I love day in the life posts. Love. But I’m guessing for the most part, people don’t care to see an almost two hour commute both ways and a list of the things I accomplish at a law office on any given day. I can assure you, it’s positively riveting. Josh was in Oxford for the Alabama football game last weekend and the girls and I had talked about some fun things we could do in his absence. I had visions of sweet, happy little girls, no whining or complaining and a stack of pretty pictures when it was all over with. That is not exactly what I got.
8:18 AM: The first time Sophie woke me up, I sent her out of my room with the iPad. Netflix Kids can keep them busy for hours, so I knew it would buy me some time. I get up pretty early most days, so I look forward to sleeping in on Saturdays. The second time she woke me up, I knew I couldn’t deny her breakfast any longer.
9:00 AM: Of course the kitchen was a wreck, because the girls opted for us to be lazy on Friday night instead of getting our housework done then. I’ll admit that it wasn’t my finest hour. We should have been industrious before bed that night, but hindsight is always 20/20. Once the dishwasher was loaded and the counters were cleared, Sophie and I set out to make pigs in a blanket and a pot of coffee. It was then I discovered we had only enough sugar for one cup and that Josh had deleted the entire first season of Little House on the Prairie to make room for a few movies when he was flying a few weeks before. Our wireless wasn’t cooperating and nobody had the patience to wait for it to download again.
10:00 AM: The girls had convinced their grandmothers (both of them) to buy them some craft kits at our book fair a few weeks ago. I cannot tell you the number of times that Sophie has asked me “when are going to make those lamps”, so naturally I assumed (without reading to verify) that these were some kind of make-your-own-lamp kit. After spending a few minutes picking up around the house, clearing the dining room table and setting up the tripod (because, blogger) I realized that it’s a box of embellishments and a book of potential projects. THAT ALL REQUIRE OTHER ITEMS TO COMPLETE. <insert complete meltdown by Tazzie here> With promises of a Hobby Lobby run later in the day, I all but forced them to go jump on the trampoline so that I could have a moment to regroup.
11:00 AM: By mid morning, everyone was smiling again and I had only had to give one spanking. I couldn’t be expected to act any other way when I found Sophie’s name carefully scrawled onto her bedside table with a ball point pen. I did my best to clean it off and then moved on to my closet. Let’s be honest, though. We don’t have closets in this house, so it’s a particle board wardrobe in the laundry room with way too many clothes stacked inside. I folded and organized and filled up a lawn bag full of castaways to make room for my favorite sweaters and jeans for fall. I took a bath all by myself and we started getting ready for the rest of our day.
12:00 PM: By noon Ella was crying because I hadn’t fed her lunch and neither girl was thrilled with taking this picture in the bathroom. We argued about clothes and our schedule and why, for the love of all that is holy, I would deprive them of a nutritious lunch. I was hoping since we had such a late breakfast that everybody could hold off for movie popcorn and junior mints, but I guess forcing your children to eat junk food instead of lunch is a travesty of massive proportions. We finally loaded up Josh’s truck (because he insisted on taking my new car) with a few loads of wet laundry to drop off at my parents. Oh, did I mention our dryer isn’t working? Josh ordered a new part and paid for overnight shipping, but it didn’t actually arrive until the following Monday.
1:00 PM: On the way to the movie theater the girls were singing the bone song (you know, everything is connected to something else) and screaming at each other and fussing at me for planning the best day ever. I screamed at them and told them we weren’t talking any more and then when they still wouldn’t be quiet, I cried and told them they had hurt my feelings. This was all moments before Josh texted to see how our day was going. I told him I was crying for the second time and when would he be home again? We ran in Walgreen’s and bought cheap movie candy and then hit up Hobby Lobby for a few items we needed for our crafting plans and then Ella knocked over a $50 candlestick on our way out of the door. The blood drained from her face when she realized what had happened and *thankfully* the manager didn’t ask us to pay for it. I was about 30 seconds away from a meltdown and spending $50 on an ugly, broken candlestick might have done the trick. We were FINALLY at the movie theater, armed with no less than $45 worth of junk food and it was quiet. Well, as quiet as it can be with Sophie sitting next to you.
4:00 PM: The movie was a little longer than I expected, but it was good. I cried again. Surprise, surprise. At this point we were all smiles, so I thought we could run a few errands while we were out. That face down there is exactly what Ella thinks of errands. We hit up TJMaxx and bought some cute summer clothes on clearance. Both girls picked out new backpacks (I put those up for Christmas) and Sophie had a meltdown in the checkout line over a miniature Frozen gift set. Of course, the patrons on either side of us were begging me to buy it for her because “she’s so cute” and her “voice is adorable” but I resisted the peer pressure and buckled a teary eyed girl into her car seat. We hit up Publix and Chicken Salad Chick (for the second time in 24 hours) before heading back home.
5:00 PM: When we got back in the car from the grocery store I realized I had over 60 unread messages on my phone. The last time I checked the score, Bama was up by a touchdown, but we were behind and there wasn’t much time left on the clock — prompting a long and dramatic group text among girlfriends. We stopped at my parents’ house (to pick up the laundry) and watched the last few minutes of that tragedy before heading back home. This face is exactly how we were feeling about the loss. Ella was fussing at Ole Miss for winning and at Auburn for being Auburn and Tazzie was crying because I told her there would be no crafts or fun that night. I was OVER THE DAY.
6:00 PM: Fortunately, within the hour they were all smiles again and trying on the rompers we found at TJ. I had talked to our daddy and although the loss was not cool with him either, he was having fun and already safely out of Oxford. We ate a quick bite for dinner and put away the laundry before agreeing that everyone needed time alone in their rooms to recover from the day.
7:00 PM: But not before giving B her prize from our trip. Our granny dog was sleeping on a disgusting bed that we bought her for Christmas, but it couldn’t be washed and it was time to be replaced. The girls and I picked her up a new squishy bed while we were out and she got a box of treats in the mail courtesy of Influenster. I think her cushion was on the floor for approximately 17 seconds before she was curled up fast asleep. My girls didn’t last much longer and I fell asleep watching The Wedding Planner sometime shortly after 7:48.
Just when I’m feeling deflated over my less than perfect day or the fact that I’m convinced Ella hates me, their daddy rides in on a white horse to rescue us all. You know what they said about our less than perfect Saturday? Not that mommy yelled or that we went to a zillion stores, but that we made breakfast together and jumped on the trampoline and had candy for lunch. They were excited to give him a fashion show and tell him how excited B was to see her surprise and that we had a craft for him to help us with later. Thank goodness for little girls with a less than stellar short term memory and for a husband who makes even the roughest days seem better.
