Week in the life :: Friday

Hello, Friday!

6:40 Awake and smiling. 

7:01 "Meow, meow," I hear from his crib as he plays with Spice the cat.

7:52 "I wanna take picture YOU" he cried. I think he's getting tired of this project.

7:30 Breakfast of champions (mine). I eat while checking email.

8:04 Susannah goes down for her morning nap.

8:53 First timeout of the day (but not the last!)

9:56 Morning snack: banana phone

10:47 Package arrives on the doorstep. "What do you think it is?" I ask Aaron. "A package of TOYS!" he shouts. Almost as good, it's a box of Yummy Earth organic lollipops (a super sale at Amazon!). These are the new potty learning bribe.

He gets the first one for free, but he'll have to earn the rest. I feel a little like a drug pusher. Get 'em hooked and keep 'em coming back. :-)

11:30 ready for nap #2

11:49 The lollipops work, and he asks to poop on the potty about a dozen times. This means about a dozen hand washes, too.

2:15 Hanging out in the swing. She loves the little toys.

4:12 Story time

5:04 Cooking dinner.

5:28 Firefighter Aaron rolled up the kitchen rug and used it as a hose. He's spraying Susannah to save her from the fire. "Good Job, firefighter Aaron," he congratulated himself.

5:32 Another potty attempt. He REALLY wants one of those lollypops.

5:44 Daddy's home!!!

5:45 Playing together

7:07 Friday calls for a family dance party!

7:46 Trying to put Aaron's new train set together. Zannah wants to help with the instructions.

So cute!

8:58 Mike tackles the dishes, I'm on the laundry.

9:32 Chores are done, so we chill on the couch. Caught the end of National Treasure 2.

Thanks to all of you who left sweet comments yesterday about my cluttered house. I know I'm not alone in this messy lifestyle. Most days it doesn't bother me, but on occasion I long for a super clean house where everything is put away (and stays that way!). Until then, I'm embracing the chaos.

I've already started putting pages together for this Week In the Life album, and I can't wait to share them with you! This is going to be an amazing time capsule of life in the Sharp household.

Week in the life :: Thursday

I felt myself loosing a little steam on this project today. I had to keep reminding myself to pick up the camera, and I always had the "didn't I already photograph this?" feeling. Surprisingly, it the highest photo count so far: 223 (with a little help from Aaron, who is catching on to the constant picture taking and wants to do his share).

6:13 Susannah decides it's a good time to be awake. Mike hasn't left for work yet, so I take her downstairs to hang with him while I try to go back to sleep. Without success. Good morning!

6:33 Aaron is awake, and we hear him talking to his stuffed kitty cat. "Happy see me?" he asks Spice. Daddy and Zannah head up to say hello. The kids were THRILLED to have a little daddy time this morning. It's a rare treat.

9:38 Aaron gets dressed. "This is a pirate t-shirt!" he says about the navy tee that says IRISH and has a orange and green crest on the front. Look at him checkin' himself out.

10:22 Cuddles on the couch. So sweet!

10:55 What Daddy does all day.

11:21 Aaron eats a brown crayon. I have no photos of this because I was too angry, and it's really hard to convince a child that his behavior is unacceptable when you're snapping photos of it and putting it in the family scrapbook

11:40 He must be hungry, so we make some lunch.

2:40 Hanging diapers out to dry. So thankful for the warmer weather that allows outdoor drying!

3:30 Playtime with a naked baby.

4:17 Nursing, which makes me sit quietly for a few minutes every now and then. Also, really hard to take a pic of yourself doing this!

4:59 Cooking dinner. Aaron takes his play food and heads to the crock pot (which needs to be put away in the closet, but is, for now, sitting on the dining room floor). "Be careful, Mama, cooking," he calls. "Don't be messy!"

5:15 Ready for the oven.

5:20 While dinner is cooking and Susannah is napping, Aaron and I head out to the backyard. Our neighbor's tree is in it's full glory.

5:52 Neighbor comes out on his deck to grill, and Aaron calls up to him "My mom is making broccoli!"

His favorite sport: hill running.

6:10 Mike puts on his play clothes and takes Aaron for a spin.

6:18 "Dear God, thank you for family and for food and for broccoli and for mama and for mama's chicken and for my drink..."

6:27 Susannah wakes from a super long nap. She cries until Aaron smiles at her.

6:30 A little toe nail clipping at the dinner table

6:34 And it's all downhill from here. Aaron had a meltdown over eating the chicken, requiring three time-outs and several swats. I headed out to choir rehearsal at church, and Mike took the kids outside before bed. "This photo," he said later, showing me the few he took, "represents the evening perfectly." I guess everything was a struggle with the little guy. When I called at 8:33 to say I was on my way home, Mike had just gotten him in bed and sounded SO relieved. On a positive note, Susannah was a perfect angel. This was the first Thursday evening that I haven't taken her to choir with me. And I came home to find the family room vaccummed. Lovely!

Thoughts on today: 

After all the running around we did yesterday, it was really nice to stay home all day. One thing that really stands out to me as I look at my photos from today is all the CLUTTER. It's everywhere!!! Being the creative, laid back type that I am, I honestly don't see it on a daily basis. But there's something about pictures that brings things into new focus. So while the rest of this week is a little too busy for any serious de-cluttering, it might be my project for next week.  The quote on page seven of this month's Scrapbooks Etc. magazine was just for me: "Life is too short to spend it making the bed. Leave the mess and make a memory instead."

Week in the life :: Wednesday

Photo count for the day: 166

7:15 Aaron is out of bed and GRUMPY!

9:53 Snack #3 - Cheese!

...followed by a bananna. This kid really packs it away in the mornings.

11:09 Coloring. "It a picture for my grandma," he said. And only a little marker ended up on his sister. Do you see it there on her left cheek? :-)

1:20 Aaron is napping and mama is working, so Susannah hangs out in the swing for a bit.

4:10 Finally in the car, headed to Crystal Lake. I assure you, this was taken at a stoplight.

4:42 First stop in CL is the chiropractor for our weekly adjustments. Aaron loves the toys.

4:54 Dr. Derek checks Susannah out...

4:58 Aaron's turn...

5:01 finally mama's turn. "This is the best you've looked in several weeks," said Dr. D.

5:20 Stop #2 was to help the Hoon family move out of their CL home and into a temporary condo while they build a house in Elgin. The camera didn't come out too much (I was distracted by the chaos of all these kids running around!). But I did manage to snap one of these four little boys before we left.  Kicking myself that I didn't snap a few of all of them in the cab of the moving truck. Horn honking, turn signals clicking, wipers swishing... the whole shebang.

8:30 finally back home, getting ready for bed.

8:42 Story time

9:02 Still work to do. Mike started a load of laundry without me even knowing it, then tackled the dishes. He's a keeper. :-)

Thoughts for today:

I'm beginning to see a pattern to our days, where before this project I thought there was none. We basically have one outing per day. Sometimes it's the mornings that were home, sometimes the afternoons, but hardly ever both. Home time means mama is working,  and today was no exception - there was a lot of blogging, emailing, photo editing, tech-support calling to be done. I'm so thankful that my children are good at entertaining themselves (with occasional help from the Disney channel!), and that I'm able to get my work done from home. There's no where else I'd rather be!!