"Stay-at-Home Mom"

I've always wondered about that term. Stay-at-Home Mom. Most of the moms I know who don't "work", meaning they don't earn a salary, not that they sit around all day relaxing, are rarely ever at home. "In-the-Car Mom" I could believe easily. "On-the Go Mom" definitely. Anyway, I thought I'd share a bit of the crazy day I had yesterday which is what got me thinking about all this again. Not all of my days are this busy, but they are always busy. And lots of other moms that I know are even busier. I don't know how they manage, especially those moms who have the paying job on top of everything else. Hats off to all of you.

Yesterday I:

Woke up before the sun, showered and dressed.

Got Spencer and Kendall up for the day. Dressed Spencer while he flopped on the floor with his eyes still closed like a limp rag doll. Fed them both breakfast and then got Spencer off to school on the bus.

Ate my breakfast. Cheerios. If you were wondering.

Read a little bit of The Lightning Thief (fantastic book) to Kendall.

Woke up my very non-morning person daughter Lynnsey. Dressed her too. She's 7 1/2 years old and will later change clothes about 12 times but before 8:00 in the morning, her arms and legs don't work.

Fed Lynnsey breakfast and signed off her homework log that I forgot to do the night before.

Rushed Lynnsey and Kendall out the door for school.

Checked e-mail and read a few blogs. (Don't judge. Even moms need a little down time)

Then Kaya, was up and hollering at the top of her lungs for me to get her out of bed. I got her fed and dressed and we spent awhile playing together. I love having conversations with that kid!

Then I sorted out the file cabinet which was overflowing and needed major help.

After that, it was time for school to let out since it was a half-day. I went and picked up all the kids and shortly after that, two other kids joined the mix since I had agreed to babysit for the afternoon.

I made a healthy lunch of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. (Judge me when you have to make something quick and easy for seven starving children). I did add juice and bananas and carrot sticks to the menu too.

Put Kaya down for her nap and let the kids watch a movie with popcorn while I cut Taylor's hair.

Played outside for awhile with all the kids and pulled a small boudler out of the fish pond after Kaya leaned over too far and knocked it in.

Then it was time to head over to Marshall with Kendall and another kid from church for a service project that we were doing as a Faith in God activity. We planted flowers in a little park in town. Beautiful job if I do say so myself!

Then we rushed home and changed clothes. Kendall and I grabbed a quick sandwich for dinner before the whole family headed over to the college's art building where a piece of Spencer's artwork was on display. The works will be moved eventually to various locations around town but for now they were in all displayed in the gallery. They had a little awards ceremony where Spencer got a certificate. (Pictures and more details will come soon).

As soon as he got his certificate we had to leave the ceremony early to rush over to the middle school for Taylor's spring band concert. They did a great job. Taylor and a few other middle school kids joined the high school for a special brass ensemble that was pretty spectacular.

Then it was back home and past time to get the kids to bed. We got medicine given, teeth brushed, pajamas on and sang a primary song before family prayer. Then I put the kids in bed and went to change into my p.j.'s. Then I put the kids back to bed and went back downstairs to get Kaya (who had taken an extra long nap and wasn't remotely tired) to settle down a bit.

She fell asleep while I looked around the room and realized we hadn't had our clean-up time so the house was still in complete chaos. I thought about cleaning it but exhaustion won out.

I carried Kaya to bed and went and got myself ready. I fell into my own bed and immediately to sleep. Only to wake up less than seven hours later to do it all over again...

How was your day?