A semi-typical day in our life

OH my heavens, 3 years later I will decide to start updating this again. I am updating for my own sake, as I had always planned on keeping this as a family "journal" to print out in a book one day for our kids. And alas, Zachary has 3 years of his life undocumented and Paisley nearly 7 months. Better late than never, right?

So much has happened in the past 3 years, obviously that it is impossible to go back and update. But I figured I would recap my day today because it is a very typical day right now in this Wagasky house! That will give me a good starting point to take off from, I think.

I say typical above, and darn it all to me, it was not a typical time to start my day. I woke up at 7:30am. Crap. I aim for one cleaning chore to be done, animals fed, and breakfast being prepared by this time. I roll over and see Paisley stirring a bit, but eyes closed. So I roll off the opposite side and duck out the door so she doesn't see me and wake up. Carter's watching Scooby Doo and it looks like Zach and Kelsie still have sleepy eyes from just waking up. I head to the kids bathroom to throw my clothes on and I check my e-mails real quick (I've been waiting for a couple to come through.) No news there, so I head out the door.

I notice it didn't rain last night like we thought. I take a peek at our new-to-us tractor Justin stuck under a large tarp and shoveled sand around the edges so it wouldn't blow away. Looks kinda funny! I lift up the other large tarp to grab a flake of hay for Joy, our mini pony. Just then I look behind me and nearly jump out of my ugly purple crocs. That mean rooster is right behind me staring at me with his beady little eyes! I dash away as fast as I can, but try to make it look casual so he doesn't get the urge to attack me. I call Lily, our dog, over to me because the rooster is scared of her. I know he won't come near me if she's standing there. I throw the hay to Joy and give her some love. I throw food to the chickens and fill up everyone's water. Then I sneak past and get the eggs from the coop while constantly glancing behind me so I don't get sneak-attacked by that darned rooster! By the way, he is typically locked away in the coop, but somehow managed to escape! I look for the duck eggs, but they moved their"nest" a couple days ago and I haven't been able to locate it. Shoot.

I go inside the house and the kids have helped themselves to cereal. So, yay for me. I don't need to cook breakfast this morning. Which is great, because my kitchen looks like a hot mess from my recent days of canning all the food from our accidental thawed out freezer! I ask Carter what he wants for his lunch and give him a few options. He picks a hot dog. I start to heat one up when he reminds me it's picture day today! Doh! Okay, I tell him to finish packing his lunch while I fill out the paperwork. I look at the prices and wonder why I feel obligated to buy these things. I don't get to pick which one is good or be there to say, "Come on, show me your REAL smile!" Oh well, I pick the cheapest package. I figure this is their picture to pick their own outfit and hair. I get to pick and bother them to smile when we will get our family pictures done in the fall. But I do tell him to put a button up shirt over his t-shirt and do his hair extra nice :) Then he's off on his new bike to school.

I start to do some dishes when Miss Paisley decides to make her morning debut! So I mix up a bottle and get out the baby cereal to prep before I go get her. I decide to bring a pile of clothes I folded with me to quickly put away before I snatch her out of that crib. That baby is SO happy to see me and it lights up my world when she smiles at me. But that big smile quickly turns to tears when she realizes I'm putting away clothes instead of holding her. I finish quickly and then hug her real good to make up for the crying I made her endure ;) Haha... I take her out and stick her in her chair and decide to mix some apples in WITH the baby cereal. I've had problems getting her to like much of any solid food. Nope, another fail. Ugh...My other babies were so easy to introduce solids too. She despises them! Really! I start to give her her bottle and then realize I'd rather snuggle that cute thing on the couch while she drinks her bottle. And why not start watching the premiere of "Dancing With the Stars" while I'm at it? So I snuggle up with her and flip it on. She likes the music too! After she drinks her bottle, I hold her a bit more, soaking up all that baby squish! Then realize I have chores to be done, so I lay her down to roll around with her toys while I sort the folded laundry to be put away. Much easier to make the kids put away their stuff when it's already in the pants, underwear and pajama piles!

Zachary asks if him and Kelsie can play "that funny game" on the PS3. I tell him if they are all dressed with their teeth brushed. So, they go take care of that business while I do more laundry. (Yes, laundry takes up much of day! I worked on it most of my day and STILL have a pile of unmatched socks on the couch tonight.) Paisley starts fussing so I grab her up and give her the rest of her bottle and her binky. She starts rubbing her eyes. Time for a nap already? Down she goes!

I start to carry jars and water jugs down to our pantry in the basement. I hear Zach and Kelsie giggling with each other in the other room and am happy they have each other to play with! I spend the rest of nap time getting the kids drinks and cleaning. Then it's time for lunch! Kelsie is easy to call up for lunch because she's been asking me since 10 "Is it lunch time yet?" But Zach attack gives me a hard time. I have to go threaten him with taking his game away if he won't come upstairs. So, he comes and they both scarf down their lunch while I go brush my hair and do my makeup right quick! Now it's time to wake Paisley up and take Kelsie to school. I come out of the room to find the kids are already outside waiting for me on their bikes! Hey, thanks for not making me chase you around with your shoes today, children! I strap Paisley in the stroller and we start off to the school. Halfway there Kelsie complains her bike is making her legs tired. I look and see her front tire is flat. Great. Too late to turn back now. She says she will just walk it the rest of the way and ride it home down hill. Okay. Whatever. What else is there to do? We get there and I try to let Kelsie put her bike next to Carter's on the bike rack. She's struggling. Bad. I start to walk over and of course, right when I get to her, she got it in place (happens every time). I give her her backpack and watch her walk onto the playground and get in line for class. She looks so beautiful in her little maxi skirt and red flower she picked for her hair. All the girls in her class look so fancy. It's too cute!

Zach, Paisley and I start walking home, all the while Zach asking me repeatedly where Carter is. He must not understand how this whole "lunch at school" thing works. I don't think he believes me that Carter is in fact eating at school and not at home until we arrive and he sees his brother isn't there. However Daddy is home! What?! That is not normal at all! We go inside and all take a BIG drink of water. It is HOT! And my hair feels like a heavy blanket on my neck. Gosh darnit, I'm sick of the bun, though! I settle for a clip to get it out of my face! Justin says he has to go back to work at 3, so he needs to take a quick nap. I ask him to just hold that little squish while I go make her another bottle. I take her downstairs with Zachary. He wants me to help him beat a bad guy on his game. I tell him after I feed sister. So, I lay Paisley down and turn on the game for Zach and I to play. After a while Paisley starts fussing so I pick her up and give her the rest of her bottle (are we sensing a snacking trend here?). She's happy again for a bit laying next to us with her toys so I keep playing with the Zach attack. Then she really starts fussing more and I go to change her diaper and lay her down for a nap again. Zach follows me and then we get a snack together. We play some more because now he REALLY has me all to himself. A rare treat for us :) I tell him I gotta go do some dishes, though, and we say goodbye to Justin.

After Carter and Kelsie get home (they've been riding their bikes together the past week), Carter and Zach want to play Skylanders. So, while they settle in for some brother time, I help the little miss Kelsie with her homework pages. While she's practicing her letters, I get on the ipad to shop the book club for her class. I add one for each of the kids to my cart. Kelsie keeps telling me all the "tips" her teacher tells her for writing her letters and numbers. She says, "My teacher says if the letters are floating, then that means they are ghost letters. Teachers don't like ghost letters." Thank goodness her teacher said that to her because for the first time, Kelsie stretches every single letter from the top line to the bottom line! Hooray for her! Every other time, the letters would get smaller and smaller and float higher and higher! She then draws a picture of our family with all the details. In the picture she draws Daddy giving me a flower and her holding Paisley. Cuteness!

I start doing some more cleaning and thinking about dinner prep. The kids are starting to wander into the kitchen and look around. A sure sign we need dinner. Soon. I start to make a recipe I got off Pinterest for Southwest Chicken wraps. (They weren't that great, shoot.) After I make them, Paisley wakes up too and I get another jar of food out for her to try. It's another flop. I conclude mentally that she already somehow knows that all the jarred baby food is gross and she wants the good stuff! After all, she always eyeballs our food with an expression like, "Why do YOU get that and I have nothing?" While battling the baby in the food war, I get a call from a friend. They invite Carter to go do a service project with them. I ask him and tell him he has to do his homework first. After asking him several times and threatening him with him not going, I text my friend and tell him he can't go after all. Oh dear. This has unleashed The Hulk that lies within Carter. THEN he starts frantically doing his homework and desperately saying, "Mommy, please?! Please text her and tell her I can come now!" No sir. I'm sticking to my guns! However his irrational growling behavior makes me chuckle still. I tell him maybe next time he will obey the first time instead of a mad dash after I follow through on my threat. He is mad. And crying in his room. However, there is still daylight to ride bikes and I tell him he can come ride bikes with us before it gets to dark. He declines. So, I head outside with the other 3.

My tire is flat so I can't take the baby for a ride. I stick her in the swing under our tree while the other kids ride. Justin comes home to grab some dinner before heading to Young Men's. As he starts to pull out, Carter comes running out. Justin gets out of his truck and returns his embrace. Then Carter gives me a mean glare and storms back in the house. But 15 minutes later, he's putting his boots on and going to ride bikes. I just start chatting with him to break the ice and he gives in after a quick ride down the street. Zach is sitting at the bottom of a small hill the kids like to ride down on their bikes. As Kelsie whizzes by, he sticks his arm out and it gets stuck in her spokes! Oh no!!! I rush over and it looks broken at first glance. No, no, no. But as I get closer, I see it's just bent weird and I am able to get it out. I ask Carter and Kelsie to watch Paisley in her swing while I get Zachy an ice pack. I take him inside and hug him and put an ice pack on his arm. He says he wants to ice it outside with everyone else, so I carry him back out. Kelsie is sitting by the door in tears. Those two always fight over Paisley if I walk away like that. Oh well, she gets over it.

It's starting to get dark and a friend stops by to grab something from me. Her daughter gets out and Kelsie is DYING to bring her inside and show her the new Belle dress she got. So we all go inside and give the kids a popsicle. After visiting with our friends for a bit, and Zach starting to hyperventilate about his arm, they leave and we get ready for bed. I manage to get Zach calmed down with a big band-aid and he starts playing My Little Ponies with Kelsie. I laugh every time. I laugh because for a while we all thought he named his pony "Weirdy." But then after many corrections from him and much deciphering, we realized he is saying "Rarity." It still sounds like Weirdy. I lay Paisley down for the night and my arms feel FREE!!! (I really like holding her, though :)

Daddy gets home! Yay! But he has to return to work in 4 hours. So, we all kneel for a prayer. Zach wants to say it. After every sentence he keeps saying "Umm, ummm, ummm." So Justin starts to help him. But he won't repeat anything Justin says. Until it's "Thank you for Jesus." Then he completes the prayer. Kelsie insists on trying her Belle gown on for Daddy too. And then Zach shows us a cool trick of sucking his upper lip against his nose. I say, "Hey, Daddy can do that too!" It's a mutual talent. We all try to do it, but still Justin and Zach are the only ones who can. Then Carter starts doing his Donald Duck impression, which no one else can do! I tell him he only shares that talent with my grandpa. I tell them it's time to climb in bed but they all just want to keep talking. I let them for a minute, but after 3 requests I tell them I'm gonna start to get mad if they don't listen. They all run for their rooms. LOL, am I that bad?

 I put the boys to bed first and crawl next to Zachary to sings songs. I start singing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and he starts with his whiny screechy voice, "Noooo!" So I tell him (like I do most nights) that if he talks mean, I'm not gonna sing to him. So nicely, he says, "Can you sing Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, please?" Sigh... The runarounds you do with a 3-year-old. I sing them songs, give hugs and kisses and move to Kelsie's room. After tucking her in and talking for a bit, I literally have to jokingly cover her mouth to get her to stop! That girl can talk ;) Haha! I sing her songs and give her a hug and kiss. My mommy job is done for the night, so I head down to write this blog post! So, now I will head off to bed and try to sleep well for me teaching my Zumba class in the morning! I am happy I wrote this. I hope I keep up on it, but if I don't I will at least have a glimpse back on a (mostly) typical day in 2014 :)