Two daytime jobs. Five kids. One working vehicle. Our schedule is intense.
Monday's Schedule:
7 AM: Load kids into van and drive Coach Mom to work.
New Employee Orientation all day.
Long Break for lunch, so I call The Referee to see if he wants to switch out the van.
Monday's Schedule:
7 AM: Load kids into van and drive Coach Mom to work.
New Employee Orientation all day.
Long Break for lunch, so I call The Referee to see if he wants to switch out the van.
- He is in a heightened state of stress because Jersey #5 (and we also suspect Jersey #3) brought bicycle into the house that had sand and water in it.....that made a nice mud mixture in the master bedroom, along with the corn starch diaper rash powder. The Referee was attempting to clean up the mess when I called.
The Referee loads kids into van, drives to Coach Mom's work. Forgets his own work stuff, which ruins the entire opportunity to take him to work and keep the van on that lunch break.
The Referee drives home to get his stuff, and we head out toward his work.
Realize there is just no way I can drive back and forth in time, so I drop him off at a distant location from his office. (He calls a coworker to give him a ride the rest of the way).
I drive the kids back home. We attempt a quick straighten of the house....and I close off the master bedroom until I can deal with the mess later....while we wait for the babysitters to arrive.
Grab lunch as I am running past the babysitters when they arrive.
Return to New Employee Orientation.
5PM: Leave work. Drive home. Pay babysitters.
Feed kids. Straighten house. Check schoolwork. Check email. Bake brownies. Work on housework while I wait for The Referee to call for a ride home.
10PM: Return home. All kids are asleep in the van.
Tuesday Schedule
6AM: Wake, shower, dress for work. Finish filling out benefits package to take to Orientation.
(Yes, it is a problem that I have only been sleeping for 7 hours a night, considering I need 8.5 to function--tell myself I need to fix that).
New Employee Orientation all morning.
Learn-n-Lunch meeting instead of a lunch break. (This has happened 3 times already, and my brain is fried from all this extra learning on top of training! Yowza!)
Work training all afternoon.
Stay late to help out, because they need extra hands, and I can do that part of the work.
4:15PM End employment day. Drive Home.
Meet kids in driveway, and immediately scan them for brushed teeth, socks, shoes, and sports uniforms.
Brush hair. Form pony tails.
Change clothes. Tell kids to load up into van. Eat a few bites of dinner, standing in the kitchen. Grab Cheerleading Coach stack of stuff, and head out.
Pick up friend for cheerleading.
Drop of The Referee at our church, 1.5 hours earlier than his scheduled class. (He brings his laptop to pass the time).
Take kids to the flag football game. Coach cheerleading. Cheer for Jersey #3. Wrangle Jersey #4 & #5 throughout the game. Lead devotion for the cheerleaders.
Game ends, corral children to the van.
Drive to Tae Kwon Do class.
Chat with Jersey #1 about her ungrateful attitude regarding snacks received at the game. Nice discussion about change-of-heart and attitude. Hope she gets it.
Chat with Moms whose families are in TKD class. Supervise younger kids playing outdoors.
8PM: TKD class ends. Say goodbye to other families. Round up kids. Help close up the church.
Drop off friend on the way home.
Help kids gather up all their horseback riding outfits and set them out for the morning.
Set out cans for meal prep. Put away dinner.
10PM: Drop into bed....praising myself for getting there a little earlier.
Wednesday's Schedule
6AM: Wake, shower, dress. Wake up The Referee so he can shower.
Become a whirlwind in the kitchen: brown ground beef on the stove, while loading crockpot with all the other ingredients for Chilli. Fry 2 eggs to make egg sandwhiches. Slice cantaloupe and set out on the table. Slice egg sandwhiches to divide among myself and 4 kids. Toss a spoonfull of ground beef onto a tortilla, packing a burrito for my lunch. Pour rest of the ground beef into the Chilli pot. Stir. Set temperature. Remind The Referee how to monitor the pot, so he and the kids can eat chilli for lunch.
The Referee wakes kids and loads them into the van to take me to work. Pass out egg sandwhiches (and plain bread for Jersey #1), to eat on the way.
7:30AM: Family drops me off at work, and returns home to get ready for horseback riding. (The Referee is brave enough to take the kids on his own, because he doesn't want them to miss this turn that was previously scheduled).
More Work Training--I think I might be starting to get the hang of this.
Teleconference training at 11am. Bring lunch to eat while we learn, because work is too busy to sit through teleconference AND take a lunch break. Interesting lecture. More acronyms than I can keep up with. Thankfully, the presentation slides had pictures to help make it more visual for me. Bacteria strains that show resistance to certain antibiotics is an interesting topic (for me).
Telecon ends. Back to work. Lots of work. Lots. This place is busy.
2PM: Suddenly feel a wave of nausea pass through my body, and a little light headed. I think I might be pushing myself too far physically. This is the 12th day of The Referee and I taking turns working every day, and the schedule is intense. I excuse myself to use the restroom, get a drink, and stretch a little. Take a few deep breaths, and return to work.
3PM: The lady training me is excited to report that we finished the work early. She shows me a few other things, then sets me free to check my email, and peruse some tutorials on the computer.
4PM: The Referee leaves his workplace to pick me up from my workplace. The original plan was for me to take him back to work before going home, so that I can keep the van for Bible Study at church tonight. I tell him I am not physically up for it, and suggest he just take me home, and keep the van. That way, I don't have to drag the kids out late to pick him up, and he doesn't have to walk...in the rain.
At Home, the kids are excited to see me. The babysitters have cleaned up the kitchen, washed all the dishes, and helped the girls clean their bedrooms. Brownies are baking in the oven. We have great babysitters.
I talk with the babysitters to see if they are brave enough to return a couple afternoons next week. They are excited. They assure me the kids behave well for them, but they comment that they have no idea how I do all this on my own. It was hard to stifle a laugh as they tell me how every time they turn around there are more dishes to wash! I tell them my joking-but-partially-true answer when someone asks me how I manage 5 kids, is to reply that something has to give...so I give up housework!
Praise kids for their hard work and great behavior. Eat brownies while the chicken cooks for dinner. Check email. Rock youngest two kids while we watch a silly movie about a chimpanzee who plays baseball.
Jersey #4 falls asleep at 6:30pm. I'm jealous.
Eat dinner. Rock Jersey #5 who has fallen asleep twice already. He is teething, so I break out the Tylenol to help with his pains. Stinky eye teeth!
Carry sleeping children to their beds. Blog until The Referee gets home from work.
9PM: Drop into bed, wondering how much longer can we keep up this pace?
Remind myself that I have the next 3 days off from my employment job, so I can better focus my efforts at home. Maybe we can find a little more stability in the next few days.
The Referee drives home to get his stuff, and we head out toward his work.
Realize there is just no way I can drive back and forth in time, so I drop him off at a distant location from his office. (He calls a coworker to give him a ride the rest of the way).
I drive the kids back home. We attempt a quick straighten of the house....and I close off the master bedroom until I can deal with the mess later....while we wait for the babysitters to arrive.
Grab lunch as I am running past the babysitters when they arrive.
Return to New Employee Orientation.
5PM: Leave work. Drive home. Pay babysitters.
Feed kids. Straighten house. Check schoolwork. Check email. Bake brownies. Work on housework while I wait for The Referee to call for a ride home.
- Kids in PJs. Boys fall asleep on the couch. The Referee runs late. It starts raining.
10PM: Return home. All kids are asleep in the van.
Tuesday Schedule
6AM: Wake, shower, dress for work. Finish filling out benefits package to take to Orientation.
(Yes, it is a problem that I have only been sleeping for 7 hours a night, considering I need 8.5 to function--tell myself I need to fix that).
New Employee Orientation all morning.
Learn-n-Lunch meeting instead of a lunch break. (This has happened 3 times already, and my brain is fried from all this extra learning on top of training! Yowza!)
Work training all afternoon.
Stay late to help out, because they need extra hands, and I can do that part of the work.
4:15PM End employment day. Drive Home.
Meet kids in driveway, and immediately scan them for brushed teeth, socks, shoes, and sports uniforms.
Brush hair. Form pony tails.
Change clothes. Tell kids to load up into van. Eat a few bites of dinner, standing in the kitchen. Grab Cheerleading Coach stack of stuff, and head out.
Pick up friend for cheerleading.
Drop of The Referee at our church, 1.5 hours earlier than his scheduled class. (He brings his laptop to pass the time).
Take kids to the flag football game. Coach cheerleading. Cheer for Jersey #3. Wrangle Jersey #4 & #5 throughout the game. Lead devotion for the cheerleaders.
Game ends, corral children to the van.
Drive to Tae Kwon Do class.
Chat with Jersey #1 about her ungrateful attitude regarding snacks received at the game. Nice discussion about change-of-heart and attitude. Hope she gets it.
Chat with Moms whose families are in TKD class. Supervise younger kids playing outdoors.
8PM: TKD class ends. Say goodbye to other families. Round up kids. Help close up the church.
Drop off friend on the way home.
Help kids gather up all their horseback riding outfits and set them out for the morning.
Set out cans for meal prep. Put away dinner.
10PM: Drop into bed....praising myself for getting there a little earlier.
Wednesday's Schedule
6AM: Wake, shower, dress. Wake up The Referee so he can shower.
Become a whirlwind in the kitchen: brown ground beef on the stove, while loading crockpot with all the other ingredients for Chilli. Fry 2 eggs to make egg sandwhiches. Slice cantaloupe and set out on the table. Slice egg sandwhiches to divide among myself and 4 kids. Toss a spoonfull of ground beef onto a tortilla, packing a burrito for my lunch. Pour rest of the ground beef into the Chilli pot. Stir. Set temperature. Remind The Referee how to monitor the pot, so he and the kids can eat chilli for lunch.
The Referee wakes kids and loads them into the van to take me to work. Pass out egg sandwhiches (and plain bread for Jersey #1), to eat on the way.
7:30AM: Family drops me off at work, and returns home to get ready for horseback riding. (The Referee is brave enough to take the kids on his own, because he doesn't want them to miss this turn that was previously scheduled).
More Work Training--I think I might be starting to get the hang of this.
Teleconference training at 11am. Bring lunch to eat while we learn, because work is too busy to sit through teleconference AND take a lunch break. Interesting lecture. More acronyms than I can keep up with. Thankfully, the presentation slides had pictures to help make it more visual for me. Bacteria strains that show resistance to certain antibiotics is an interesting topic (for me).
Telecon ends. Back to work. Lots of work. Lots. This place is busy.
2PM: Suddenly feel a wave of nausea pass through my body, and a little light headed. I think I might be pushing myself too far physically. This is the 12th day of The Referee and I taking turns working every day, and the schedule is intense. I excuse myself to use the restroom, get a drink, and stretch a little. Take a few deep breaths, and return to work.
3PM: The lady training me is excited to report that we finished the work early. She shows me a few other things, then sets me free to check my email, and peruse some tutorials on the computer.
4PM: The Referee leaves his workplace to pick me up from my workplace. The original plan was for me to take him back to work before going home, so that I can keep the van for Bible Study at church tonight. I tell him I am not physically up for it, and suggest he just take me home, and keep the van. That way, I don't have to drag the kids out late to pick him up, and he doesn't have to walk...in the rain.
At Home, the kids are excited to see me. The babysitters have cleaned up the kitchen, washed all the dishes, and helped the girls clean their bedrooms. Brownies are baking in the oven. We have great babysitters.
I talk with the babysitters to see if they are brave enough to return a couple afternoons next week. They are excited. They assure me the kids behave well for them, but they comment that they have no idea how I do all this on my own. It was hard to stifle a laugh as they tell me how every time they turn around there are more dishes to wash! I tell them my joking-but-partially-true answer when someone asks me how I manage 5 kids, is to reply that something has to give...so I give up housework!
Praise kids for their hard work and great behavior. Eat brownies while the chicken cooks for dinner. Check email. Rock youngest two kids while we watch a silly movie about a chimpanzee who plays baseball.
Jersey #4 falls asleep at 6:30pm. I'm jealous.
Eat dinner. Rock Jersey #5 who has fallen asleep twice already. He is teething, so I break out the Tylenol to help with his pains. Stinky eye teeth!
Carry sleeping children to their beds. Blog until The Referee gets home from work.
9PM: Drop into bed, wondering how much longer can we keep up this pace?
Remind myself that I have the next 3 days off from my employment job, so I can better focus my efforts at home. Maybe we can find a little more stability in the next few days.
Praying for some relaxation today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Hopefully Jersey #5 is done with his antics after today and you don't have to add extra cleaning to the list.
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