Mesa Mother of the Week

We had some friends drop by Sunday evening in the middle of the post-Church dinner frenzy. After witnessing the miracle of the feeding of the 16 (my family, Brad's sister Nancy's family, and the Van Pattens), Jere commented that he should nominate me for a mother of the year award. How could I argue with that? So, yesterday I submitted my application for Mesa Mother of the Week:

Pre-5 am
Woke Brad for his morning run.

Pre-6 am
Returned from Safeway (which opens at 5, unlike lazy Bashas' at 6), bearing the requested lunchable for Lily's special field trip lunch.

Pre-7 am
Sent one child off to piano lessons and made 48 cinnamon mini muffins for breakfast.

Pre-8 am
Cleaned out and labeled fridge (labeling the fridge shelves, you say? Maybe this nomination has merit. We won't round file it. We'll keep reading). Grossest item found in the fridge--ziploc bag of moist deteriorating cucumbers. Most unexpected find--chewed gum stuck to the underside of one shelf.

Pre-9 am
Escorted 5 of my kids off to school while I made delicious cauliflower soup for dinner. (This entry really should be for Brad as Gardener of the Week. His cauliflower is truly a miracle from Mesa's soil.)

Pre-10 am
Completed visiting with Visiting Teachers and changed my fifth poopy diaper of the morning.

Pre-11 am
Gutted and labeled two freezers. (There really is something to this applicant.) Grossest thing in either freezer--concentrated grape juice that had mysteriously escaped its container and congealed on the floor. Now that was sticky. Biggest surprise found in a freezer--empty space that was lurking amid all the poorly placed blocks of icy morsels.

Pre-12 pm
Loaded two toddlers in the wagon for a walk, chatted with a friend, loaded said toddlers in the car for preschool pickup, made quesadillas. (instead of pb and j--nice touch. Not the same routine lunch every day. Bonus point.)

Pre-1 pm
Shepherded three boys to their beds for short mid-winter naps. Micah is now on the "until the timer rings" schedule, so one was shorter than the other two. Unfortunate for me.

Pre-2 pm
Contorted in many yoga poses for an hour. Micah deemed yoga "not very fun" and promptly dragged his stick horse over my relaxed and stretched eye sockets. (Injury sustained in exercise of duty. Not fully unexpected, but still admirable.)

Pre-3 pm
Worked on my YW lesson for Sunday and for the talk I have to give at New Beginnings next Wednesday. (Non-procrastination points awarded.)

Pre-4 pm
Checked next-to-last item off my 9-item to-do list for the day--drop a few handwritten notes in the mail. Except for the one dreaded phone call that I have already postponed from the last four to-do lists. (Non-procrastination points rescinded.)

Pre-5 pm
Picked up one prescription from Walgreen's, encouraged 3 kids to finish homework, one to practice aforementioned piano, and . . . made the phone call I've been dreading for a week. (Non-procrastination points still rescinded, but remarkable.)

Pre-6 pm
Fed family of nine a complete, balanced, home-cooked meal in which all members of family were sitting around the table simultaneously, with no fights. (Wow. Big points here.)

Pre-7 pm
Helped one child practice voice (it's still working, Allyson.), finally showered and dressed, drove myself and 3 kids to Mutual.

Pre-8 pm
Learned a new skill from a Beehive--paper folding to make note cards. Pretty fun.

Pre-9 pm
Ready for and in bed.

This completes my nomination packet. I think I'm a shoo-in!

Wait, what's that? Here's a late entry.

Pre-11 pm
Answered phone from a dead sleep that only occurs after having been in bed for two hours--Can we pick up a two-year-old girl in downtown Phoenix? Her mother is being arrested.
Brad willingly gets dressed and makes the drive.

Entry for today--12:30 am
The ranks at the Denton house have grown by one--I'll meet Baby S today.

Epiphany #18--When you're a mom, your day is rarely over, even when you say it's over.