A Day in the Life

I wrote most of this in the car on the way to my inlaws for Easter. I thought I would share a day in the life of Munchkie's Mama. And then I wonder why I'm tired.....

4:45am Alarm goes off, press snooze
4:47am Feel guilty for pressing snooze, so put glasses on.
4:50am Get out of bed and go downstairs
4:55am Take preassembled French toast casserole out of fridge, mush up defrosted fruit and put on top and sprinkle crumb topping over. Put in the oven.
5:05am Go back upstairs to Munchkie’s room and administer nebulizer treatment.
5:15am Put on exercise clothes and get DVD ready to go.
5:17am Put scrubs in dryer on wrinkle release setting because they were wadded up in the bottom of a laundry basket.
5:20am Begin torture aka Jillian’s 30 day shred.
5:35am Pull casserole from oven, resume work out.
5:55am Dripping in sweat, grab apple and quickly eat while getting ready for shower.
6:05am Take shower, dry hair, get ready.
6:32am Finish packing suitcase for Munchkie and I.
6:3 5am Run upstairs, flip lights on to wake Munchkie’s Daddy up and yell, “I’m late I’m really late get up get up get up!”
6:37am Come back downstairs, grab lunch, put on scrubs, sweep bathroom and kitchen for anything missed or left behind.
6:39am Put shoes and jacket on.
6:41am Dash out door with casserole, work bag, and tote with change of clothes.
6:58am Arrive to work and make it upstairs as fast as I can.
7:01am Swipe into work one minute late.
8:32am Have already realized that I forgot something, call Munchkie’s Daddy.
12:45pm Sit to eat a salad.
2:10pm Call Munchkie’s Daddy to see how things are going.
6:23pm Realize that I told Munchkie’s Daddy to bring the eggs, but not the egg decorating kit. He says he’s already got it.
7:33pm Get out of work, change clothes and walk out.
7:38pm Do some slight rearranging of car to fit self and more stuff into the car that already has two adults, two dogs, one toddler, two suitcases, three Easter baskets, Easter basket contents, medical supplies for the wheezing toddler, and several storage tubs to store at inlaws.
7:39pm Insert “Elmo’s Potty Time” into DVD player.
7:40pm Ask Munchkie’s Daddy about everything you can think of that might have been missed.
7:49pm Resort to fast food for dinner because there aren’t many options.
8:35pm Give Munchkie blanket, doll and Elmo and say it’s night night time.
8:53pm Realize that the Easter dress your mother in law made is hanging on the back of Munchkie’s bedroom door.
8:57pm Call work to laugh about it, because what else can you do.
9:01pm Tell Munchkie she’s not funny and that it’s night night time.
9:03pm Explain to Munchkie that we can’t go home yet to go night night because we have to go see Nana and Grandpa.
9:04pm Explain to Munchkie that her Uncle is away at college and will not be there.
9:10pm Tell Munchkie it’s night night time.
9:13pm Put pillow inbetween driver and passenger seat to form a wall.
9:15pm Tell Munchkie to go night night.
9:17pm Realize that Munchkie is dripping in sweat in her fleece pjs.
9:18pm Turn on cold air and start shivering.
9:20pm Begin to ignore Munchkie.
9:45pm Search gps for area stores.
10:08pm Arrive at Walmart.
10:16pm Try to hold back tears when there are no dresses to be found.
10:17pm Find dress on way out of store and figure out which is the lesser of the evils while envisioning the beautiful pink and white checked dress hand made with love.
10:18pm Join what seems to be one of many never ending lines.
10:34 Listen as the cashier states “You would think people didn’t realize that stores were open tomorrow” and reply “Well my excuse is that 2 hours into our trip to my inlaws we realized that my daughter’s Easter dress my mother in law made is sitting at home” then have cashier say “What is your problem mom can’t get things together?” Tell cashier “My problem is that I woke up before 5am, worked all day until 7:30pm and then started on the road” Cashier replies ”Ok, well you probably should have gotten it ready for your husband ahead of time.”
10:36pm Finally get out of Walmart feeling like the worst mom ever and resume travels.
11:25pm Soothe a crying Munchkie back to sleep.
11:55pm Soothe a crying Munchkie back to sleep.
12:24am Soothe a coughing, crying Munchkie back to sleep.
12:49am Tell Munchkie that it’s ok, we’re almost there the neb treatment is coming soon.
12:58am Arrive to inlaws. Run inside, set up neb machine.
1:03am Administer neb to a very cranky and sleepy Munchkie.
1:17am Literally fall into bed.
6:15am Alarm goes off, wake up and shower.
Happy Easter

Spring Cleaning

This weekend we took advantage of the Gap Get & Give discount and did some shopping to update our wardrobes (it's amazing the freedom you feel to have a monthly car payment off your shoulders!).  Since most of my clothes were bought off a clearance rack, therefore awkwardly fitting or just plain didn't fit at all, I needed to add some pieces to my limited clothing selection.  Munchkie's Daddy and I are looking forward to a trip we are taking in May for our anniversary (five years already!) so we also had to make sure we had appropriate clothing for the dress requirements and extreme heat of a Riveria Maya resort.

We first headed to the aquarium to let Munchkie have some fun and tire out.  Then we headed to the outlets for some serious shopping.  After several hours pouring over racks and revisiting dressing rooms we finally arrived home with our purchases.  I, of course always have to analyze the things I spend my money on and so laid out all of my clothes to make sure that they all had my approval for a second time.

Then I explained to Munchkie's Daddy the importance of cleaning out our closets, that we have clothes we haven't worn in a long time. One of my favorite blogs, and the one that introduced me into the world of blogging, SimpleMom.net, is having a several week serious of cleaning out your home.  This past week's was the closet and I realized that our closets do need some attention.  Although I have taken several garbage bags of clothes to various clothing drop boxes over the past several months, I still have clothes that I go to put on and realize that they are no where near fitting me anymore.  Time to free up the oh-so-precious-and-quite-limited closet space.  So after standing in our closets throwing clothes behind us, my pile looked something like this.

How does one even have space to hold all of these misfitted articles of clothing?  We have had our bed raised so we could fit storage containers underneath our bed and that is where most of my clothes have been stored.  This is an especially bad place to keep them because it's out of sight, out of mind.  Thankfully I had brought it down to two tubs previous to this extreme clean so there wasn't nearly as much to go through.  I had to tell myself as I pulled each article out to examine.

When did you last wear this?  How do you feel while wearing it?  Does it flatter you?  Is it even in the right size? 

If it didn't pass these questions.  Behind me it went.  It took several minutes to muster up the courage to throw some of them behind me.  It's a little piece of history that's being discarded and thrown out of your life.  There were several times when I knew something needed to go, but couldn't do it, so I would hold it up for Munchkie's Daddy and say "What do you think of this?"  Each time hoping that he would say, "Oh I love that, don't throw it away."  Those words never came out of his mouth.  I think once he did say "Well that is a nice dress" and it wasn't even something I wanted to keep.  Haha!  By the time I was finished with this closet massacre my closet looked quite bare and I wished that I would have looked a little harder while I had that coupon available.  It is actually kind of fun to shop for clothes now that I can get normal sizes.  I don't have to be embarrassed by how I look in something or what size I have to find.  I've been dreading it for so many years now that I go in, get down to business, and get out before many tears were shed.

This is now every article of clothing that I own.  Other than socks, underwear, etc.  I have the above tub of Tshirts, pj pants and hoodies that will go back under my bed.  The pair of capris will hang right there on my closet door.  Those are my next motivator.  I bought them because I can button them, but they definitely aren't comfortable or well fitting yet.  I need something to look at and to motivate me to not late night binge or unnecessarily carb load due to stress induced cravings and moments of lost self control.  I hope that these capris are just the motivation that I need.  Although, it would be better to hang them from the pantry or refrigerator, I will have to settle with my closet door.    

After our cleaning time we filled three trash bags full of clothes.  I will need to finish up all of our laundry so I can pull out the items I have been wearing that I shouldn't be.  Such as the burnt orange XXXL top that looks hideous.  Needless to say, it makes me feel very good to have a closet with some nice looking items in it.  It is cleaned out and organized just the way I like it.  I can go up into our room and sigh, because it's not an overwhelming mess or a job too big for me to tackle.  It's already taken care of.  And I can pull any item out of my closet and feel confident wearing it.  No more hours spent trying on and then discarding clothes in front of the mirror attempting to find something in my closet that is wearable.

Fake Cranberry Joy

I'm addicted to blogs.  Seriously.  I read them, I laugh out loud, I forward them, I dream of my own blog that is witty, brings a feeling of community while giving great tips and helpful ways to live life.

But I have a lot of self doubt.  Who would want to read about my struggles to just survive.  You know that everyone only posts the great things about their lives on those equally addicting social networks. But what you don't know that their bathroom shower actually has mold growing in it while they are posting about how great that homemade loaf of whole wheat bread smells baking in their breadmaker.

Oh shoot, those are my posts.

Well not everyone is perfect.

I sit on my couch and read all these blogs and wish that I could be that perfect mom.  You know, the one who stays home all day, makes every meal from scratch, has the perfectly immaculate and basically sterilized home, are so frugal that they buy their week's groceries while spending $1.72 wearing the same size 0 jeans from jr high because they lost all their baby weight the day the baby was born, AND their kids are always perfectly dressed.  (Ugh, I'm getting that sinking feeling in my stomach even as I type this.)

But then I look up.  And I see this clearance shelf purchase I made several years ago at an after Christmas sale.  It is made of those fake red plastic coated styrofoam cranberries and spells out the word JOY.  Even though this is a Christmas decoration I keep it up all year round.  I have moved it from house to apartment to house and keep it in a highly visible location.

I remember that I need to have joy.  Joy in all situations.  Joy while I take care of someone else's kids for 13 hours at a time while my own child is at home without me.  Joy while Munchkie is face down on the ground screaming because I won't let her watch Elmo on "DDD" again.  Joy while I am so tired that we get Chinese take-out instead of cooking a "real food" meal.  Joy while I try to get makeup stains out of toddler clothes because someone wanted to be like Mommy.   Joy while a sloppy wet kiss is planted smack on my lips.  Joy while the beautiful white swans are floating on the water out my window.  Joy while blessings are showered on me.

See where this is going?  Something as small as a fake cranberry covered Christmas decoration can remind you that life isn't as bad as you think. Basically you can do anything with a little joy.  With a hopeful attitude and a desire to share who I am, I am starting this blog.