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

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11 Unusual Household Uses For Food Items That Will Save You Money

I go to bed with dirty dishes

Yep. That's right.  I go to bed with dirty dishes.  You can call me what you want, but I hate doing dishes, Munchkie's Daddy hates doing dishes and so they don't always get done.  Especially when the dishwasher is full of clean dishes because we equally dislike putting away the dishes.

(I'm having a slight panic attack about showing this)

When you get married sometimes you assume that your relationship with your husband or wife is going to be a mirror image of your parents, or you may go the opposite direction and say "I will never EVER be like my parents."  Either way, it doesn't always turn out the way you think.  Growing up my mom stayed home with us.  She cooked almost every meal and in the words of my brother as a child "we're having salad and gross stuff for dinner."  That means she always served very healthy, well-balanced and food pyramid guided meals.  After dinner we would clear our plates and then my dad would stand at the sink and do the dishes.  If the trash needed to be taken out, he would do it.  I never saw my mom asking him to do either.

So the day came that I got married.

Naturally I assumed that Munchkie's Daddy would gladly without hesitation do every dish and take out the trash whenever it got remotely full.  I guess I never thought about how the division of chores were created in my house growing up.  I also was so naive that I didn't realize my mother's frustration when she asked my dad to vacuum and it wasn't completed to her standards.  In the early days of my marriage I remember being so frustrated that I started to vent to my mother on the phone (something which I try not to do- talk about my husband and I's relationship to my parents) and I will never forget what she said to me.

Amanda, why do you think that your dad does the things he does?  It took me years to train him.

 How could I, just months into my marriage, assume that my relationship with Munchkie's Daddy could be the mature relationship of my parents?  While I know my mom was joking about the training part, it's true.  It takes years to figure out the division of household chores.  And guess what, they aren't necessarily divided because we enjoy doing something, like the dishes.  I guess that you just suck it up and do things that you don't like because they have to get done.

So for now I am going to go to bed with dirty dishes.  Since I don't like doing them and he doesn't like doing them, they will sit out for a few more hours.  Maybe someday there will be HIS chores and HERS chores, but I think those are a few more years in the making.  And in those years I will be grateful for all of the things he does do, like make dinner most nights, do laundry and pick up around the house.

Hopefully by then Munchkie will be old enough to have her own chores and we can pay her with a measly allowance to do the chores we don't like "to teach her responsibility."