4:00 AM: Not my usual wake up time

Woken up by my husband who is getting ready for work and making way too much noise. I lay there needing to pee and finally get up and go. I get back in bed, then a thought pops into my head. Oh crap, I think I forgot to buy the baby carrots that he takes in his lunch every single week.  Thoughts of having to go to Walmart and wondering what else do I need to do when I go to town. Then I hear sounds that tell me he’s still in the kitchen so I stumble out of bed and go ask him if I indeed forgot to buy carrots.  No, he says,  you bought them. Oh , good, I think. Love you, bye, have a good day, I tell him. He heads off to his job where he works a 10 hour shift.

I check on my sleeping daughter’s breathing, then go back to my room. Now that I’m awake I know I’ll have trouble going back to sleep so I get my phone and put it on the Talk Ultra podcast. I listen to a female runner talk about how her body just fell apart after a couple really good years of racing multi-day races. Now she is going vegan and feels like she is  healing. She feels better than she has in a long time, she says. I vaguely consider the idea of giving up meat after being low carb-high fat, mostly Paleo, gluten free for the past seven years. I finally get sleepy and turn off my phone and fall asleep and have many crazy dreams.

8:30 am.  I start to wake up but I’m very groggy and don’t want to open my eyes. This is past my normal wake up time. I lie there drifting in and out of dreams. Finally my eyes pop open and I get out of bed. It’s on now. I will not stop moving until I hit the pillow tonight.

First things first. Pee, brush teeth. Glance at silenced phone. I have a text telling me that there is now less than $20 in my checking account. I sign in to my bank on my phone and transfer funds. I put on my robe and slippers , push power on the Keurig and go walk the dogs, text my husband and tell him that the yard looks nice since he mowed yesterday, bring the dogs back in and give them Milk bones. Then I get my 17 year old daughter’s formula and medications ready. I go change her diaper, dress her in clean clothes, suction her, check her oxygen level, then put her in her Vest so she can have a respiratory treatment. It will take 18 minutes. Back to the kitchen to make my one cup of  Light roast Breakfast Blend coffee with coconut milk and splenda  ( I ran out of stevia. ). I turn on my ancient, Ebay-seller refurbished Dell D630 laptop computer and log in and click on email. Nothing important in email.  I get a text  from a fellow SAHM friend asking where I am since I haven’t responded to her usual morning Messenger messages, so I reply to her. We commiserate about the burnout we have from so many years of being caregivers, household servants and unpaid sex goddesses to our husbands. But we both know we will continue , so we both get busy.

Grace’s treatment is finished so I lift her 60 pound, helpless body into her wheelchair, adjust her twisted spine so she is as comfortable as possible, smooth her unruly, thick hair out of her face and push her into the kitchen to connect her feeding tube and give her two seizure medications, plus cough medicine and a vitamin D supplement. I turn on the essential oil diffuser.

The boys, my two youngest sons,  are still sleeping. I start trying to wake them up. After several visits to their room, I finally issue a threat of no video games unless they get up. One of them stumbles out and makes himself some type of microwave food for breakfast then gets on the couch with a blanket and the dog. The other gets up a little later grabs cereal and goes back to his room. 

Meanwhile I do the dishes and put a load of clothes in the wash.  Eventually, I get my almost 13 year old son started on math and the 14 year old son goes outside and cuts down a dead tree with his new ax. He takes a video camera and a tripod to document the whole thing and is super proud of himself. I watch the video and give him genuine praise. He’s a good boy and very handy with the ax. At some point in this time period other school subjects were completed.  Then we start our Bible study. My son is anxious about his class this week so I attempt to reassure him and help him prepare for it. He and another boy will be teaching the class. We study 2 Timothy 3 and discuss how all Scripture is God-breathed, despite what some liberals say.

I get hungry.

Lunch is my first meal of the day. I have the idea to make ‘zoodles’, spiralized zucchini noodles, new to me. I do it and show my son how it works. I saute them in coconut oil, add garlic, onion and pepperoni slice, then top it with Italian cheese. Pretty good! I get more laundry going and then get in a cleaning mood. They are doing schoolwork. Grace is sleeping. My 19 year old son is in his room playing video games since he doesn’t work today.

I decide to tackle a grubby zone that has evaded me for a couple months, a dog-hair covered junk pile on the floor in the laundry room. Feels great to have that area clean again! I also did more laundry and put it away.

Time for Spanish.

My kids don’t share my love of foreign languages, but I still try to teach them. I hope they will retain something or at least grow some new brain synapses. My plan was to watch a lesson on Youtube but I had slow internet problems and couldn’t sign in. I think it was because they were downloading something on PS4.  I give up on that and we use our books. We study the present progressive. “Estoy hablando.” I am talking. Then I send them off to read books on their own.

Crap this day is flying by! I guess I won’t be going to the gym after all . Should I go for a run right now? Well , my ankle is a bit sore after the weekend’s miles. I guess I’ll take a rest day.

I start thinking about what I am going to make for dinner. But I continue with laundry and cleaning . The kids go outside at some point for a short time, then they start playing video games.  I make sure the dogs get walked. I take out more trash. Hang up clothes.  I put my daughter back in bed and change her diaper and suction her .  She has been pretty sick and she’s still very congested but, thankfully,  no longer on oxygen like she was all weekend.  I empty out the suction machine tank. It’s pretty gross.  My memory is a bit foggy on what all I did but suddenly my husband was home from work. I never did read the book I had hoped to read. Sleeping so late threw me off and I just really have trouble sitting down to read on a Monday. It’s usually a pretty busy day and today was no exception.

Part two of my day begins

The chicken breasts are cooking in the Instant Pot. Hubby comes in from work and complains about various things, including that he has a bad headache. He has been sick also. He sits down and begins to check his Instagram and read a magazine while I get out some gluten free pasta and frozen broccoli. The dinner is ready and everyone eats . I skip the pasta because last time I ate it made my stomach bloat up. I eat a little chicken, some broccoli and a salad.  And then a few blueberries. Good thing I skipped the pasta because I am going to eat way too many carbs later! After dinner, I box up a pair of running shoes that I need to return via UPS , then hubby and I go walk the dogs together. It’s a very pleasant, breezy, low humidity evening. Not usual Texas weather.  We enjoy the good days when we can! We walk around the property, check the blackberries and see that they are starting to turn black, and look at the remains of the cedar tree my son cut down. It smells good. We check on the chickens and see that they need to be fed so I go tell my son to take care of that. Hubby comes back in the house and sits down.

I think I want Dessert

I don’t do a lot of baking because I am 1) on a low carb, gluten free diet, and 2) I’m not that good at baking.  But, I just bought a couple bags of pecans so I went looking for recipes that use pecans and  I chose this  flourless, chocolate pecan cookie recipe. Here it is. So good! And easy, too. It’s like gooey, yummy brownie cookie!

Time to feed Grace

I eat way too many of those decadently chocolate cookies, tell my husband good night since he goes to bed at 7PM ,  then get Grace out of bed and give her meds and feed her. I then start another load of laundry and take out more trash. I notice the mess in the kitchen that I made today as I cooked.

I suddenly decide this is a good time to write in my blog. So here I am ! Guess I better go do those dishes now.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading about a day in my life. This is pretty typical. But I usually get up a bit earlier and often I make a trip into town for something or go to the gym or go run at the park or somewhere if I have time. I’m finding it harder and harder to find the time.

How about you? Are you a mom and a runner? Or just a busy person? How do you fit running or exercise  into your daily schedule? I’d love to hear about it!