Photo Every Hour: December 21st

It may be the last day of school before winter break, but the to-do list is plenty long--part of which requires helping the PTO spoil the teachers before break--so it's a one-snooze kind of morning!

7:00 Breakfast for the masses

8:00 I've got one boy glued to my hip, and another who only wants to lay on the couch... I may need to call an audible on my busy day

9:00 What was supposed to be dropping two boys off at Grandma's house so I could help the PTO at the school turned into dropping one boy at Grandma's house and having Daddy come work from home for a few hours to sit with the boy running a fever. Life with kids is always fun

10:00 But you know what else is fun? Preparing Holiday V.I.P. Room Service bags for each of the staff members at the boys' school and going room-to-room to deliver them

11:00 Wrapped up the deliveries, and now delivering the extras to my car to take home for our next opportunity to spoil the teachers!

12:00 Unfortunately, a few hours of quiet time at home with Daddy wasn't enough to get this one feeling back to one hundred percent 

1:00 Nothing beats a little "Storybots" when you don't feel very good

2:00 You know it's been a day when it's almost time to pick up the boys from school and I still haven't gotten the dishwasher emptied (and you also know Matthew hasn't been home most of the day because the dishwasher door is still open--he is obsessed with making everything "closed")

3:00 Picked the oldest two up from school and promptly dropped them at Grandma's so I could take Connor to the doctor's office. Normally our pediatrician isn't very alarmist and will "wait and see", but when I mentioned Connor's fever started on Saturday night and then spiked up two degrees higher on Tuesday morning, he wanted to get him in sooner than later to make sure it wasn't a bacterial infection on top of what he presumes was a viral infection causing the initial fever

4:00 Bags to unpack from Grandma's house, goodies for the teachers to put away, and dinner to prep. Spending an hour at the doctor's office wasn't exactly built in to my day, but I'm glad we made it work nonetheless. And I'm glad we have a pretty quick and easy pasta casserole on the menu

5:00 Another plus of a quick-and-easy dinner? Mama has a chance to run out and grab the last few Christmas presents we need once Darrell gets home and everything is in the oven

6:00 It isn't often that everyone is done eating by six. This either means that everyone was super hungry or people are feeling a little under the weather and don't have their normal appetites (it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess which is the case tonight, although fortunately Connor's COVID test came back negative so at least it isn't that!)

7:00 Feeling under the weather also means early bedtimes. Garrett may not have been running a fever like Connor, but his coughing fits were enough to earn him early storytime and early lights out

8:00 Getting ready to tuck William in--who at the present moment seems to be the healthiest of the boys--as soon as he's done going potty and brushing his teeth 

9:00 After the day we had, it's time for a drink and an episode (or two!) of NCIS. With a little bit of registering the boys for summer camp on the side (because the deadline is tomorrow if we want the camp "elves" to deliver a little holiday gift to the campers #lastminuteforthewin)

10:00 I love the YMCA camp we send our boys to, but man, it should not take an hour to register three boys for camp (although to be fair, I was distracted by the show and obviously put a significant dent in my drink... so maybe the fault is on me)

You know it's been a long couple of weeks when turning in at 11:00 feels "early"--especially when you're only doing so because you know it's likely a snotty-nosed kid will be waking you up during the night and not because you are actually done with all the things that need to be done #itsthemostwonderfultimeoftheyear

 

Photo Every Hour: November 21st

It may be a Sunday, but that's no reason to sleep in at this house!

7:00 You know it's a busy Sunday when Daddy doesn't take the time to make pancakes for breakfast

8:00 Rolling in to church early because in addition to supporting the service with two music groups, my baking small group is also providing the treats for coffee hour after the service

9:00 Choir robe and hand chimes pretty well sums up what I was doing during the service

10:00 I forgot to take a picture, but let's just say the Rice Krispie Bars, Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie Bars, and Snickerdoodle Cookies my baking group made went over well after church

11:00 Headed to Mitchell after church for Thanksgiving with my mom's family and someone forgot to pack books to read during the car ride. Church library to the rescue!

12:00 It's not quite winter yet, which means it's still construction season in South Dakota!

1:00 Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a family lunch at the Pizza Ranch! 

2:00 Peace out Pizza Ranch!

3:00 We usually have a strict "No Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving" rule, but when Mom needs to practice the choir's Christmas Cantata we break that rule a little bit

4:00 Two (plus!) hours in the car to and from Mitchell, paired with a handful of errands on the way back in to town, and the boys made a beeline for the TV as soon as we walked in the door. Because of course

5:00 Quick trip to the store to pick up some adult and kid beverages for dinner (and if you've never used a rear-facing car seat to travel beer home you're doing it wrong)

6:00 Dinner success. Thank goodness for crockpots and easy homecooked meals to help offset a Pizza Ranch lunch (nothing major against the Ranch, but carbs and grease does not a healthy lunch make)

7:00 Snack time! (And a ridiculous amount of dirty dishes because that's what happens when I use my personal containers to store and serve the 12 dozen goodies my baking group made for church.)

8:00 When you leave on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for a week-long trip with four boys, you start packing multiple days ahead of time. Trust me on this one. And the beer is optional but strongly encouraged

9:00 It only seems appropriate that I would be getting our Thanksgiving library books ready to return while sitting under the lights of our Christmas tree (which--usually--also has a strict "Not Before Thanksgiving" rule, but due to inventory shortages at the tree farm we go to, we opted to go before our trip this year, and the boys insisted that we decorate it right away. And who can say no to that?)

10:00 Let's not talk about the amount of luggage my family needs for a week-long trip, mmkay?

I should just accept that this is my "normal" bedtime going forward. I'd love to get to bed closer to ten, but with the holidays coming up--and then three birthdays in the first four months of the new year--that probably isn't a realistic bedtime. Seven hours of sleep is still good, right?

 

Photo Every Hour: October 21st

 

This may have been the time I got up, but I assure you, this is not the time my alarm (first) went off. I have a terrible snoozing the alarm habit

7:05 See that changing pad cover bunched up by Matthew's head? Yeah... There's a very messy (and stinky!) reason I didn't get my picture at 7:00 like I intended to. It's a good thing he's cute

8:00 Back home after dropping big brothers at school

9:00 Trains and construction trucks are endlessly entertaining in this house (and please ignore the stack of totes. 'Tis the season to switch the summer clothes with the winter clothes, and with four kids the process is a little slower than I'd like to admit)

10:00 My little grocery "helpers"

11:00 He insisted on going outside. I insisted it was too cold. He promised he'd be fine with his hat and mittens. He lasted five minutes #mamaknowsbest

12:00 These two definitely have their rough moments, but sometimes they get on the same page with some weird game to play and then they are just the best of friends and I seriously love it

1:00 Making sure we get our library books returned before they are overdue (and I spy a boy who claims to not need a nap playing oh so quietly with his trucks...)

2:00 "Mommy, can you read me a story?" turned in to "I'm not tired Mommy" turned in to Mommy spending a solid 30 minutes being used as a lap pillow #nocomplaintshere

3:00 All Mario all the time for these two after school

4:00 When William has a 30 minute piano lesson and Daddy isn't available to pick him up, Mommy kills the time by taking the little ones for a walk in the teacher's neighborhood (Garrett prefers to go inside with William and watch his lesson)

5:00 Sometimes I do really well with menu planning and making sure I have the ingredients I need for dinner. Sometimes I have to run to the store at 4:50 (after having already been at the store earlier that day) because I forgot to make sure we had a pantry "staple" on hand 

6:00 Dinner. Success.

7:00 Snackity snack snack snack

8:00 We love the craft beer selection at this quaint little liquor store (and the coupons they somewhat regularly send us!) but every time I go to pick stuff out it is a case of so many choices, so little time (and not nearly enough money in the budget!)

9:00 Darrell may boast a three-screen set up at the office, but at home, I often rock two screens to his one

10:00 Still going strong... Although the drink game is getting a little low!

I have no idea what time we called it a night because I forgot to take any more photos (and because it's taken me a full 10 days to get around to typing this up), but I assure you we stayed up way later than we probably should have. Because we do so pretty much every night. Such is life with four kids.