Wednesdays have quickly become my favorite day of the week.
It’s the first day of the week that Bekah and I are home alone all day.
I wake up about 7:45 am and go into Shelby ’s room to wake her up. Then, I go
throw on some sweats with an old t-shirt and brush my teeth. By this time I
hear Bekah in her bed. I get her up, change her and give her some milk. She
sits in the living floor as I turn on my computer and look at any email from
overnight.
I fasten Bekah in the back seat still in her night gown
while Shelby
loads her things in the car. Once in the car I see my hair in the mirror and
say “oh my look at my hair” to which I get the response “you’re just going back
home to sit around.” To sit around…if she only knew.
During our five minute drive to middle school Bekah reviews
her new vocabulary with us. Today it was “get down” which she normally says to
the dogs, but for some reason she repeats it over and over during out drive.
We get to Shelby ’s
school after passing a police officer and Shelby ensuring I was going the speed
limit. I drop her off and she walks to the front door passing children that
look so much older and taller then she is. I pull away and my heart aches. Oh
how I wish I had the opportunity to home school her instead of her going to
public school – at least not this public school.
On my drive home I make my morning call to mother where I
tell her that Shelby
is growing up too fast and that I don’t like her school. I share with her my
hope that JAG gets transferred so I have a reason to make a good move for Shelby . We talk briefly
about their move into their new house and my grandmother (who is still doing
well…as well as she can, God bless her). By the time our conversation ends I am
back in my drive way. I get Bekah and her crazy bed head out of the back seat
and we go in to check emails and start breakfast.
Breakfast is delayed by a dirty diaper which means a trip to
the changing table. As we leave Bekah’s room she reaches over and turns off her
light without be prompted – mommy’s smart girl. I put her in the floor next to
her toys, wash my hands and begin breakfast. Today it is whole wheat toast with
my father’s peach preserves and a side of pears. I load the dishwasher while
the toast is cooking. Before I know it my helper is by my side pulling forks
out of the dishwasher, oops that’s a knife. I move her back a few feet then she
crawls over to show me how she can open all the drawers and cabinets. I make a
mental note that it’s time to finish childproofing the house. I say “Rebekah
no” too many times to count then I put her in a chair, cut up her toast and get
her started. As I finish preparing my toast I think back to last night’s
presidential debate and the topic of equal pay for equal work. This is a topic
that I am not too concerned about. I pray for a better economy and better pay
for my husband so that I can have the opportunity to be at home to take care of
our family. I try not to get too emotional about it and I make myself a big
glass of water and head to my desk telling Bekah “don’t feed your pears to the
puppies.” I turn on cartoons for Bekah, review my email and start my work to do
list while making a mental to do list of the things I need to do for my family
today – laundry, groceries, vacuum…
After a bit Bekah is done with her toast and pears so I sit
down beside her and we share a strawberry yogurt. During our yogurt she rubs
her eyes and I glance at the clock – about 30 minutes till nap time. I go the
fridge and get her some ice water while I’m there I make a mental note that
today the refrigerator needs to be cleaned out since tomorrow is trash day. I
also had more yogurt to my mental grocery list that I will eventually right
out, hopefully I will remember yogurt. I clean off Bekah’s face and hands as
she fights me. She is ademit to finish any crumbs on her tray – we have a good
eater.
I let her sit there longer while I come back to my desk and
pull reports off the printer, drinks some water and couch a bit…I’m still
getting over being allergic to pine trees. I turn around just in time to see
Moby with his paws on Bekah’s tray licking off any access and I think “have a
fed them yet.” Bekah starts hitting her tray while saying “get get down.” It
appears she has gotten her second wind so I let her play a bit before putting
her to bed.
I start gathering laundry in Shelby ’s room. She is good about putting just
about everything in her basket. I take a quick peek at Ginger the guinea pig.
Does she have food? Yes. Does she have water? No. A quick trip to the bathroom
sink solves that problem and I add another item to the grocery list – hamster
hay.
I head into the garage to put Shelby ’s laundry in the washer. I am out
there just a short period of time and I hear the rattling of ice water. I turn
to see my helper crawling out the door towards me, she stops, stands up and
attempts to walk down the step into the garage like daddy taught her, but he
taught her with help. I rush over and hold her hand. She gets down the step and
then is off to get into trouble. I quickly get the washer started and walk
Bekah back inside. As soon as we are in she makes a v-line to the dog food
bowl. “No ma’am you’ve already had breakfast. I think it’s time for a nap.” I
put her into bed with a few toys knowing it will at least thirty minutes for
her to pass out. Then I head back to my desk to get some of my work list
completed.
After a good hour and a half of work and phone calls I
decided Bekah is not going to go to sleep, so I press pause on work get her out
of bed, changed and start lunch. Today, we are going to try peanut butter and
jelly since Bekah recently turned one.
Normally I spend my lunch hour on Wednesday running to the
grocery store for a mid-week refill. Today I decided to stay in since I was
going to be able to run out this evening while Shelby was in her weekly confirmation
classes. So I sat down next to Bekah and watched Monday night’s episode of
castle. I had chips with my sandwich and she had banana puffs with hers. Bekah
loves pb&j, so I snapped a quick picture and sent it to JAG.
Once Bekah is done with her lunch she appears to be sleepy
so I clean her up and put her back to bed. Then it’s back to work for me. I
rearrange the laundry and head back to my desk.
Normally, I can take a quick shower while Bekah naps, but
today I look at the clock and it’s almost 3. Bekah is still playing in her bed
and shows no signs of sleeping, so I continue with work stopping briefly to put
on another load of laundry and grab a dr. pepper from the soda fridge. I’m
really wishing that I had a quick power nap during my lunch hour.
By the time Bekah fell asleep it was time to go get Shelby,
so I scooped her up out of bed in just her diaper and put her in the car. I
prayed all the way to the school that I wouldn’t have issues and have to take
my naked baby out of the car in public. We picked up Shelby without any major drama and head home.
Having Shelby
at home gave me the opportunity to finally take a shower.
I would love to say that after that I prepared dinner for my
husband, but he is out of town this week. So the girls and I met my dear friend
Quenby at McDonald’s for dinner then Shelby
went to church with Quenby. This left me time to run to the store with Bekah.
Then home to bathe her and put her to bed. Before I knew it was nine and Shelby was home. I never
cleaned out the fridge. I never vacuumed. Shelby
came home and everyone went to bed.
I got a little depressed writing a play by play of my day.
Though I am blessed to get to work from home two and half days a week, I want
more. I want more time with my children, more time being a good wife. More time
to clean bathrooms and mop floors. I don’t like the chaos that my house and
life can get into, but being almost five months pregnant it takes me longer to
do things than before. I just pray and give it all to God. I pray that he will
show me the path for my life and that I will try not to make my own paths. He
knows my heart and knows what life I long to have.
So, today is now Thursday and I have dropped my girls off at
school and a daycare. I’m in the office to work with my favorite Pandora
station playing. You see I am blessed her as well…I just need to remember that some
days. Did that make sense at all?
