While Jay was getting ready for school this morning I told Rose to get dressed too. She had a minor meltdown because she did not want to get dressed. I dragged her into her room and told her to calm down in there and then get dressed. A few minutes later, I checked on her. She was sitting buck naked on the floor, staring into space. I said "we're leaving in three minutes! Get dressed!" Rose then proceeded to freak out because "I can't get dressed that fast!!!" [sob wail gnash] First she's mad because she doesn't want to get dressed, and then she's mad because she wants to get dressed, all in the space of ten minutes. Talk about emotional whiplash! And motherly patience streeeetched thin. Jay was on time to school, miraculously. We drove instead of walking, but he was on time.
I started vacuuming in the bedrooms after quickly tidying up the family room. When I came out of the last bedroom, I was greeted with a family room FORTRESS of all the kitchen chairs and stools, draped in blankets, courtesy of certain children of mine.
Vacuuming with a baby under foot is extremely difficult: push, pull, pause--move baby, push, pull, pause--move baby, push, pull, pause--move toys that baby just dumped out, push, pull, move baby...etc. etc. It took me an hour and a half to vacuum the whole house--twice the normal time! (although I vacuum so infrequently now that "normal" might not be the best word in reference to that cleaning method...)
I was feeling rather tired after all that heavy lifting and vacuum-wielding, but I put Amber down for a nap and then did my core exercises. Then I turned on a Dora episode for Rose and went out back to run laps around the soccer field. Except when I looked out there, the sprinklers were on. "Sprinkler" is a very weak word for the jet stream irrigation systems around here. They shoot water out fifty feet in a swath of frigid non-potable water, rotating slowly back and forth. Luckily only one end of the soccer field was being power-washed, so I managed to improvise a route around the "sprinklers" and only got doused three or four times. I ran four miles around the field, all while Amber napped in her crib and Rose watched a show. It's wonderful having a soccer field right behind our back fence, and the weather was gorgeous: sunny and 60 degrees. I must've had a significant amount of pent-up vacuuming rage though, because I really pounded those four miles--as in low 8's! One of my miles was even UNDER eight minutes. That is unheard of for the current casual run-for-fun Shaina. I was surprised because I didn't feel like I was pushing it that hard, and I almost always run waaay slower on grass and uneven surfaces. But I let it loose today! It was therapeutic and rage-diffusing. I felt at one with the world when I finished 33 minutes later.
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| The sprinklers on the soccer field |
In the shower I had to resist the urge to stay in the deliciously hot water for an hour. Lunch was relatively normal--the only obstacle being Amber's banana slime--and then Amber went down for her second nap.
This afternoon I was feeling that hard run, but I really needed to make bread and dinner before I entered the 4pm survival mode stage of the day and my motivation suffered the resulting plunge. I managed to convince myself that the impending doom--I mean cooking--would only take half an hour. So I forged ahead and coated the kitchen in flour while mixing up four loaves of bread, two hample (ham apple) dinner pies, and an apple nut cake. There was a good amount of peeling, cutting, grating, and mixing involved in all of these recipes and Rose was a very enthusiastic helper, so it took three times as long as I thought it would. An hour and a half later Amber was waking up from her afternoon nap and I still hadn't had any sit-down quiet relaxing time. I managed to squeeze some foot-up reading time in while rotating cake, pie, and bread through the oven. Jeff came home just before 4pm and after greeting him and being sociable, I informed him that I was going to close the door in our room and read for half an hour. With a handful of chocolate chips. He manfully handled homework, the demanding middle child, and the cranky baby while I decompressed and rested before the final push of the day--dinnertime.
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| You can't really tell in this blurry picture, but we got flour EVERYWHERE. |
The way I'm writing makes it sound like every day is an ordeal. That's not the case. Days where I try to fit too many "to-do's" in are tiring though! I was pleased with my poise and patience under pressure for...85% of today.
Dinner tonight was a success, for those of us over the age of 6 and under the age of 1...Jay and Rose did not like the hample pie, but Jeff, Amber, and I tucked in and finished the whole pie, even without Jay's and Rose's help. Savory ham apple cheddar cinnamon in a flaky crust hit the spot. It was a hearty, seasonal, delicious dinner that made me feel all cozy. Bonus: I made an extra pie to have tomorrow night for dinner! Hurrah for apple season! The apple cake I made was predictably not so good--we all know how the only baking I usually succeed at either comes from a box or is not sweet (aka, I excel at bread and rolls, not cakes!)
Speaking of apples, I am done with the yearly apple butter-brewing: twelve quarts, taking up all the freezer space (I couldn't bring myself to go through the ordeal of sealing jars, so hello freezer). I filled the last three jars last night. We still have about 40-50 apples left, though, so I may have to do some applesauce even though I'm feeling slightly burned out on the apple-processing front.
Today was good and full and tiring. Time for an episode of Netflix with Jeff and then some reading before bed. Goodnight!
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