A Day in the Life . . .

There are moments when I feel , as a stay-at-home mother, that I'm just spinning my wheels. Many days, I wonder where the time has gone and what I actually got accomplished. So, I thought I would take a few moments to really look at how I spend my time. Here was what my day looked like yesterday.

6:15am - wake up to get in those 200 ab exercises. Will it really help after four children?
6:30am - pull ham off the bone that I cooked last night for split pea soup. Added to soup and package up in containers for a family in need.
6:45am - check on Maggie to see if she's getting ready for school.
7:00am - make breakfast for Maggie and coffee for myself and JT.
7:15am - take chicken from the other pot of soup I was working on last night to de-bone it at some point for chicken noodle soup for us.
7:30am - get rest of kids up for school
7:45am - get Maggie out the door to the bus.
8:00am - get breakfast for Matthew, Mason and Molly
8:15am - clean up dishes from last night's soup frenzy.
8:30am - make sure all kids have brushed their teeth and combed their hair.
8:45am - out to the bus with kids and second cup of coffee.
9:00am - throw in a load of laundry and start folding laundry from yesterday.
9:30am - organize all car-pool rides and schedules for nightly kids' sporting events.
10:00am - clean up basement in preparation to cut large pieces of material for stage curtains at church
10:30am - Throw another load of laundry in and fold some more.
11:00am - Work on e-mail and paperwork for school.
11:45am - Get Molly off the bus
12:30pm - Friend comes over to cut the material for church . . . all 100 yards of it!
2:00pm - Take a moment to play with Molly and get a little reading in.
2:30pm - Put one more load of laundry in. Forget the folding for now. I'll do it tonight.
3:15pm - Maggie returns from school. Take time to chat with her about her day.
3:30pm - start homemade cookies for the kids and for the family in need.
4:00pm - put salad together for family in need and package up rest of dinner.
4:30pm - deliver soup, salad, biscuits and cookies to family in need.
5:30pm - quick pour cereal for my family before football practices and youth group . . . what happened to that chicken noodle soup?!
5:45pm - leave to drop Maggie off at a friend's house so that she can get to youth group on time.
6:00pm - attend Kindergarten curriculum night.
7:00pm - clean up kitchen from food prep and "dinner".
7:30pm - take a call from a friend. A welcome break in the day, except that I continued to work in kitchen while talking.
8:00pm - work on homework with boys because they "forgot" about it right after school.
8:15pm - go pick up Maggie at youth group.
8:45pm - start getting the children to bed and fill out more paperwork from school.
9:00pm - Put last load of laundry in the washer and fold the rest of the laundry.
10:00pm - Finally flop into bed to watch the RNC and finish the book that I've been reading.

Not all days are that hectic, but it's not usually too far off. I just thought I would take a moment to "toot my own horn" and also congratulate all of you mothers out there who do all this and even more without batting an eye. It is a full-time job, and you do it well. Keep up the good work! You are all amazing women!