Heather, what's your day been like?

Just a few things to note, no I didn't get everything done (please no one look in my kitchen right now) and a few things aren't optional in my life.  My mid-day nap makes it so I can flip between days and nights with less trouble than if I don't, without the nap my ability to function at home or work just isn't there and doing direct patient care I think I should be able to function well.  I think my patients like it too.  Having the computer on throughout the day helps me stay focused, I see reminders of what I wanted to accomplish today otherwise I get sidetracked and spend the day on the couch crocheting and watching Downton Abbey or Doctor Who.  The last thing I'm not giving up is my lunches out.  Once a week I have lunch out with a friend and I'm starting the same tradition with Charlet to build a communication bridge -- it's safe time where I'm not worried about homework, chores or behavior and it's staying.  All that said, for those of you who wonder if my life is really all that busy.

{okay, a rant.  Why do people say things like that?  Why do they get back to the people they were said about?  It's nothing but hurtful.  Even if I'm busy because my time management skills suck does it matter why I'm frustrated and struggling?  Can't we just support people where they are at instead of where we think they should be?  Maybe with some support they'd get to a better place?  Bah!  Really I don't want anyone's sympathy and I don't need anyone to do anything for me, just realize that when someone says "it won't take much time if you just look at it/read/spent 10 minutes a day on whatever project is the most important thing" that it may not be possible}

• 1:00 AM  Laundry switched over for the last time, heading to bed.
• 1:30 AM  Last time looked at the clock while awake.
• 2:59 AM  Woke up with legs in an itching fire that nearly made me scream.  Nothing is helping, too late for benadryl and not enough sleep to get up.  Compromise with 1/2 a benadryl and fall asleep from exhaustion with itching legs that continue to wake me through the night.
• 6:00 AM Alarm goes off.  Hit snooze button, moan and roll over feeling the sedation from the benadryl.  Legs still itch even though I've since ripped off the infernal compression stockings convinced I'd see legs covered in hives.
• 6:05 AM  Alarm.  Mutter unkind words.  Hit snooze.
• 6:10 AM  Alarm.  Mutter unkind words.  Hit snooze.  Hear big kids up and moving around, make mental note to thank them later when I'm more functional.  Snuggle back down under the covers pushing the day we move family prayer and scripture to morning back one more day -- I'll struggle with it again tonight.
• 7:00 AM Make sure Michael has signed course disclosure with him and see him off.  Normally I'd be taking him to band and honestly I'm missing the 1:1 time with him even though it's just a few minutes a day -- it works kind of like I hope my lunches with Charlet do but it's an issue I don't know how to fix right now and in the big scheme of things not a huge deal so it falls to the bottom of the list.  The bottom of the list is big and things get lost easily there.
• 7:20 AM  Wrestle back into the infernal stockings counting down the days until I can try to not wear them when I get a reminder of how painful my legs are without them and make the choice to wear them.  At least tomorrow I'm allowed to take them off at night and to shower, I'll get better sleep then.
• 7:30 AM Take Charlet to school, discussing lunch plans on the way.  Makes me smile and warms my heart to see her excited about it.
• 7:40 AM  Breakfast and planning my day while Kaede wakes up.  Sitting here typing this now.
• 8:00 AM  Make sure Kaede is out of bed and at least zombie walking through the house, try to tame her hair and get her out of PJ's
• 8:30 AM  Kaede to school
• 8:40 AM  Bring in trash cans, feed chickens, walk dogs outside (why oh why has Mitzi started running away, it use to be easier)
• 9:00 AM Start laundry, unload dishwasher, sort dishes washing pots and pans while making a stack to go in the dishwasher -- all while brainstorming how to shower when I can't get either leg wet.
• 9:30 AM Sit down with choffy and work on a weekly schedule + chores for the kids with a side of budget and bills.  Yay!  Fight desire to go back to bed, ponder why the dryer doesn't have a fold setting.
• 10:00 AM Set alarms on phones so I dont' forget important times for today.  Settle for a spit bath and hair washing instead of a shower and start count down to tomorrow afternoon when I can take a nice long shower.
• 10:40 AM Go pick up Charlet for lunch at The Little Brick House.
• 11:40 AM  Errands.  Wander around Wal-mart trying to remember what is on my list that is sitting on my desk and then to Deseret Book to run into the Distrabution Center.  I think it's a marketing scheme to put it inside of DB.  I could easily spend crazy amounts of money in there, today the draw was more than normal so I also created a mental reading list.  I really, really, really want the two Women of Faith books.  I've heard of them before but never felt drawn to them before today.  In Charlet's words, "I want it, I want it, I want it"
• 12:30 PM  Load the dishwasher with soaking dishes, switch over the laundry and fold what is in the dryer.
•  1:00 PM  Computer time, straightening desk, removing programs, typing up kids stuff for their new schedule thingy I'm trying to keep us more organized (ha!) and just maybe some Facebook.
•  1:45 PM  Dogs need outside again.  In the rain.  yes, not to long ago we were having lows around twenty below and today it's raining.  Welcome to Utah.
•  2:00 PM  Mop bathroom ceiling.  Yes, you read that right and I'm not going to explain right now but no it doesn't happen often and it's one of my least favorite chores.
• 2:15 PM  Kitchen again, been soaking things in small batches and only half of them go into the dishwasher but it's a full load this time.  Soaking side of the sink has the cooling racks I cooked bacon on that refuse to scrub the grease off.  Folded more laundry.
•  2:30 PM  Walked to a neighbors that no one has been able to get a hold of all day, not typical of them.  Their car (was there earlier) was gone.
•  2:45 PM  More laundry folding {yes, I was behind on both dishes and laundry per my usual} and scrubbed the soaking cooling racks.  Dishes are at a stand still until dishwasher is through running, but definite headway has been made.
•  3:00 PM  Realized that while I've made headway with laundry, dishes, and the bathroom ceiling {go ahead,laugh} that the rest of my house is as it was and we're at count downtime until after school chaos hits.  Almost nothing gets accomplished housework wise after that.
•  3:01 PM  Take a big sigh and realize that regardless of what ends up undone it's been a good day, even without a nap and for that you are very grateful.
•  3:01 PM  Set alarm so you don't forget Kaede and Meghan and see how much of the remaining clean laundry can get folded.
•  3:25 PM {typing ahead, but if this doesn't happen the next entry will be "answers phone call from school"} head to school to pick up the little kids.
• 3:40 PM  Drop Meghan off, notice neighbors are home and stop to check on them/let them know about their phone
• 4:10 PM  Pick Charlet up from Track, drop the starving girls off
• 4:20 PM  Pick Michael up early from 4-H
• 4:30 PM  Suppose to be at church ball, not there yet.
• 4:40 PM  Finally make it to church ball with Charlet and one other girl from the Ward there.
• 5:40 PM  Make it home to notice that it does NOT smell like pork roast cooking.  Toss pork roast, potatoes, and carrots in a pan and toss it in the oven.  Take note of children who appear to be wasting away from hunger.
• 5:45 PM  Take Charlet to her Dads to see if he has found her band shirt yet.  Grumble in the car about him losing the shirt while the kids aren't there to hear me.
• 6:00 PM  Run to Smiths for bread, cheese and ham {yes tomorrow is grocery day and it's a little on the Mother Hubbard side of things right now}
• 6:05 PM  Drop Michael off to pull up grades on the computer
• 6:07 PM  Pick up for Pep Band {my day for carpool, yay for not working and being able to contribute to the get the kids to the high school movement}
• 6:15 PM  Finally make it home and look at missing assignments on PowerSchool {ugh} and start grilled ham and cheese for Kaede, Michael and me.  Folding yet more laundry inbetween sandwich flips.
• 6:45 PM  Sit down to eat for a few minutes.
• 7:00 PM  Check email to see if I have any  more e-mails from teachers and update this list {this list is turning into a pain now that all the kids are home, it kept me going earlier}
• 7:30 PM  Make sure kids are putting away all the laundry I folded and not just dumping it somewhere/doing their homework/doing their chore for the day while putting away my laundry.  Also ventured into Michael's backpack for organization.
• 8:00 PM  Kaede into bathtub, dishwasher emptied.
• 8:30 PM  Took a phone call saying that I didn't need to pick Charlet up from Pep Band!  Woot!  Phone call took longer than it seems covered a variety of subjects and I'm grateful.  While on the phone Charlet showed up hyper and hungry so I made her a grill cheese, put away laundry, wiped down the floor in the bathroom from Kaede's bath, put things that were there that belong here away while walking around.  I'm amazingly productive on the phone with things I can do one handed.
• 9:15 PM  Family prayer and chat time, nice pleasant and of course longer than normal {which is just fine}
• 9:30 PM  Kids heading towards bed, now EVERYONE is hyper, thanks Charlet.  Fortunately exhausted because it didn't last very long.
• 9:55 PM  I'm going post this now so I can shut down the computer and focus on laundry and whatever series I find on Netflix to interest me, I'm not much in the mood for Doctor Who right now.

Things accomplished that didn't fit into the time frame because I was either doing something else or it wasn't a ton of time at once.

• Walked Michael through what could have been a huge problem when hockey practice was cancelled.
• Discussed appropriate times/places to let me know you don't want to do something.
• Fielded 4 (I think?) phone calls.
• Let the dogs out about 4 more times, 2 of which were to just go say hi to people.
• As I'm walking through the house I look at the room I'm in and think of the room I'm going to (sometimes those I pass too) and take something that needs to go where I'm headed.
• Sorted things to donate or trash as I folded laundry.

{written about 8 PM}The Giant List of Things To Do is nowhere near finished, in fact front part of my house still looks trashed, I haven't sat down and sewn any of the stuff I was planning on sewing today or worked on the baby gift I really kind of needed to have done by tomorrow.  We saved an hour by hockey being cancelled.  Today was particularly productive, I'm certain in part because of the accountability of the list but I don't have to work tonight, Charlet hasn't yet been home more than to change clothes and grab a sandwich and I have no idea what her homework will entail.  Laundry is far from done, although I'm caught up with what has been washed the last few weeks, the baskets that I sorted by child through the end of last year when I was really struggling with time sit taunting me as do the baskets in my bedroom.  Dishes are closer to being done but not yet there, and anyways it's not like they stay done.  Fridge didn't get cleaned out {it's a set chore for day before grocery shopping so we can know what's in there} I didn't have a lot of other stuff in here like phone calls, appts, or required leg resting -- I also didn't have anyone help me with shuffling kids etc like I often do either.  Don't tell, but I also didn't work out (taking a few weeks off for my legs)

I'm exhausted, part by my significant lack of sleep last night but I really should stay up late tonight so I can sleep decent tomorrow because I do work tomorrow night.  I'll likely fold as much as I can of the baskets that are taunting me while I help Charlet with homework then when kids are in bed settle down on the couch with Netflix and some yarn.

Oh what I wouldn't give to feel like this.  Both the warm summer sun and the carefree attitude. {yes, it's an old shot -- I haven't posted anything new in a while}