A Half-Day in the Life

I love reading blogs because they let me get in someone else's skin for a while. Jump on in mine for half a day. You might want to wear your grubby jeans and bring some hand wipes.

4:15 a.m. Wake up to baby crying. Cringe in bed with husband while baby "cries it out". We are determined to unspoil him, as we have created a bad habit of wee hour milk cocktail parties.
4:35 a.m. Baby goes back to sleep.
5:15 a.m. I go back to sleep.
6:22 a.m. Wake up to daughter calling for "Mama". Unprecedented late hour. If I hadn't lost that hour in the middle of the night, I might feel rested. Warm cup of milk for her, warm bottle for baby, who is now also awake, change night diapers and get children dressed for the day.
7:00 a.m. Breakfast, prepared by my husband. Coffee, blessed coffee, eggs and toast for us, Cheerios with yogurt for the shorter set. Eat while spoonfeeding my son.
7:10 a.m. Phone rings. Husband and I look at it with dread. Early hour phone calls, like late night phone calls, never bring good news. It's my cousin with bad news about her partner of 15+ years. Just past his 45th birthday, he went to the hospital with chest pain. The cause: a softball-sized lung tumor. Yesterday, he went for surgery to have it removed. Except that when they opened him up, after cutting 2 ribs and breaking another 2, they found the tumor wrapped around his aorta. Inoperable. They closed him back up. He does not yet know. My cousin is 36. Their son is 4. I don't mean for this to be the "all fatal illness, all the time" blog, but the world is screaming at me: LIFE IS SHORT! so I am screaming it back. Go hug someone you love.
8:00 a.m. Clean up breakfast dishes, fold laundry, shower, dress, do hair and makeup, kiss husband goodbye, do daughter's hair, compile 6 shoes, 6 socks, and 3 jackets and get them on respective owners' bodies.
8:45 a.m. Daughter, son and I rush out, late for preschool. Drop daughter off a few minutes late, chat with some parents, pick up gift card for school's fundraising auction, lend daughter's extra coat to child who forgot his.
9:10 a.m. Return home with son, stopping to mail package at post office on the way home.
9:30 a.m - 11:00 a.m. "Quiet" time with only 1 child. Fix snack, put baby on table while I check my running eBay auctions. Email high bidders, post 4 new auctions, wrap and address 2 sold items.
11:25 a.m. Pick daughter up from preschool, arriving 5 minutes early to make up for being late at the beginning of the day. Pick up collages, fingerpaintings, crayon drawings from cubby, load everyone back into car.
11:45 - 1:00 p.m. Pound pavement for school auction, son in stroller, daughter tagging behind scuffing her heels. Spend 15 minutes talking with owner of local coffee shop while taming children attempting to run amok, leave with $5 gift certificate. Drop by ice cream shop to pick up promised donation to find owner has "stepped out" for half an hour and has not left gift certificates. Talk with taqueria employees who suggest I leave my written information about the auction. I may as well leave it in the trash can, but I leave it with them anyway. Son is screaming bloody murder in the stroller, so we go home and I make a note to return to the ice cream place another time.
1:15 p.m. Return home for lunch. Prepare pizza for everybody, even though it's high carb and I feel like a bloated beast. Let the kids watch "Dora the Explorer" from 1:30 to 2:00 while I write this blog.
That's it up until now. Is it bedtime yet?