Exhaustion

Remember our poop disasters last week?? That nightmare lasted about three+ days. The day after I blogged was NOT better and had its share of really, really gross moments. Thankfully that is mostly behind us. But today was one of those days that I felt like I was running the entire day. I write these things out because it very accurately describes the chaos of the busier days of my life right now, trying to juggle being a mom and running a business from home. I promise not to make the next post a timeline from one day :)

7 a.m. - forced myself to get out of bed and get myself and the boys ready to be out of the house at 7:30 a.m. to make it to a business networking breakfast sort of on time (it started at 7:30, but this was the best I could do at that hour). 

7:45-9:15 a.m. - set my kids up with some breakfast and a show on my iPhone in a cafe where I was meeting some other business owners from the community and told them about my photography, hopefully making some good connections for the future. I'll hopefully get to do some real estate photography in the next few weeks, which I'm excited about. The boys remarkably sat on the couch and were well behaved (probably because they were still tired!!). I really lucked out that they weren't fighting, running around, etc. I told them thank you about 10 times on the drive home. :)

 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. - responded to emails, helped Eli put some drawings/pictures together to send to some friends that could use a little extra love while Charlie sat and looked at books, then raced us out the door to go to playgroup.

10:30-11:45 a.m. - Eli and Charlie ran around and played at the park with lots of fun kids while I talked to some of the other moms and enjoyed the nice weather. Felt a little anxious about what I had to get done in the afternoon.

11:45-12:15 p.m. - drove the kids to preschool and drove back home. I noticed when I dropped Eli off at school that he had a tiny wet spot on a specific spot on his pants. Wonderful. I made him promise he would go to the bathroom as soon as he got inside. Don't judge :)

12:15-1:30 p.m. - scrambled to finish editing images from a recent newborn photo session, dealt with my computer running slow because it's low on storage space, painfully/anxiously waiting for things to save, export, etc. and loaded it all into the software that I use to show clients their pictures, grabbled my samples and raced out the door.

1:45-2:45 p.m. - had an ordering session at a client's home (showed the mom the slideshow, went through some product samples, helped her design a wall gallery for her son's room with the images (on the computer, and got her order organized). Raced home to hopefully beat the boys (they had a ride home from school). Luckily got there before they arrived. Phew.

3-5 p.m. - played in the back yard with the boys ("What time is it Mr. Fox" is their current favorite yard game :) and worked on dinner - tortilla soup, homemade salsa, etc. and in the middle of that had a client call to talk about details for our session next week. Eli peed his pants two more times in those two hours. arghhhhhhh. Charlie helped me make the salsa and then ate a whole bowlful. (He is my buddy in the kitchen)

5-5:30 p.m. - bribed my kids to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things that we needed for dinner and the rest of the week (bribed with a fruit strip). It all went smoothly until we were in the checkout line and they were SO loud and crazy/silly. Saw a neighbor on our way out in the parking lot and tried not to look as frazzled/tired as I felt :)

5:30-6:30 p.m. - finished making dinner, Ben came home and we ate outside since it was such a pretty evening. Asked the kids to take some bites of soup about 50 times because they kept rocking on the chairs and exclusively eating tortilla chips.

6:30 p.m. - ran some dinner over to one of the girls I visit teach (she gets home fairly late, so I didn't feel bad eating before I ran over there...)

6:50 p.m.-8 p.m. - washed dishes, cleaned up dinner, helped Ben bathe the kids (Charlie pooped a tiny bit in the tub, which ended things quickly - what is up with my children???? oh my patience!! I told them tonight that I will give them a penny a day if they stay dry all day - we'll see if that motivates!!! I am desperate :), got them to bed and started a load of laundry. Wished we had a laundry chute to the basement. Ben left to go play volleyball.

Now - I'm catching up more on email and will blog the newborn pics from the newborn session on the photog. blog, edit images from a recent extended family photo session (while I mindlessly watch American Idol) and then fall into bed. It just started pouring rain and the sound of it on the family room roof is so therapeutic and relaxing. I love listening to the rain, especially at night.

Here are some pictures that I snapped today while the boys were playing in the afternoon (during dinner prep). They are at such fun ages right now. Tomorrow - we have a wide open schedule and I'm so excited to just focus on them.

 Charlie was less obliging about me taking his picture, but I still got a few -

Mr. Fake Smile :)

This is my favorite of Charlie from today. I love his long eyelashes, freshly cut hair and soft cheeks.