A day in the life of the Gardners

I've been thinking about doing a post like this for a while. I've seen a lot of other bloggers doing this and thought it was a cool thing. But I struggled b/c my days look so different and there are so many things that happen throughout the day that are hard to document. But I woke up and tried to do it, so here it goes. This is by no means exhaustive and by no means how every day goes. But it was sorta fun documenting it throughout the day and the boys played right along.

6 am - alarm goes off, drag myself out of bed and get my running clothes on. Most days I either run or do some sort of exercise with a dvd. So this is me in the bathroom trying not to wake anyone up before I head out to a chilly 5 mile run. 

7am - get back from run. This day Richard is walking out the door as I walk in b/c he got a call for work and needs to get there right away. So I walk into the house and right away start on my day. Get the lentils soaking for supper, drink water, make sure boys are ok (bathroom and a bowl of dry cereal to keep them occupied), put a movie in and take a shower and get dressed and check FB and instagram and email.

 8 am - eat a breakfast of champions. (dry toast, and hard boiled egg) and trying to only drink 2 cups of coffee a day! YEah! I know, it was getting that bad. So this week so far only 2 cups a day, going strong.

 This is boys with their bfast. In the 8oclock hour I make sure they have had enough to eat and are dressed for the day and eat bfast myself, and make sure we all take vitamins and everyone is ready for the day.

 9am- Put the lentils in the crockpot with all the other stuff and leave that for the day. This is the time I play with the boys and read them books (which is something they absolutely love and ask for frequently throughout the day). The baby I watch comes anywhere from 8:15-10 am in the morning and I never know when it is - so now it's a waiting game. and a time to spend with the boys.

This is how my house looks while the boys play
it looks like this 80% of the day!

10am - The baby showed up. I quick feed her a little food, and make sure the boys have their socks, shoes, coats, snacks, water bottles, and the baby has a bottle. And we're heading out the door about 10:15 for our WIC apt. This is the first time I go out with all three and I'm not meeting someone somewhere, I'm on my own. But it went great! :)

 11am - Because the WIC apt went so fast and so smoothly I decided to stop by the mall play place and let the boys run around for a while. They love it there and just run and run. The baby gets a bottle while we're out too.

 12pm - we arrive back at home and start in on lunches. I feed the boys, feed the baby her bottle and we start the clean up process before naptime/quiet time. They boys loved that I was taking pictures all day so they wanted to pose for me.

 1-2:30pm - is quiet time. I have tried to protect this time most days. For many reasons, I think my boys need a down time during the day (b/c they really do play hard non stop the rest of the day), and Landon definitely needs a nap still. I try to keep the baby's nap time during that same time although not all days work out. It's my time to check emails and respond, write blog posts, read blogs, read bible, excercise a little if I feel like it, clean things I haven't had a chance to clean, prepare for supper, do children's ministry stuff for church and EAT! (b/c normal lunch time is crazy with three kiddos lately)
Carson doesn't take a nap every day - he is slowly transitioning out of them. So some times I read him books, or do some "preschool" work with him, or we play a game together. But he also does have to sit on the couch either reading/looking at books on his own for a half hour or so and a lot of times he falls alseep.

Landon woke up about 2:30 today
and he loves to cuddle right after nap
and I love it too!

 3pm - today we had Speech Therapy (which is not normal time but had to be rescheduled this week due to sickness). So Miss Jean came for about 45 min and as soon as she left, the Baby's mom came and picked her up.

4pm - So come this time, somewhere in here it's just me and my boys again. They play while I get supper ready and we just wait and wait until we hear when Daddy is coming home. :)

Rice to go with Lentils

The best Sweet potatoes ever!!!!!

 5pm - quick clean up all the toys as much as we feel like it (or at least a little bit b/c today the toys were a mess along with my pots and pans. :) ) And wait until Richard comes home. Then eat supper with him. It doesn't happen too much b/c Richard is never home at the same time - but I like it when we get to eat our meal together

6pm - I wash dishes and clean up from dinner while Richard plays with the boys. It's so nice to be able to clean up when he is home to distract the boys. And he really loves playing with them. They look forward to it so much

 7pm - nightly football training begins (please ignore the nose picking, we're working on it. :) ) They love playing like this with him. and I love sitting on the couch watching them, making catches here and there and just laughing together about the funny things the boys come up with.

Discussing plays. :)

 7:30-8pm - Get the boys dressed in "pa-jammies" ( I love that Landon says it like that) and brush teeth, read bible story, pray and head to bed.

8-10pm - Definitely down time for me. We only get a night like this a few times a week b/c usually we have life group, or book club or dinner with people or some other event. But tonight was definitely chill time. Richard always has some studying to do either for life group or porterbrook. There's always something he has to work on. So I do odds and ends, or watch some tv. There are 2 shows that I like to watch. Or I read for my book club or something else. Definitely chill time. (this night I put this blog together. :) )

10pm - we try to be diligent about going to bed at this time. We use this time to talk to eachother and catch up on things. And then shut out the lights. B/c I get up early most mornings I'm ready to be falling asleep pretty early too.

So that's our Wednesday in a nutshell. The day is filled with laughter and running and jumping. But also a generous amount of whining and fighting and complaining and discipline times. In fact this day in particular I felt so defeated and frustrated with myself. It's so hard to teach, to instruct, to enjoy things with boys screaming, and demanding and fighting literally every other second. It's hard to not want to just sit in the bathroom, lock the door and look on pintrest b/c I just can't comfort another screaming boy, or sit and read one more book.  I know that the mother's role in her family is so crucial with her demeanor and that my boys watch me so much. But still I fail so often. I constantly question myself if I'm doing it the right way. If my boys will see Jesus in me, and the love of their Heavenly Father through me. Or if I'm just getting obedience from them and not the heart. I want so desperately to respond well, to lay down my life for all their daily little needs - but it's so hard some days. So I went to bed crying out to God for forgiveness, for strength for the new day. More thankful than ever that He loves me despite my selfishness with my boys and my sinfulness, claiming his new mercies every day.

I would love it if you other fellow bloggers did something like this. It's fun for me to see into other people's lives and see what goes on. :) Looking forward to reading about your days. :)