Monday, February 25, 2013
5:30am - Wake up to Sophie kicking me in the back. Try moving her to her bed, but she won't go back to sleep. Take her back to my bed and she's asleep in seconds. I lay awake waiting for her to be sleeping deeply so I can get up without waking her.
6:00 - Jolie comes in. I whisper for her to go out to the couch and try to sneak out of my bed. Sophie pops up and cries out, "Wait for me!" I set them up on the couch with crackers, apples, and cartoons. I change and go in the basement to run.
6:45 - Come up to find Olivia awake and watching cartoons with the others. I give her a kiss and head for the shower to get ready for the day.
7:10 - Olivia threw up the night before so I switch laundry loads and start a new one. Sophie has a cold - goopy eyes and nose - so I stick her in the shower. While she's playing, I go through emails and facebook on my phone. A friend is looking to get rid of her fish tank, so I debate taking it. Kurt and I talk about it while he gets ready for work. We're undecided. Get Sophie out - I do her hair and help her dress.
7:30 - Family prayer & Kurt leaves.
7:45 - I make toast and eggs for those ready to eat. The younger girls are in and out of the kitchen, eating & asking me to dress barbies. Austin & Nyah have disappeared. I work on some of our postcards for the postcard exchange we're doing while I cook and eat.
8:30 - I do Olivia & Jolie's hair. They get dressed and brush their teeth. Austin & Nyah have surfaced - they make their own breakfasts. I come through and quickly clean up breakfast.
9:00 - I discover I forgot to mail some bills. Text with Kurt to figure out which ones he'll pay online. I get the rest ready and walk them to the mailbox. I tell Austin & Nyah to work on school they can do by themselves, which doesn't really work. I get on the computer and print out labels for our postcards & answer a message from Nyah's piano teacher.
9:30 - Austin is on the computer now, working on his robotics class. Nyah is out of sorts - she decided to practice piano first, but little mistakes send her into a rant. She gets further upset when I won't read to her for her history because I'm finishing up my stuff. She moves onto math, but slides into a full blown meltdown when she accidentally clicks on the wrong answer - the perfectionist side of being on the autism spectrum is rearing it's ugly head today. I spend the next 2 hours working with her - If I don't pay attention to her, she accuses me of not caring, when I do give her my attention, she refuses to look at me or talk about it. All sorts of things that have been bothering her come out - how I never pay attention to her, her brother is smarter than her, her sisters are always playing with her stuff, a girl a few weeks ago told her she didn't like her haircut. I keep trying, encouraging, loving, and helping. With no end in sight, I go into the grade book for her math lessons and change the problem she missed from wrong to undone (Nyah didn't ask me to do this - She didn't know I could do it - I did it to end the drama). She re-does it, answers the rest of the questions correctly, and is done in less than 15 minutes. Olivia, Jolie, & Sophie have been happily playing, but they've missed their morning of school.
11:30 - Nyah is regrouping by playing with her stuffed animals. I'm sitting in a chair exhausted and try to stop mentally slapping myself for not sticking to our normal routine- DUH STICK TO THE ROUTINE! I go over what Nyah needs to do for her photography class. She perks up, grabs her camera, and runs off snapping pictures. Jolie & Sophie are climbing on the counter, hunting for food. I decide to do lunch early. Austin & I eat lean cuisine meals - something I usually reserve for those long days when Kurt is out of town and I'm fried. Nyah pops in and makes ramen noodles for her and the girls. She stacks up their bowls and plates. I comment that it looks sort of like a bento box, and that gets us talking about My Neighbor Totoro and other shows featuring bento boxes (I can't remember them all now).
12:15 - We do our devotional. Austin & Nyah usually read with me, but today I have Austin continue working on robotics - he has an assignment due this week and needs to finish building his robot. Nyah and the girls are coloring. Sophie is quietly playing nearby.
12:45 - I read for Nyah's history class - The White Stallions of Lipizza. Nyah and the girls continue coloring. Sophie sits on my lap looking at board books, but nods off in my lap. I lay her on the couch, switch the laundry, and read an extra chapter to the girls. Olivia & Jolie do a little of their school work.
1:30 - Ach! It's time for Nyah's speech online assessment. I send Olivia & Jolie to my room to watch cartoons. I grab the laptop, get it going, login to the program, and try to figure out why the headset isn't working, and finally get Nyah set to go. Austin has finished his robot, but he's having trouble with the software which doesn't want to work on our new computer. He disappears to watch cartoons with the girls while I try to figure out the software. Text with Kurt for help, but eventually give up. Kurt will have to look at it later.
2:15 - Nyah's done. She joins the others watching cartoons while I talk with her speech therapist. I go through my emails again and send off some answers. I make a few adjustments to Austin & Nyah's schedules for the week.
2:30 - Cartoons off. Austin, Nyah, and Jolie come out and have a sword fight. Olivia colors some more.
3:00 - Sophie wakes up. Nyah finishes up her school so she can play on the ipad. I'm doing dinner prep - cutting & marinating chicken, figuring out what to serve with it. I switch laundry loads again.
3:30 - Austin finishes up his school and does his chores. I check everything and then he really finishes up his school and chores. Nyah's ipad time is over so she joins the other girls who are coloring and singing Disney songs together semi-peacefully. I read a magazine.
4:00 Austin is off to play with friends. The girls are ready for a snack. I let Sophie watch a couple Wonder Pets. I clean up the kitchen - dishes, counters, sweeping - this is how I process and regroup. Manual labor keeps my hands busy while my mind is busy thinking everything through. Switch laundry (yes, I put all the clean clothes in baskets with plans to fold them "later".) TV off.
5:00 - I get ready for volleyball. Girls are all playing "Avengers."
5:30 - I start cooking dinner - sweet potato fries in the oven, steaming veggies in the microwave, chicken sizzling on the stove.
6:00 - Kurt's home. I hand off dinner and kids, and I'm out the door.
6:45-9:15 - I have two volleyball matches - we win the first one, sit one, lose the second one in the third game 15-12. Boo. My team makes me feel old & they make me laugh - 3 are newly married, 2 are married with their first babies. I know I used to worry about so much of the same stuff way back when, but it makes me laugh now. I head home.
9:30 - I make a last minute stop at Walmart - We need fresh food and snacks, but with Olivia's MRI is tomorrow I'm not going to get to the store.
10:00 - I'm home. All the girls are asleep and in their own beds (hurrah!). Austin comes out for a hug and snags an apple while I'm putting groceries away. Kurt's in bed watching the new disc of Castle from Netflix He has to get ahead of me because he's going to Germany in a couple days. I shower and get ready for bed.
10:45 - I settle into my covers and I'm ready to drift off to sleep when Sophie wakes up crying. I rub her back until she goes back to sleep. I remember the laundry and switch the loads so the washer is empty. Back in my bed, I get caught up in the Castle episode Kurt is watching.
11:30 -Sleep, glorious sleep!!
5:00 am - Wake to Jolie poking at me, "Mom, my stomach hurts." :(
No comments:
Post a Comment