Sponsored by Gerber Lil’ BeaniesTM
Life is just go go go right now for our family. With the start of school, our morning, noon, and night routines have gotten pretty crazy. The elementary school our son goes to for kindergarten is very close to our house, so we walk. However, our preschool is across town and starts 15 minutes before the first bell at the other school. This means, I load up ALL of the kids and drive to the preschool, only to turn around and rush right back, unload everyone, load babies and toddlers into the double stroller, and walk kindergartner down to his school. We never make it to the first bell since that would be physically impossible without a time machine, but we do always manage to not miss second bell. Luckily, my kindy son is very independent and has no problem running through the doors without even waving bye to me.
Then it is time to walk home, unload the stroller and reload the babies and toddlers back into the car for errands. Our errands consist of two places most of the time: our local grocery store and Target. Target is like chaos and a vacation wrapped into one. I imagine any mom who works from home and is with her kids all day gets what I mean. It is calm in the morning with fewer customers, I might grab a Starbucks if I am feeling indulgent, and then stare at house wares I really shouldn’t buy, but some of it is just so cute. We inevitably make it to the baby section since it is likely the reason we went there in the first place.
By this point, the baby is screaming bloody murder and Mory is getting pretty grumpy as well. Breakfast is usually on the light side because of time constraints, so we grab some snacks. We recently tried the Gerber Lil’ Beanies. The Lil’ Beanies are a crunchy snack made with navy beans and no genetically modified ingredients. Since our local Target sells them for $1.97 a can, they are a nice little indulgence for the toddlers. They like the crunch, and I like that it isn’t some junk food made with GMO corn! The Gerber Lil’ Beanies a re a nice salty compliment to the mass quantity of apples the kids eat.
After Target, we start the mad dash home because by then it is almost time to rush to the preschool for the 11:45 pick up. Once we pick up Wyn, we make lunch and we generally load up the stroller again for some exercise. At some point on our two hour walk, because it always ends up taking two hours when you have three kids with, the small people start getting antsy. If I am prepared, I remembered to bring convenient snacks.
When we get home from the afternoon walk, we have about 90 minutes before we need to leave to pick up big brother from kindergarten. While I usually need to use this time to turbo clean as much as possible, the girls usually want to play outside instead. We generally negotiate that I get 20 minutes to clean up lunch, start dinner, and throw in a load of laundry. The girls will sit at the picnic table in our yard while I answer emails on my phone, and then play chalk or bikes in the driveway.
After what seems like 10 seconds, it is time to load up the stroller yet again, and walk to the school to pick up the oldest boy. Once we arrive home, we argue and negotiate some more since I really do need to focus on dinner and picking up the house, and that little thing called work. If we are lucky, Dad comes home early and takes over kid duty while I squeeze housework, cooking, gym time, and baby feedings into an impressively small amount of time. Then tomorrow, we do it all again!
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