One Ordinary Day

My husband put together a generic weekly schedule for himself, inspiring me to write down what I do in one day. This is from the day after hosting back-to-back parties, our annual family Seder on Saturday and our first hosting of Easter for both our immediate families.
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4am. The 10 month old still won't sleep after an hour fussing and crying. This isn't the first time tonight, by far. So I take him downstairs to rock him and watch him while he plays a bit. I pray and read part of my Scripture, knowing that I probably will not get my normal prayer time in later on. More than an hour later I finally get to take him back to bed.
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6:15. The baby wakes up just before the alarm goes off. My husband and I say a prayer for each other, then he takes him downstairs to join him in his morning routine and I fall back asleep.
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7ish. Time to get up. Shower, dress, get the toddler up and changed.
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8ish. Breakfast. The toddler doesn't last more than halfway through the meal and is returned to her bed for a nap. Family Scripture memorization, devotional, prayer for each child and my sister who lives with us.
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8:30. Remind the older girls to clear off the table (as if they didn't know that they should...). Clean up the baby, change his diaper, carry him downstairs with the laptop to begin sorting laundry. Since I didn't take time to sort laundry last week, there's a lot to be done today. I begin a podcast and start working. Of course the girls need to be set back on track, the baby spends some time with his aunt, the toddler wakes up, the baby goes down for a nap, I worry that husband will leave without his lunch, some towels manage to be put away by me. I clean a bathroom sink and toilet bowl: the bathroom needs more cleaning, but I want to make sure the laundry gets done today. The toddler wants to play with Easter eggs, eternally optimistic that the one she's opening will have some candy in it. She wants to play with them in the sunroom, with me watching. Aha! there's a box that I can unpack, coming in and out of the sunroom as I put each item away, so she'll feel like I'm in the room with her but I'm still accomplishing something. Ohhhhh....she found an egg with candy in it. In fact, she found her sister's still-full Easter basket and has opened at least 3 eggs. (Un-?)fortunately(?), her response to Peeps this year has been to take one bite, then leave the rest for someone else to finish. So she's only had 3-4 bites of candy...the most expedient way to get rid of the rest (and hide the missing candy from the sister!!!) is to eat them. I've eaten plenty for today. Baby is learning how to climb stairs and falls off the bottom step, thankfully onto the carpeted basement floor. A friend calls with a question about rice flour. I'm not the only one in our circle who eats exclusively gluten free, but I am the one who has eaten this way the longest so I am consulted by someone or other a few times each year. Girls found at least 3 Easter eggs still hidden and I found 2 more. 2 teenagers yesterday decided they were too old for Easter egg hunts (although those in their 20s decided to go for it) and sabotaged anyone who entered the basement, so I suspect there are a few more down there still to be discovered. In between activities I look up some parlour games, something I realized yesterday that we could have done but I wasn't prepared to bring out; I want to be ready by our next big group party.
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11:30. Oldest daughter is told to get lunch ready for herself and siblings and 2nd oldest to set the table. Toddler doesn't want to come upstairs so I have to carry her to the table, screaming all the way.
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noon. Kids eat lunch while I read aloud Caddie Woodlawn
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1:00. Older girls are having their quiet time, littles are playing together, I am eating a bit. When I stand up to put some dishes in the dishwasher I discover the littles have found a big sister's basket...toddler is opening a chocolate peanut butter cup and baby is almost done with a Peep. While I move the baskets again to where maybe she can't reach them, the toddler finds the jar of yellow paint which Grandma brought over for an Easter project. I'm so glad she didn't manage to open it before I had a chance to rescue it from her. While I'm putting that out of her reach, she starts chewing on a nerf arrow. Screaming, I carry her up to her nap.
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1:10. Maybe I can finish lunch now. Or maybe not finish, per se, but at least eat a little more...
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1:30. Baby is ready for his nap. I have an hour or so now to introvert, a time I cherish dearly.
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3pm. Everyone except the toddler is up again. I rope the older girls into helping me reload the dishwasher with all it can hold. If the rest of the day goes well I might get them to unload it a second time and reload it before bedtime. Otherwise, we're still making forward progress in our cleanup from the weekend festivities. The handwash dishes are all on me though. Maybe I'll get the wine glasses done before the toddler wakes up. I remind my oldest to practice a couple songs for the musical she is participating in. I look up a few recipes for remaking the leftovers into new dishes. Mental reminder: I need to write down how I cooked the lamb on Saturday so I can repeat it next year. It turned out my best yet! Supervised the older girls painting the art project (the one the toddler wanted to spill) before the toddler got up and made a mess trying to participate. I think I changed 6 diapers so far (husband changed at least 1). Made a smoothie for snack followed at dinnertime by "snacky dinner" (aka, serve yourself whichever leftovers you prefer). The baby was sitting in his highchair without his tray when I sent the toddler to her highchair. On her way past she decided to help put on his tray; she's going to be a FANTASTIC babysitter someday. It helped make up for the wet wipe container she brought down to the baby's level so the two of them could empty it out.
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6pm. Older girls are playing on the computer. They're a little jealous of a friend who gets 30 minutes computer time a day and accumulates her time if she misses a day; my kids get 10 minutes and have to work to earn any extra time. They don't seem to mind too much yet though and the shorter time definitely improves their attitude. Where did the toddler get that strip of aluminum? Change a diaper, feed a bottle, resign myself to waiting until kids are in bed before preparing my own dinner. Only an hour to go... Begin the week's shopping list, but I get only one item written down when the toddler asks to go outside. Her socks, of course, are up in her crib. I put them on her this morning knowing she would go outside today but she took them off during her first (breakfast) nap. Once she is bundled up properly for the weather I let her out into the backyard by herself. The neighbor's dog barks at her through the fence and she barks back. I contemplate that there's a certain similarity between "letting the dog out" and "letting the toddler out". The dog gets called back inside almost immediately for barking at my daughter. I'm not sure why the baby suddenly starts crying. Maybe he just needs the cuddles he gets for his cries to reassure him that I'm available to him? I send the older girls out to join their sister. I begin preparing my own dinner. Peering out the kitchen window I see the older girls climbing over the side of the deck and the toddler watching them carefully. I can almost hear the wheels turning in her head, storing away their activities to try herself at a later date.
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6:45. Baby insists that he is too tired to stay up and I put him to bed. I hope he will stay asleep all night but it is probably that this is really a nap and he will be up again in a couple hours. Girls outside are building a fairy garden.
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7pm. Girls come inside and I send them up to get ready for bed. My second daughter wants to know how much more she has to grow before she can sit in the front passenger seat of cars. My third daughter doesn't know what she wants and cries over everything. My firstborn wants to wear regular clothes instead of pajamas to bed yet I know from experience that if I allow this then she will "not have any shirts to wear" during the daytime in another day or two. I also know that she has more than enough of both pajamas and shirts, she just wants something different.
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7:30. Girls are in bed. The toddler's screams woke up the baby, so he's not in bed but he's too tired and grumpy to let me leave the room or even move about the room and I'm too tired to carry him everywhere. I grab a snack to supplement my lack of dinner and sit down with him next to me.
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9pm. The baby finally fell asleep again. Next step will be transitioning him back to his crib without waking him. The girls are also seemingly asleep (no noise) and I hope they will stay asleep all night. What have I done over the past 1.5 hours? Nothing productive except take care of the baby and eat a little. My brain is too fried to do more. Time for bed, if I can successfully carry the baby up to his crib. If not.. well,..
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So much of my day didn't make it onto this list. Little things like closing cupboards or putting items into their correct place as I passed through a room. Important things like kisses and playing games. Background like music and a kids' science podcast while we did other things. Forgotten things because too much happened in between the activity and the open moments to write down my day. I'm tired now. My husband will return home to find me watching tv because I'm too zoned out to do anything more productive. I might wish I was in bed and I might find myself unable to go to bed because the baby is awake. I rarely have his nighttime bottle prepared before my husband comes home. If the baby cooperates I will turn in between 9 and 9:30 to read and work a pencil puzzle until I fall asleep. If he doesn't cooperate, it might be an hour or two later.