.

10:21am - Back to painting.

10:30am - Get phone call from Mom. Make plans to go to the pool together after lunch. Decide this is a great idea since I am hot, sweaty and speckled with paint. (And since OYO's hair was almost entirely covered in yogurt this morning.)

11:00am - Painting is done! Well, to be fair, what I wanted to accomplish today is done. Second part of painting will have to wait until later this week. And, OYO wakes up from nap...perfect timing!

11:15am - Downstairs fixing an early lunch for kids.

Noon - Grandparents arrive. Fun and relaxation at the pool begins. Aaahhhhhh! :)

Now we're home. OYO has been sleeping for about an hour. Many attempts at getting the TYO to sleep have been made (unsuccessfully at the moment - she is currently climbing on my back as I type.) We have the entire afternoon to do whatever. I feel productive (hello, the painting!!) and also like we did something fun today. So if we lounge around the rest of Sunday it's no biggie. Thinking about ordering pizza for dinner tonight. Make it easy, right? So, Day One has been good. But, it's only Day One...the fun has just begun!

Perpetually Picking Up Peas

I was bitten by the cleaning bug today. It is May 15, so perhaps a little late for actual spring cleaning...and I only got one room done. But, any sort of actual cleaning (not just picking up) with a one-year-old and a three-year-old in the house is huge!!


Now, my house isn't messy. In fact, most people who visit my house will probably tell you it is clean. But clean is such a funny word...it means different things to different people. My house is not CLEAN. Meaning the absence of dirt! Things are put away and there isn't clutter (the biggest annoyance in my life), but there is dirt. The miraculous thing is that dirt isn't quite so obvious when things are put away. Thank God! :)


I decided to clean today as I was cleaning up after my son Connor's lunch. You guessed it, he had peas. Loves them. I love them too. Well, for him I love them. They are easy to prepare, he can eat them by himself and they are healthy. However, peas are messy. As I was bent over picking up forlorn peas on the floor (I should just let my cat eat them up, she likes them!) I find my three-year-old taking my (white) flip flop and smashing the peas into the tile. She's smashed about three by the time I discover what she is doing and put the kibosh on it. As I'm down on my hands and knees on the floor this time wiping up pea mush...I discover that yes, my floor is DIRTY! And this astonishes me because ever since I left my full-time job I have put a cleaning schedule in place and I stick to mopping my floor once a week. (Let me state for the record that when I had a full-time job I honestly actually mopped my floor maybe once a month.) But my floor is still always dirty!!


So cleaning up pea moosh turned into hand cleaning spots on my floor with disinfectant wipes. Which led to wiping down the baseboards, then the window sills and then washing the windows. (Just the kitchen and family room windows mind you...I am NOT superwoman!!) Followed by wiping down the cabinets and then reorganizing the cabinets, cleaning the refrigerator and clearing off our hutch (which in our house serves as the catch-all for anything "important.")


Thank God for the rainy day we're having, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have cleared every item out of my cabinets and then decided I'd rather be outside enjoying the sunshine! Long story short, my kitchen is clean. Really clean. Well, except for the floors, I actually didn't get around to mopping - I'm too tired!! :)