Ah, Relaxing Summer Days

Summer. When you picture summer, don’t you just get all warm and fuzzy? I bet you’re picturing pools and lemonade and sunshine. Kids out of school, vacations to warm places, camping, smores and visits to parks. Maybe you like to barbecue? Or picnic? Trips to the zoo, swimming lessons, and family reunions.

Ah, Summer.

Here, we’re doing that, sort of…

7am: Wake up and dress.

715am: Maren’s breakfast

730am: First daycare kid

745am: 2nd and 3rd daycare kids

750am: Breakfast for daycare kids plus any of mine up (usually Nick and Tim by this time)

8am: Clean up first breakfast, send kids to play in playroom. Dress Nick and Tim

830am: 4th daycare kid, feed her breakfast, send her to play, clean up. Start a load of laundry, pick up.

9am: 5th, 6th and 7th daycare kids arrive. Mayhem ensues. Kids all kicked outside. Hurry to switch laundry, wake up older girls.

915am: Wake up older girls again, threaten them. Take kids to bathroom, change a diaper.

930am: Older girls wander outside. Assign them chores, give permissions, deny funds transfers from my purse to theirs. Say ‘no’ to sleepover.

10am: Feed snack, send kids to bathroom, change diaper. Clean up after snack, back outside.

1030-1130am: Repeat the following: ‘Put the sand down’, Be nice to your sister’, ‘We’ll swim later’, ‘Keep your (feet, hands, hair, fingers, etc) to yourself’, ‘Stay outside’. Also, answer questions like: ‘Why are you sitting in that chair?’ ‘Why is she swinging?’ ‘Why do you have chickens?’ ‘Why is Blair home?’ ‘When is lunch?’

1130am: Feed Tim and daycare baby, get Tim ready for school, get daycare baby ready to go home.

12pm: Feed remainder of kids, put Tim on bus.

1215: Send daycare baby home, wash hands from lunch, prepare for naptime/quiet time/ bug Maren to death about when can we go back outside.

1230: Repeat the following as necessary (about every 4 minutes): ‘No, naptime is not over.’ ‘Of course you can use the bathroom.’ ‘No, your mom is not here.’

1245pm: Clean up after lunch.

130pm: Give up. Let kids up, go to bathroom, change diaper, go outside.

2pm: Feed snack.

230-4pm: Repeat the morning’s activity, add: ‘Put that rock down.’ and ‘If you throw that in the canal, you’re going to spend the rest of your life feeling sorry about it.’

4pm: One daycare kid leaves.

5pm: Another daycare kid leaves. Start dinner, switch laundry.

530pm: 3rd daycare kid home, find big girls to help to help with dinner and post daycare clean up.

6pm: Last of daycare home, eat dinner, clean up.

Days vary as to whether or not we are having a swim day or a craft day or a Library and Park day.

I cannot even begin to describe the evenings. I do know that I usually go to bed around midnight…I’m a little hazy on the details.

More later, this post is already up too late in the day, I’m being driven insane by tiny loud people. (My FIL likes to say: ‘That’s just a short putt!:))