A day in the life of a working mom.....

Monday Morining:

So I thought today would be a great day start writing my book.   I was awakened by my older son at 2:00 am , I thought that I heard him crying, but then realized it for sure as he threw open my bedroom door and said he had thrown up all over his bed.  Yes, indeed it was all over his bed.  My husband who had fallen asleep downstairs in the man cave as he often does, came up and took the sheets off the bed to be washed, I told him that I am not sure how to wash a pillow that has spaghetti throw up on it.  Scott, my son jumped into be with me and made me assure him that it is my job to take care of him and then proceeded to ask me to get him a drink of water and told me he loved me then fell asleep cuddled up next to me.

Ok, Out of bed at 6:00 am to shower before the morning chaos begins, might I say I was up at 5:00am but did not feel like getting up just yet.  Ah, this is so nice to have a little time by myself, what is this, a day spa? I should mention that this time would be much better if we had hot water, but we don’t because the water heater has been acting schitzophrenic for days now.  So, a cold quick shower it is.  Which of the 15 shampoo’s should I use today, certainlly no conditioner, that would be too much time in freaking freezing water.  My handsome husband walks in to say good morning, but he must be wearing hush puppies because I scream when I see him, he is so quiet when he walks around. And my youngest son  waves to me and is excited to see me giggles because I made a loud noise.  He is so cute, that almost every night I snatch him out of his crib when he is almost asleep and bring him into the bed with me.  I can’t help it, ok!

Next step, blow dry hair, do makeup but wait to get dressed for work because I don’t want yogurt hands all over my suit.  Go downstairs, get coffee and start making breakfast for everyone, throw in a couple of time outs here and there, break up a few fights, tell Scott (the older son) to not pinch his brother and then proceed to tell Jake (the almost 2 year old) to not stand up in his chair because he will fall off.  Serve breakfast, do the dreadfully wrong thing by leaving the cartoons on during breakfast, (bad mom move) and then start packing the diaper bag, getting all of my work stuff together and packed in the car, oh, I am on a healthy binge so I am now packing my lunch, which is sort of a pain but saves cash and calories, put everything in the car.  Oh crap, milk just spilled all over the place and Alfie (the dog) who had a $5,000.00 surgery 6 months ago is licking it up.....gotta clean it up.

Now the fight to get everyone dressed and away from the TV.  Why is brushing teeth an argument every morning?  I really don’t understand.  I am getting really sick and tired of it to tell you the truth.  I don’t like to fight and argue......I HATE it!  Oh, a quick kiss from Jim, my husband as he heads out the door for work, I think we said 5 words to each other so far today.  I feel bad, again, as I do every morning.

Ok, I am dressed, now comes the important  choice of which toys to bring to SuSu and Ted’s house today has to be throughly thought out. Wait, another quick argument as to why we need to clean up the mess that was made with the pillows from the couch all over the living room, AGAIN!  (I despise coming home to a mess)  Ok, we are off.

We get to my parents house and the boys want to eat again.  What is that about?  Why do kids always want to eat at their grandparents house?  I guess I should not talk, for some reason I have to raid their fridge and pantry too every time I am there - which is a lot.  So I make Ramen noodles for them.  Jake is again standing up on the chair and falls off and is bleeding from his mouth.  GREAT!!!!!!!!!  He is screaming and needs a mommy kiss. I think he just got some blood on my new dress, oh well, it washes off.

Ok, it’s 8:30 am and a lot has already happened today.  My goodness, Monday morning chaos and I don’t want to leave them today because Scott threw up and Jake’s bloody lip.  I am thankful they are with my parents, you have no idea.  (By the way, the kids are both fine)

Work Begins:

What do I do today?  You see, I am a Medical Sales Rep and have been doing this for 10 plus year ...... The job pays well and allows for flexibility, which I need because their is no way around it, but being a mom and having a career is really, really busy.  Not to mention that I refuse to miss a preschool graduation and doctors visits.  I will get to more of that later.

So, what to do today?  I have to be very discaplined, I don’t have anyone telling me what to do which is awesome but I have to be creative and make sure those sales numbers don’t drop.  (STRESS)   I have not had time over the weekend to figure this out.  Sometimes I have Sunday nights to figure it out and then I have a really organized day / week, but I was so tired and just did not feel like thinking about it and I took Jake out of his crib probably too much and cuddled.  My car feels like a travelling office, I eat lunch, snacks and do work out of it 5 days a week, so their are crumbs from me and spilled coffee as well as papers flying all over and half of them fall out when I get out of the car.  Then in the back of the ultra cool MV (minivan) are cheerio -o’ s that Jake dumped out because he thought it was really funny and leapster games, books and a cars umbrella, swim suite from Scott and some of my dry cleaning.  I know I need to clean the car again.  I don’t know how so much crab builds up so quickly.

Alright, it is really hot and I have to squeeze in 10 - 15 sales calls a day in and out of the heat and each time I get out of the car, and get back in 10 minutes later it is like a furnace and my dress is sticking to me and I discreatly pick a wedgie.  Nice!  I am thinking of Jake and Scott so I call my mom to check in and they are fine.  “Oh, let me go Mom, that is my other line”  I call her like 10 times a day for entertainment during the day, talk radio gets my blood pressure up and the lyrics on the radio are aweful.   On the other line is the plumber that was supposed to come out last week but never called.  “I can come out in an hour”  WHAT?  Um, I have to work.....”can’t you come out in the late afternooon?”  He can’t so I tell him to hold on and I call my mom to see if she can wait for them at my house.  She does and man I wonder if my kids are going to lean on me as much as I do my parents.

I am starving so I eat and spill some stuff on my dress again ( I should stop eatting in my car).  I really like wipes.  I go into the supermarket to pick up some food for my presentation for 2 doctors.  It is about the company that I work for and all of the changes that they have gone through and how they are the best DME in the Lehigh Valley. (I am really good at sales, I have to say) The 2 docs are more interested in the food from the fancy supermarket that I brought and half of the sandwich is hanging out of the docs mouth.  I ask him a question and some of it hits me in the face as he answers. Awkward!    I start rambling and keep thinking of a million things at once to perk them up and make it interesting, you see I am the entertainer.  I manage to keep them interested and I got an order!  Awesome.   

Ok make a few more calls, go into the office and finish my day, that is that.  Drive home, call my mom to let her know that I am on my way home for the 10th and final time of the day.  Get to her house and am feeling really happy to see my boys.  Her dog Puddin is barking so loud my head starts pounding.  I scream “STOP BARKING PUDDIN”  but then pet him and he calms down.  Jake comes running and I give him a big hug and I proceed to check his mouth which he had forgotten hurt until I pointed it out to me and then he starts crying again.  I say hi to Scott and he is ignoring me and does not even know that I am home because he is playing with his new friend Wesley.  So I yell “HI SCOTT” to get his attention and he does finally come over and give me a hug and I give him a kiss that he wipes off.  Is he already at the stage where he thinks that I am gross?  No, not yet thankfully, but soon enough.

Evening begins:

So begins the clean up of toys which is an argument with the boys and my mother and I clean up too much of it. (Am I teaching my boys that women are there to clean up after them?)  I have to get home by 4:30 because the antique red velvet love seat that has been in my family for years and came over on the boat from England has been re- upolstered and is being delivered.  Crying and arguing begin again but we manage to get out the door and everyone calms downs and we discuss the day and the most favorite part of it and the least favorite part of it, and it is like pulling teeth but Scott answers “playing with Wesley” as the best and “cleaning up stuff” (which he did not even do) as the least favorite.

We get home and Alfie starts barking at the top of his lungs and is demanding to eat.  I yell at him (feeling bad because I know that he missed me) and I feed him encouraging the behavior.  The boys are hungry and want a snack.  I get the chocolate chips out and give them 5 each.....I completely realize they are not healthy but give me a few minutes to unpack and get my wits about me.  Then the door bell rings, and Alfie starts barking really loudly, the love seat is here.  It looks awesome and looks brand new.  $700.00 dollars later the two delivery guys are off and I am thinking about finances getting depressed because I just spent that much and $250.00 (on sale by the way, was orignially $400.00) on a new Michael Kors bag that I have been eying up for 6 months now and I know it is going to make me a much “cooler” person anyway.   (the bag is amazing and I will have it forever, it is a little heavy actually)  The boys start jumping on the love seat and I quickly shuffle them off to make sure they don’t have chocolate hands and get it on the chair.  I don’t know if I should keep it in the living room, I have a feeling it is going to get destroyed and it is my favorite piece of furniture.  We will see.

“I am hungry Mommy”  Scott says and Jake is trying to get up on to the table and stand up.  Where does he get this from, he is like a monkey....do you have any idea how stressful it is to make a  meal in 10 - 15 min while trying to prevent Jake from falling off of the table?  So, I tell Scott to hold on and give me 10 minutes to make dinner and he tells me he needs another snack so he goes into the pantry and is “rooting” as my mother would call it.  I hold Jake in my arms that I have developed Mommy muscles in from constantly holding a 30 pound weight and make dinner.  Lets see, frozen corn in the microwave, corn tortilla with beans and tomatoes with sour cream and avocado and some chicken apple sausage too.  1% milk for Scott and whole milk mixed with Almond milk for Jake (it is the only way he will drink it)  We all drink different milk and it takes up a lot of space in the fridge, which is starting to smell from all of the left overs.  “I’m not hungry”  Scott casually mentions.  Are you kidding me?  You were just telling me as soon as we got in the house how hungry you were.......I am not going to argue and tell him, ok, you should not eat when you are not hungry I tell him.  ( I don’t want to force him because after all he was sick last night)  I put Jake in his chair and strap him in his harness (an added feature because he is like Houdini) and he makes a chocking noise and looks at me as if to say what the hell are you feeding me lady?  He doesn’t eat the healthy apple chicken sausage that I am always trying to get him to eat.  I think he is a vegetarian.  So I jump up and get him some cheese and apple slices.  Oh well, I guess I will be eating their left overs again.

Jim gets home and I look, well pretty crazy by now and feel really tired and grumpy quite frankly because of the lack of sleep from last night.  He must feel so happy to be  home.  I tell him about the dinner that I made and serve him a plate of cold food.  Yummy!  I ask him how his day was and hate to say it but am only half listening because its like I can’t concentrate any more for the day.  My brain is mush and all I can think about is getting into bed at 7:00 and watching Entertainment Tonight and not pay attention to it like I do every night while sitting in front of the tube.  Jim thinks it is facinating that I can actually appear to watch a show and not have any idea as to what is going on.  I clean up the dishes and go upstairs to get changed and put Jake to bed.......

Bed Time:

Jake usually goes down around 7:00, then I do my nightly routine all while Jim and Scott hang out a little or Jim gives Scott a bath and gets him to bed.  My PJ’s are usually left on the floor in the bathroom along with work out clothes, and other stuff that I am too lazy to put in the laundry (which is in the laundry room in the basement from floor to ceiling and never seems to go down).  I really don’t like to do laundry, which I will write about later in the book.  O.K. the baby monitor is still on and Jake is just looking so cute to me and I am feeling a bit calmer so, in I go to grab him out of the bed, he gets the cutest smile in the world on his face and in the bed he goes with me.  We cuddle and I pet his head and give him all of the kisses that I was not able to give him during the day.    Scott comes out from his bath and gives me a kiss and goes off to his room to play the lego game on the computer with Jim.  I think Jim likes the game just as much as Scott.  Jakes goes back into his bed and about 30 minutes later - 8:00 / 8:30ish, AHHHHH I get to spend some time with Jim.  Maybe we will talk, cuddle?  YAWN YAWN YAWN, man am I tired.  I ask Jim about his day, he nicely rubs my legs pretty much every night.  I think it is his way of telling me how much he appreciates all that I do, because MAN do I do a lot.  I find it very overwhelming a lot of the time.  So when he does that for me, it almost makes all of the stresses go away.  He is going to regret having started that gesture 7 years ago.  Well, sad to say, we don’t get the chance to talk that much because I fell asleep.