What did you do today?

I've gotten this question a few times lately from friends and family so I decided I'd give you a little summary of a typical day for us. It's probably similar to what many of you SAHM's experience. Try not to laugh too much...

8:07 am: Get woken up by Abbie saying "I'm hungry and I want to watch Dora." Get her dressed, give her a bag of cheerios and some milk, put on Dora, and decide whether to stay up or crawl back to bed. Stay up since I need to leave the house by 10:45 to get to a doctor appt so I start getting ready.

8:52 am: Put a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave for myself and then hear the phone ring. Finish phone call, hear Leah is awake so go to get her out of crib and discover she had thrown up overnight and it's everywhere! Strip her down, fill the tub, put her in the bath, and proceed to clean up the sheets, floor, crib, animals, dollys, etc. Throw a load of laundry in the washer, clean Leah up and get her dressed.

9:46 am: Remember my cold oatmeal that is in the microwave, heat it up again, and start getting breakfast for the kids, leery of giving Leah anything since she might throw up again. Remember I still haven't done my hair so try to finish that while kids are throwing food around and running around the house with half-eaten dripping gogurts.

10:34 am: On the hunt for socks, shoes, coats, diaper bag, library movies to return, etc. Kids keep running away while I try to do their hair. Oh yeah, my oatmeal. Stir in blueberries and eat cold. Oh crap, we're going to be late. "Girls, it's time to go, quit watching Dora, I don't know where your elephant is, why aren't your shoes on, you have to go potty?, get in the car, we're late!"

11:07 am: Finally arrive at doctor's office (15 min late) and realize we have no snacks or toys in diaper bag to keep Leah entertained but figure we won't be at the doctor long, he just needs to check Abbie's ears, should be in and out in 10 min.

12:02 pm: Stumble out into the cold after a hour of semi-torture for Abbie, trying to get excess wax out of her ears before they can check for fluid. She was a trooper but had I known we were going to have to do that, I would have left Leah with a sitter. She was a handful in that little room to say the least! We go across the street to the library for some play/reading/reward time.

12:53 pm: Driving through the drive-thru of Wendy's getting chicken nuggets for the kids, while calling Jared to see if we can stop at work to say hi. He's with a patient so maybe another time, bummer. Take my time driving home so the kids can be done with their lunch by the time we get home. No prep, no clean up, awesome!

1:21 pm: Finally arrive home and after getting everyone inside without them jumping in the nearest snowbank, stripping them down of coats, shoes, hats, etc and unloading my arms of all the bags and books and movies we got at the library, go to put Leah down for a nap and realize she has no sheets or clean blankets. Go throw the items in the washer from this morning into the dryer and realize I have to wait an hour before she can go down since her favorite blankie is in there. Crap. "Hey kids, who wants to watch My Little Pony?"

2:34 pm: Get Leah down for a nap and finally convince Abbie that quiet time in her room is fun. Yes, you can have a snack, and no, you can't jump on the bed and bang on the door, that will wake up Leah. It's supposed to be quiet time, remember?

2:56 pm: Ahhh, a moment of silence. Check email, visit blogs, realize I haven't updated in a week, maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Hmmm, I really should work out since I'm trying to win a weight loss contest but I'm tired, I was up pretty late last night. Maybe I'll work out tonight after the kids are in bed while I watch Bachelor. Oh yeah, I need to fold some laundry, I'll do that real quick while I watch yesterday's Desperate Housewives, then take a nap. Sounds like a plan.

3:22 pm: Almost done folding laundry when my sister, who I haven't talked to in a few weeks, calls. I really should take this but I'm so tired. Okay, I'll just talk for a sec, then take a nap.

4:07 pm: Get off phone and realize a nap isn't going to happen now. Dang it. Okay, maybe I can get in a workout before Leah wakes up. Change clothes, turn on Desperate Housewives again, am just starting to get good and sweaty when Jared gets home early. Really need this time to myself so shoo him into the bedroom and go finish workout.

5:11 pm: Kids are up and I'm about to jump into the shower when Jared says he has a major toothache so I call the dentist and get him an appt for 7:00 pm. There goes hard tacos for dinner/FHE plans. Oh well, at least he got in tonight, if the pain is bad enough that he came home from work early, that's pretty bad.

6:30 pm: Jared leaves for the dentist and we start eating dinner. Leah and I are done in 10 minutes, Abbie takes an hour to eat half a hot dog, a few strawberries, and her vitamin. Typical dinner routine.

7:43 pm: With dinner cleaned up, we start making shaped sugar cookies from dough made the night before in preparation for FHE. Abbie has fun doing it but I'm fighting Leah the whole time to stay away from the flour, the sticky dough, etc. Why do I always think this is going to be fun?

8:02 pm: Jared gets home, tooth under crown is cracked, needs to see oral surgeon for extraction. Still in a lot of pain. Cookies are done but haven't made frosting and promised Abbie she could eat one before bed. Hurry and make frosting. Mix colors. Each kid decorates one cookie while fighting over colors. Both lick frosting off cookie. Now they are all sticky and hopped up on sugar. My 12+ hr shift isn't quite over yet.

9:13 pm: It's past the kids bedtime and I'm having a meltdown. I throws PJ's and diapers at the kids, not so nicely ask Jared to take over the bedtime routine of getting pj's on, reading a story, family prayer, brushing their teeth, and singing a song while I retreat to the kitchen to pretend to clean up while I de-stress for a minute. It's been a long day and I need some chocolate and a time-out.

9:48 pm: Kids are finally in bed, house is cleaned up, I can finally relax and watch "24" with my patient hubby. Watch Jack Bauer beat up a couple bad guys and think that I'm glad that I am where I am in life. It's hard work being a Mom, really hard, all day, every day, over and over the same thing, never ending, often unnoticed, work but I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. I can honestly say that I can't think of any career or job that I'd rather be doing every day. And I know someday I'll miss days like today.