A Day in the Life -- Heidi

Hey, I'm still doing the "Day in the Life" series, and yesterday it was my day.  (Not as interesting as getting one of the kids, but at least I know what happened!)

My day started with a chance sleep in a little bit.  I didn't get up until 5:45 am.  (Yes, that is sleeping in.)  First up was a shower-- and I enjoyed every minute under the hot spray, since I had actually cleaned my shower the day before.  The only drawback was dealing with the all the hair that came out when I washed my hair.  (I've dealt with massive hair loss each time I've had a baby, but never almost two years post-baby.  I can actually feel that my hair is thinning.  So the double handful of hair was a bit depressing.)

After I'd gotten myself more or less ready for church it was time to tackle the kids.  I pestered M until she got into the shower, and then herded B into my bathtub.  B's hair is currently my biggest challenge, but we got it washed and combed through and afro puffs pulled on top of her head without any tears so I consider that a success.  Next up was getting the boys up and dressed, followed by S.  With church starting at 8:00 am, I've given up on cooking breakfast-- it was Pop Tarts all around (well, except for me, since it was Fast Sunday).  Then I had to race around collecting everything that I needed for church-- oh, and I had to wake up Terence, who still hadn't dragged himself out of bed by 7:30.  And I hate being late for church, but it looked like we were going to be cutting it close.

We walked into the chapel right in time for Sacrament Meeting.  It started out pretty well for us.  Terence had to take S out early on and I had the usual squabbling over who got to put their head in my lap, but for the most part the kids were well-behaved.  In fact, they were doing so well that I even felt comfortable enough to get up and share my testimony even though that meant leaving four kids unattended.  It didn't last though.  About ten minutes before the end (or what should have been the end), the natives started getting awfully restless.  Toys were getting banged around, the boys were having a wrestling match, there was some drama between the girls over who should be sitting in which chair, and J felt it necessary to keep up some kind of narration for what K was doing with his toys in a rather loud voice.  I kept glancing at my watch and telling B, "We're almost done, I promise," only to have another person get up.  Terence came back in with S and I spent the last ten minutes or so manhandling a squirmy toddler who couldn't decided what she wanted to be doing (other than she knew she didn't want to sit quietly on Mommy's lap).

Oh, I desperately wanted a breather after that.  However, I was covering for the primary pianist as well as handling my own secretary stuff so I had to plunge right into more chaos.  Primary wasn't too bad (I don't have panic attacks over playing for Primary anymore, no matter what they throw at me) but they were practicing for the primary program so it meant I was on piano duty for two hours.  Do you know how hard those piano benches are????  It felt like my rear end was numb by the end.

Towards the end of church delirium from fasting was starting to kick in.  My head was starting to hurt and I was very grumpy.  I didn't plan on doing anything fancy for lunch for the kids-- leftovers and a frozen pizza were on the docket-- but Terence must have noticed that I was creeping toward misery because he put S down for a nap and then chased me out of the kitchen.  Then he had me lie down on the bed and he proceeded to give me a massage, quite out of the blue.

That man spoils me rotten sometimes.

After the massage he told me to take a nap and he would handle lunch.  For once, instead of arguing with him about it I just rolled over and went to sleep.  I had a blissful LONG nap, waking up in time to have a little personal scripture study while the kids watched a movie.  Then we loaded up the van and headed up to my parents' house.

At my parents' we had a low key game of cards, then a fantastic dinner, and then several hours of just sitting around and shooting the breeze while the kids played.  My sister Amy and her family were there, and my cousin Daryl came with his girlfriend (dare I call her that???) Sarah.  We stayed until pretty late-- about 10pm or so-- before making the drive back home and chasing all the kids into bed.  I got to sleep much later than normal but overall it had been a great day!