A day in the life....

I have been giving the idea of writing in this blog on a daily basis, yet even though I have a houseful of people, my days are fairly quiet. So I decided that I would describe what a typical day is like for me. As for schedules, Maggie's is the one that changes the most, depending on the day depends on what her work schedule is like. Here is what it's like around here.

If Maggie has to go in at 6:45 am, she gets up at 4:30 am. Kyle gets up at 5:00 am so that he can be at Drill team practice by 6:00 am. Of course both of them have to take showers in the morning, not an easy feat since we only have a 20 gallon hot water tank (we live in a single wide mobile home, for those who don't know), and the tank takes at least an hour to completely heat the water. Some how the two of them manage to do it without freezing the other one. At 6:00 am Greg's and my alarm goes off, hopefully he will get up to his own alarm, most of the time he does, I always hit the snooze button. At 6:10 am my alarm goes off again, at which time I get up to make sure that Greg is up, if he isn't then I have to wake him up. If Maggie has to be to work by 6:45 then she goes to wake up Jerry at 6:15, it's always fun to wake him up, she really likes it when her Dad takes her to work. Otherwise, if she has to be in later then she doesn't get up until about 6:00, at which time she has to wait until Greg is out the door, he's usually gone by 6:30.

With Greg out the door, I go back to bed. I'm really not a morning person, I don't get to bed until after midnight. Jerry goes back to bed after he's taken Maggie to work, no matter how early she's had to go in. Since Kyle is taking classes online, he comes home after Drill Team practice is over, so he's home around 7:30. If Maggie has to go in at 9:00, then Kyle will take her to work. Somewhere around 10:00 I get up for the day. At this time I don't really have the house to myself, even though it is quiet.

For those of you that are morning people, this would be the time to write, not me. I will say it again, I am not a morning person. I may be out of bed, talking, and walking around, I'm not really awake enough to write coherently. So I turn on the TV, and I pull out one of my many crochet projects to work on. I get more stitching done at this time, than just about any other time. At about 10:45, Kyle leaves to go back to school for the ROTC class, it's this class that is making it possible for Kyle to start as an E2 when he goes into the Navy. At noon is the one show that I have to watch, Starting Over. It is the one reality show that helps women learn to be better to themselves. Around 1:00 pm, Jerry gets up for the day.

Kyle gets home from school around 1:30. This is when the kids start coming over. Some of their friends have half day schedules. Greg gets home about 2:30, with at least one one friend with him. Two or three more of their friends will show up as the afternoon goes on, Jerry has a hard time with the kids coming over. He feels that we are the only house that they all show up at, ours isn't the only house that they congregate at. Ours is usually where they start out at, they then manage to go to other houses. I happen to like being the cool Mom. Anyway, Jerry gets ready for work during the afternoon, and leaves for work by 4:00 pm, he starts at 5:00. In the midst of all the chaos, both boys manage to do their homework. By the time Jerry leaves for work, the house is not completely quiet, even though my room is. This is the time that I would love to set aside to write, unfortunately this is also the time when the phone rings, the boys are in and out of the house, they don't need me until I try to sit and write.

Around 6:00 pm, Maggie calls to get a ride home. I send Kyle after her if he's home, otherwise I go to get her. During the evening there can be trips to the store, laundry, and sometimes trips to the video store. If Maggie has to get up early in the morning, she will go to bed early, and since she sleeps in the front room, the rest of us head off to our own rooms. I can still watch the satellite in my room because Jerry ran cable from the front room to our room. Again one would think that this would be a good time to try to write, yet after having kids running in and out of the house all afternoon and evening it is difficult to be creative. I'll read, play games, or just watch TV for a little while. Both the boys are in bed by 10:00 pm usually, it's at this time that I pull out my laptop and get online to check my mail, read blogs, get bills paid, and maybe write in this one. Jerry gets home about 1:00 am, and it's lights out for us around 2:00 am.

So even though I don't work outside the home, my day is very full of activity. It doesn't usually make for interesting writing. Somewhere in this schedule I have to find time for myself for writing or any other creative endeavor that I want to do. It won't be to many months before this schedule will change, Kyle leaves in July, and Greg leaves in August, then the only person we will have to get up for will be Maggie. Then I will have a lot of time to write, and crochet. There won't be kids hanging out anymore either. It will be very quiet.

Weekends can be even more hectic, kids get to wander through for even longer periods of time. The second Saturday of the month is when the crochet group I belong to meets, every other Saturday Jerry works, and Maggie works every weekend. Every Wednesday Greg has DEP (Delayed Entry Program) meetings for the Marines, Kyle has DEP meetings every other Thursday for the Navy.

So this is a typical day for me, with a few variations depending on the day and what is happening in everyone's schedules. Yet, somehow I don't have enough to write about every day.

Live fully....