The Daily Grind

A friend of mine just recently posted her day to day agenda and I was amazed at how different it was from mine even though we are both stay at home moms. She does have slightly older kids and one small baby so school is in her schedule and she home schools, none the less, I thought I would post mine as well. Mainly, for me to hopefully look back and say "I'm so glad it's easier now."

Morning
6am nurse Rhyan and snuggle in bed till brother wakes up at around 7.
7am change diapers and carry both kids downstairs. Put kids in high chairs and get Bruce his milk (he needs milk like most people need coffee in the morning.) Make breakfast and feed Rhyan solid food while Bruce eats. Clean up kids and let them free play while I unload and load dishwasher, sweep kitchen and vacuum dining area. Bruce also likes to "watch" mickey mouse club (but he really doesn't watch it.)
9am Rhyan's nap time, put her down and then get Bruce ready to go to the park. Dress him and myself, scramble for snacks, water and whatever else. It takes me about an hour.
10am out the door and in the stroller or sometimes we drive to a park. Let Bruce play until lunch time.

Afternoon
Noon - feed Bruce lunch, clean him up and change him into sweats and put him down for a nap. Then I feed Rhyan solid food and nurse her let her play with me and then put her down around 1pm

While kids are napping I clean up lunch, think about dinner and get whatever I need out of the freezer to thaw. Put in a load of laundry and vacuum crumbs, make my bed and tidy up the bathroom. Then I sit down for a show or facebook or some kind of break (this blog.)

Between 3 - 4 pm the kids wake up. Bruce likes a snack and Rhyan needs to eat as well. I feed the kids dinner at 5pm and in the process I am making dinner for Kiel and me. Bruce likes to trash the house while I'm cooking so I also have to do a complete run through so Kiel doesn't come home to a messy house. Depending on what I decided to make depends on my house cleaning success, sometimes the toys are on the floor, sometimes they're not. Rhyan likes to take an evening nap at 6pm so throw that in there as well.

Evening

7pm, kiel gets home says hi to the kids, eats dinner because he is starving and then takes the babies up and gives baths. I clean up the kitchen and then clean bruce's room while he is still in the bath. We put Bruce to bed and then put Rhyan to bed at around 9 or so. I finish folding laundry and put it away. Chat with my husband, maybe, or watch a show and wait for Rhyan to wake up at 11pm. Give one last feeding and then try to unwind and go to bed. I usually nod off around midnight and then do it all over again!

Once a week, throw in going to the grocery store (usually on Mondays) and the farmers market (usually on Thursdays) and taking Rhyan to "Nail night" on Tuesdays and exclude all house chores on Sundays and that is my Agenda. Although Sundays is my hardest day by far.

What does your day look like?

The Time Out Chair

Time out looks like this...

or this... I HATE the time out. I didn't mind it as a kid but enforcing it as a parent just sucks. A one minute time out is actually ten minutes of my time insisting that he takes his time out and doesn't move from his chair or the naughty step.
But afterwards he gives me a kiss and says "sowwy" (r's are still hard.) And then goes right back to what got him in a time out in the first place (usually beating up on his sister.) Anyway, we've decided to hold back on time outs for now and start again when he's two. For now we redirect, redirect and redirect.

Blog posts!

So, it may look like I haven't blogged much. But what I did is write a bunch of posts and saved them as drafts until I loaded my pictures. So go ahead and scroll down and then browse in the month of January, I bet there are two more posts you never knew about. Two AMAZING posts that will change the way you view life or me or probably neither. Anyway, I've spent too much time on this as it is.

The Scoop

Like I said in my earlier post, I looked at 16 houses the weekend of Sophie's blessing. Every house needed something fixed or new carpet or new paint or new closet doors, except for the house above.

She's a beauty and the pictures give you an idea but in person she is much more. She's a flipped property and almost everything is brand new. New kitchen, paint, and flooring. The backyard is complete with a stamped patio and small lawn area for the kids to play. The front yard is also low maintenance. The kitchen has a window over the sink that looks directly into the backyard so I can do dishes while my little ones play (it really is the little things!) We really couldn't pass up this house!

So we didn't. We put in an offer and waited and waited and waited some more. Countered three times and finally they accepted.

If everything goes as planned we will be closing escrow March 18th. I will move with the kids at the end of April and Kiel, unfortunately needs to stay in L.A. until October.

Kiel's cousin Amy offered her couch, jokingly on facebook and we took her up on that offer. Which she graciously didn't recant. (But she will probably be more careful in future comments ;)) So Kiel will be couching it up for 5 months until he officially transfers October 31st.

I will not be alone with the kiddo's. Kiel's parents have offered to help and they will be moving in the same time we do until Kiel can join us.

We are coming into town next week to do a home and termite inspection and I guess Kiel should finally tour the home he's buying!

Here's hoping it all works out and we can afford our big fat utility bills! So if you see us dressed up as eskimo's in the winter and bathing suit models in the summer it's probably because we can't.