A Day In Our Life: Tuesdays

So here's a glimpse into our Tuesdays...

This Tuesday started off at 6:15a.m.- I woke up before the kids (a first in a VERY long time) because my neck and shoulder were really bothering me. It seems I injured the muscle going down from my neck to my shoulder/collar bone. I'm waiting for my doctor's appointment and suffering a bit through the nights while I wait. I wasn't up long before both of the kids woke up (about 6:30a.m.). But...I didn't get up to Eli quite in time and he climbed out of his crib (for the first time)- aaaggghhh!! The kids watched an episode of Wonder Pets while I checked on a few things for the day. Then Joe came home from the gym and got the kids breakfast while I took a shower. Then I ate breakfast, got the kids ready, loaded the dishwasher, etc... and at about 8:40a.m. we headed out for the morning. Our first stop was to the craft store for some supplies to make bubble wands for a play date I hosted today (Thursday). After that we headed out of town to meet my friend Chrissy and her kids for a playdate. Chrissy's family owns a farm/apple orchard/pumpkin patch/ice cream stand and it is such a wonderful place for families so I was really looking forward to seeing her and spending the morning on the farm. Except that for the life of me I couldn't remember which road to take to get to her house (even though I've been there many times before). There are two roads next to each other that I confuse all of the time. Apparently I'm not the only one...because instead of using my GPS (like I should have) I asked the lady at the craft store which road I should take. She lived in the town I was going to, but she was apparently confused too because she told me the wrong road (which I discovered 20 minutes later when I was lost)! After a call to Joe, Chrissy, and consulting my GPS I got back on track and finally made it to the farm (45 minutes late)!

But once we were there we had such a wonderful time. The kids LOVED the animals! Eli was fascinated by the goats, but was a little nervous to feed them at first (which is why he isn't in any of these goat pictures)...but he eventually came around!

Then we picked a few bags full of apples, played with the wagons, and wandered into the pumpkin patch (picking a few along the way to fill the wagons)! Believe it or not it was the first time my friend Chrissy had actually been apple picking or pumpkin hunting with her kids (I guess when you live on an orchard you just go out and pick an apple whenever you want one)!

And then it was back to the animals where Eli just couldn't get enough of watching this chicken...

Until the ducks caught his eye...

And rest of the time with my friend was great. We got lunch at their ice cream/sandwich shop (where Eli knocked over and broke a glass jar in an attempt to get the Dove chocolates inside), we talked about little boys that like to hit things (ours), heaven, and fasting. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Lily had to go to school (and I was an hour late in getting her there because my whole morning was pushed back because of getting lost)- thankfully that wasn't a big deal with her school (it's pre-k and they are pretty laid back). So we drove back in a rush but dropped Lily off at school and headed home. Then I put Eli down for a nap...except instead of napping (apparently he thought the 20 minutes he slept in the car counted as a real nap) he screamed, jumped up and down, and then managed to climb out of his crib TWICE-aggghhh!! Oh, it was so hard not to laugh at him though because he was just so darn happy and proud of himself!:) After the 2nd time getting out of his crib I just gave up on nap time.

But in between escape attempts I did manage to create this little railroad track with tape going through out living room, kitchen, and hallways!

And our little boy (who already loves trains) was quite excited when he saw what I did!

And he played train (and yes, he did eventually put his pants back on) for quite a while until I needed to do laundry. I read something recently about how good it is to find ways to actively engage little boys in things you are already doing. So, I had Eli do the laundry with me...he helped me take the clothes from the closet and put them in the laundry basket, move the wet clothes to the dryer, and move the dirty clothes from the laundry basket to the washer. And it worked... he loved it (and I got some laundry done)!! After laundry, snacks, making apple chips, and more play time we picked Lily up at school.

Once Lily was home the kids played more and I made dinner (pizza).

After dinner Joe sort of took over and put the kids to bed while I went to the mall (yes, the mall- I think maybe it's been years since I've been there- or at least been there by myself). Our friend Brave is taking our family pictures in a week and a half and I went to the mall looking for a new outfit for the pictures (I've been looking for a while and I was having a very hard time finding something). But find something I did...great pants and a sweater that I LOVE and is so perfectly me. The weirdest thing though was that when I was coming out of one of the stores in the mall two men (about in their 20's) were walking towards me when they made strange faces at me, yelled, and then one of them opened his coat to flash me (he did THANKFULLY have all of his clothes on). Strange-so strange! You better believe that I looked behind me a few times to make sure they left! So after that odd encounter I stopped by Target to pick up a few things (and return some lamps). I got home just in time to hang out a bit with my husband and watch Parenthood (one of my favorite shows)!

So there you go...I'm not sure this was exactly a "normal" Tuesday but I'm beginning to realize that may there is no exactly normal when you have two little ones and are in full time ministry. Yes, my baby learned to crawl out of his crib, I got lost visiting the farm, and I was mock flashed...it was an interesting day that's for sure!