How Do Single Parents Do it?

Chad left the Saturday after Thanksgiving for Louisville KY and returned home the following Friday. It was a VERY LOOOOONG week for me and I don't even work outside the home.

How do single parents do it?

Saturday I took the kids downtown to the holiday parade, Sunday I did the grocery shopping and worked around the house. Monday morning up at 6am to wake the girls up to get ready for school, this is after getting up at least once during the night to feed the baby and staying up until 11:30-12:00. Yes, I should go to bed earlier, but this is when I get time to read.

After drop off I went over to my friend Tiffanies house and took Scarlettes car seat out of my car and put it into her car. We got all four kids(all under 3yrs. old) and us in the car and off we went to Larry's Produce. Since I was not driving it was my job to tend to crying babies... needless to say I spent most of the 20minute drive crawling to the back of the mini van to give Scarlette or Tatum their binkis. We each but our babies in our moby wrap(baby carriers) and stuck both of the boys in the back of a cart. Wait.... before Tiffanie got Tatum in her carrier she had a complete explosion and Tiffanie had to clean her up and completely change her clothes. Graham was being horrid the whole time and people had to think we were crazy with all these kids at the crowded produce stand. Would have loved to take some photos... we were lucky to get out of there with our produce and in one piece. Time to load everyone back into the car, which takes forever. We then stopped at costco, which went a lot more smoothly. Back into the car for the ride home. Me crawling back and forth over all of our purchases to satisfy babies. At one point when all was calm Graham was pulling on a seat belt and we both though he had unbuckled Tatums car seat. I kicked off my uggs because I was roasting at this point and crawled back again and put the seat belt over the top of the car seat as the directions on the side of the seat said. I look over and it appears Karson's seat belt is undone too... Yikes. So I buckle the seat belt across him like the directions showed. I finally sit down and am completely car sick because we were on a busy two lane curvy road...which is the reason we didn't stop to fix the seats. Back at Tiffanies house we unload the kids and after unbuckling the seat belts I realize that the car seats are buckled into the car using the latch system...which means you do not need the seat belts at all. Tiffanie and I were cracking up. DUH is all I can say.

Went home for a few minutes... time to pick up the girls from school. Get home again put Graham down for a nap, make dinner, help kids with homework and then take Gab to dance at five. Go back home do god knows what and then go pick Gab up from dance at 6:30p. Bath and bed time for everyone... more chores for me. Like taking the trash cans out to the curb- which is normally Chads job:( Finally go to bed around 11:30-12:00

Tuesday.. start the whole process again. Tiffanie came over in the am and we went for a really long walk. lunch and nap time for Graham.. then time to pick up the girls. Dinner.. then run Gwen to dance at 5:30 return home. Drop Graham off at Tiffanies to hang out with her hubby Keith.. who graham loves by the way. 6:30 back to dance studio for my class with baby in tow. She actually sits pretty good during my hour and half class. 8pm pick up Graham and head home bath and bed time routine. Get in bed at 11ish and read for a few minutes.

Wed. Do the whole am routine, pay bills, laundry, dishes, feed baby.... Time to pick up girls at 12:40... they get out early every WED. Head home.. make lunch and do other chores and projects. Finally write blog post for weight loss Wed. Dinner and night time routine.

Thursday: Same routine all over again plus some unpacking and organizing. Still have a ton to unpack not to mention decorate for Christmas. AHHHH

Friday: Same routine plus drop off Graham to Tiffanie so Scarlette and I can go to the dentist. get my teeth cleaned.. find out I need a couple of expensive fillings. Go pick up Graham and then the girls. FINALLY CHAD ARRIVES HOME AT 5pmish. PHEW

Chad and I are a team and I can NOT imagine doing it all myself. I have to hand it to all the single parents out there who are doing it all themselves and holding down a full time job. It makes me ready to check into the insane asylum just thinking about it

Chad got a couple of calls from me where I said talk to your son or daughter because whatever they did was so bad he needed to hear if from them. This actually helped whoever was bad to shape up for a few minutes:)

We had a nice family weekend, I got to sleep in. WOO HOO.

Hope to be back soon:)