Mommy's day off

I have the day off today. The girls were supposed to go to my mom and dad's house to spend some time with them, and usually I would wait until 9:00 or so to call and decide on a time for them to go. But yesterday was so awful. I'll spare you the (multiple!) poop stories and sad stressful tales, but long story short, we've been stuck in the house all week long because of snow and ice that is totally freakish for our area. The girls and I were driving each other nuts, especially after Jordan went back to work Wednesday. It all came to a head last night when there was nothing in the house I wanted to eat, and to make matters worse this is the week I'm supposed to be writing everything I eat down for Hypnobabies. My friend and teacher Julie is going to be super impressed by the three slices of pizza and five cookies I finally got my hands on. So anyway, I called my mom and asked if Jordan could PLEASE drop the girls off on his way to work at 8:00 and she kindly agreed. Thanks Mama. And now, at 9:00, I'm sitting here by myself. It's just me and the dog, who is taking a nap on the couch. I think she's as happy as I am to have no ear-pulling, no eye-poking, just some time to herself.

I thought it might be interesting to keep a list of all the things I do during a day without the girls and post it at the end of the day. (Is that live blogging?)

1) Read a pee story on another mom's blog and leave a lengthy comment, commiserating.

2) Go to the bathroom by myself. Doesn't happen that often!

3) Make a fresh pot of coffee and drink a cup. Nope, not decaf.

4) Ponder, for the fiftieth time, the questions: How do some moms have five kids and a deployed military husband and do a better job than me? Why do I have such a hard time when I have just about every advantage and no serious problems? How hard are things REALLY going to be with three kids? What if I can't handle it all? I don't know. I don't know.

5) Eat some yummy Kashi cereal with yogurt to make up for last night, and update my nutrition log.

6) Read my email, without little hands trying to pull me out of the computer chair.

7) Read a positive birth story that I wanted to read last week but didn't have time.

8) Go back to bed and turn on my Hypnobabies Deepening CD. This may be the first time I've been able to do it in the morning.

9) Turn on some music, put away diapers, do laundry and dishes, clean the kitchen.

10) Clean up all the girls' messes from yesterday: toys, stuffed animals, unfolded blankets, books thrown everywhere, half finished snacks brushed into the floor.

11) Sit down in front of the overflowing toy box in the living room and start sorting. I do this about twice a month. Some of the toys need to go to Goodwill, some on "vacation," and some just need to go upstairs. Do the same thing in the girls' room until things are neat again.

12) Take some Christmas stuff upstairs for Jordan to put in the attic later.

13) Take a snack break and try to decide what to do next. It's 1:30. I've got three and a half hours left.

14) Empty the dishwasher and fold and put away the rest of the laundry. Now we won't have to worry about those things over the weekend!

15) Go through some of Jordan's old school papers and pick a few to keep.

16) Make two unattractive but functional draft snakes for under our sliding glass door. Jordan asked me to do it a week or two ago. I only used a raggedy old pair of his pants and a $7 bag of rice, but this should definitely help with our power bill!

17) (Leftover) pizza break!

18) Make an apple crisp to take to my parents' house for dinner tonight.

19) Clean off the dining room table.

20) And now Jordan is home and we're collecting up all the trash to take to the dump and our things to donate at Goodwill.

I am going to have to figure out a way to convince my parents to take the girls every week. Hooray for getting stuff done!