Our Wednesdays

Disclaimer: These posts are to show you what our daily lives are like, but keep in mind that I don't write down each and every time I snap at my kids or they tell me "No!"  Hopefully I'm not making life over here seem too hunky dory, because it's not (life is good, but not perfect).

Also, because I've gone into so much detail in these posts, I feel like I've sort of missed my own point.  So here's the cliff's notes version of what we do Mondays and Tuesdays (cliff's notes version of Wednesdays at the end of this post):

Mondays: both girls go to school; Ashley and Ford go to the gym/Target
Tuesdays: Sydney goes to school; Ashley, Lorelei, and Ford go grocery shopping at the commissary

Note: Our schedule is pretty set in stone.  Obviously each day is never exactly the same, because our kids are young and unpredictable, but what we do and where we go almost never changes.  We stay home every single afternoon (except Fridays, when Syd has ballet at 2:00 p.m.), meaning that we never plan to run errands, go on play dates (not that we do many of those anyway), or leave the house "just because" in the afternoons.  We stay home, the kids play inside our outside, depending on the weather, sometimes they get bored and I start to go a little nutty, but I've learned that it's too much for us to get out and about post-nap and pre-dinner.  So, home we stay.  It's taken me a long time to get used to just being content at home, but practice has made perfect (imperfect), and this is what works best for our family, at this particular stage.

On to Wednesday!

Breakfast was mini pancakes, bacon, and strawberries.

Only Sydney goes to school on Wednesdays, and my neighbor usually does preschool drop off and pick up -- it's nice because we can focus on getting Sydney out the door, and the rest of us can take our time getting ready.

Lorelei goes to gymnastics class at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays.  We usually leave the house around 10:25 a.m.; it only takes a few minutes to get there, and the class usually starts a little late, so there's no hurry.

The class is not a "mommy and me" class, but it's laid back, so Ford is allowed to crawl around, and the moms who stay help the coach out if needed.  Lorelei loves the class, and Sydney does too (she was able to participate a few times when school was cancelled).  I think this summer I will give Sydney a break from ballet and let her and Lorelei both do gymnastics.

Gymnastics ends by 11:30 a.m., and sometimes we run a quick errand to either Trader Joe's, Harris Teeter, or the library, but this Wednesday we went straight home, and Lorelei and Ford ate lunch and went down for naps before Sydney even got home from school.

Lorelei's lunch: "wet" pepperoni, popcorn, shredded cheese
Sydney's lunch: "wet" pepperoni, a Nutrigrain bar, Cheeto puffs, strawberries

Only the healthiest for my babies...

(By the way, Ford eats too, it's just it's harder to remember what he eats because he consumes small amounts of many, many things.)

Sydney had rest time, and I did absolutely nothing productive while the kids rested.

On Wednesday evenings we go to church.  There is dinner at church every Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., and then Sydney has choir at 6:00 p.m. (Lorelei will be able to do choir next year too -- can you imagine conducting a 3-year old choir?  There's a reason I'm not that choir director...).  Lorelei and Ford go to childcare, and Chet and I go to the sanctuary, where we sing a couple of songs from the Hymnal and the Pastor does a little sermonette.  Chet and I are the youngest people in there by at least 30 years.  Probably closer to 45 years.  We love it.

Anyway, we only make it to the dinner part 50% of the time.  Yesterday we did not go to dinner, and instead ate chicken nuggets, salad, and broccoli and cheese before heading to church.

We leave church around 7:00 p.m., and the kids are always starving by the time we get home.  Between the three of them, standing in the kitchen and eating like baby birds, they consumed: 3 Nutrigrain bars, 1 applesauce pouch, and 1.5 yogurt drinks.  All in about 7 minutes.  We should own stock in Nutrigrain bars.

The kids went upstairs to get ready for bed after their snack (no baths last night!), and after they were tucked in, Chet and I commenced a more-hectic-than-usual Wednesday evening.  I moved a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer, folded a different load of clothes (Chet helped), Chet cleaned the kitchen, I baked cookies, I hung up the clothes from the dryer, Chet cleaned up the cookie baking mess, and then we signed our tax return and went to bed.  No "Gray's Anatomy" last night, since by this time it was 10:00 p.m.

Why on earth did you decide to bake cookies at 9:00 p.m., Ashley?  On Thursday mornings I go to Bible study, and I had signed up to bring a breakfast casserole and chocolate chip cookies to share with everyone.  The breakfast casserole could wait 'til morning, but baking cookies could not (unless I was willing to wake up at 3:00 a.m., WHICH I WAS NOT).

Cliff's notes version of Wednesdays: Sydney goes to school; Lorelei goes to gymnastics; church dinner (sometimes) and church choir in the evening

Remember how in yesterday's post I mentioned Ford practicing walking Tuesday night?  Below is the best video I could get (remember, his legs had already turned to jelly from overuse by the time I started taping):

Poor Bubby -- he's older than 14.5 months old, which means that his sisters officially walked earlier than he will.  But, as my dad said, "The boy can't walk too well, but he sure can zip around on a scooter!"