One of those days...

Have you ever had breakfast an hour and a half after you wake up because:

One kid needs cereal. Another kid needs eggs and toast. Then the first kid needs juice. Then the next kid needs milk. Then the first needs to print something. The ink runs out. He throws a tantrum because he can't understand why the ink ran out. While the second child is finishing her eggs and toast and milk, you are trying to get all the dishes unloaded and loaded so that you can have space to clean the counters and tabletops so that maybe when you get around to eating, there will be space to do it. Then the second child finishes breakfast, and you have to clean her off. Then you need to change her diaper. Then you start working on some calling stuff, trying to arrange the Sunday program, and send the info onto the bulletin specialist. Then you realize you have to go to the bathroom and have been holding it for an hour. Then you have to go break up a fight between the kids, because the older always takes toys from the younger, even though she had them first. Finally, you remember you are hungry, and finally get around to pouring yourself a bowl of cereal. But the younger one crawls around following you because, how dare you eat without sharing with her??? So as she clings to your legs, you get a bite in here and there, intermittent with giving her bites. Then you realize that all the whining from the younger is probably due to needing a nap. You think to yourself, yeah, a break! So you put the younger down, go to read a book, and the older needs you to get some markers. You go back to reading, and the older comes back every 3 minutes (because 3 is his favorite number), needing paper, scissors, a snack, a drink, etc. Finally, after reading only a couple pages, the fatigue (from staying up too late the night before, hanging out with your husband, eating ice cream, and doing laundry) catches up with you. You lie down because there is no other course of action that can be taken. You start to fall asleep. The older child, comes and sits on you. You tell him you need to rest. So he tries to play quietly, but you are still awakened approximately every 10 minutes. After a while, he decides that it is time for you to wake up, and voices his opinion. Then you hear the younger one waking up in her room. So when you can finally shrug off the sleep, the older one needs you to make reindeer antlers. Then you make sandwiches. You go get the younger one up, and realize that she needs a diaper change. So you stop to change her, but you have to open a new package of diapers, and a new package of wipes. She's crying, so you hand her something to play with (because you know that lately she likes to scratch the itch in her diaper during the change). The older kid walks in with scissors, so you have to instruct him how to hold the scissors correctly when walking. You send him back into the kitchen. All the while, the older kid needs a Rudolph nose, and won't stop asking. Finally, you finish the change, take the diaper out to the garbage, wash your hands. Pick up the younger kid, put her in her highchair, give her her half of the sandwich. As you are getting her some milk, the older child asks for the fifth time for help with the nose. So you set his half of the sandwich and milk in front of him. Then you proceed to make the nose. After you make the nose, you sit down to write this blog while the younger one finishes her lunch. The older one won't stop chatting and saying things like, "I need," and "I want." Then, a great-grandparent calls, wanting to talk to the older child. So you have to stop, yet again, with a little pleasure, to help him talk to the grandparent. You come back, again, to the blog. And the older one comes to argue with you about whether it is sunny or rainy (it's rainy). He runs into the other room, while you try to remember even some of the details, and then you hear a scream. You run into the next room, the older has hit his own foot with a plastic baseball bat. You roll your eyes, walk back to the blog. You continue. Then you hear, "Mommy, there's a spider on the floor!" So you stop to go take care of it, but it's only a fuzzy. You put it in the garbage, arguing with the older, again, about whether or not it is a spider. Then you get the younger a graham cracker to keep her busy for the last few minutes you intend to be on the computer. All the while, the older is chatting and singing, and telling you play by play of what he is doing or thinking. And it's not even noon yet. And you can probably guess, I haven't even started thinking about my lunch yet...