What, exactly, do you do all day?

I have been a stay-at-home mom for the past two years. It was a transition for me, as I've been working since I was 13 years old, even when we had three of our kiddos.

Two main reasons for the change. One, we were PCS-ing from Yuma, AZ to Camp Pendleton, CA for my husband's career (something that happens quite often in the military), and I wanted to make sure that our kiddos transitioned to the new home/neighborhood/everything afterward.

The second reason (and this was the biggest) was that our baby girl who was born in April of 2020 was born with special needs. We started seeing specialists right after we moved here when she was two months old and eventually, we were seeing specialists and different therapies up to 4 times a week. She was priority numero uno.

Thankfully, she has blossomed this past year and I am so very thankful to every doctor and specialist and appointment that got her to this point.

At this point, I could go back to work. But thank you military, we are up for orders next summer so...I'm waiting until we find out what's what before putting on my working mom hat again.

However, it was brought to my attention by my 8-year-old this weekend that daddy works, and I don't. He wasn't trying to hurt my feelings, because obviously he's under the misguided impression (due to youth) that a job is where you go out to work somewhere that isn't home, but I was still like, really dude?

I gave my husband the "you better deal with this before I deal with you for not dealing with this" look and let him explain that mommy does have an extremely important job and all that it entails.

But all day, as I went about my non-job activities, I kept thinking about the stereotype thought process that SAHMs get about what they actually DO all day. Like it rubs my nerves sometimes when my husband comes home from work and asks what I did that day, not because he's implying anything, but because I, thanks to society, feel like I'm being asked because I have to justify what I have spent my day doing even though my husband is just genuinely curious as to what I've been up to.

So, for anyone who can relate, here's my non-working Monday activity schedule.

5:20am - Wake up

5:20-6:00am - enjoy cup of coffee...alone...in silence...with just the Christmas tree lights on

6:00am - Wake up the 6-year-old

6:00-6:40am - Make 6yo breakfast, pack her and 8yo snack and H2O, brush her hair (put it in a braid today), get myself dressed

6:40am - Wake up 8yo, walk 6yo to the bus stop

6:55am - Walk home, check to make sure 8yo is getting dressed, make his breakfast

7:00-8:00am - Work out in garage (make sure 8yo leaves at 7:20am for his bus)

8:00am - Get 2yo out of crib, change her, get her breakfast

8:00-11:30am - took off bed sheets of all beds, washed/dried all sheets, cleaned master bathroom/shower, vacuumed upstairs, dusted master bedroom, folded/put away two loads of laundry, wiped kitchen counters, unloaded dishwasher, loaded dishwasher, took 2yo next door to the park for 30 minutes

11:30-12:00pm - put 2yo down for nap, made myself lunch and sat down to eat it

12:00-1:30pm - re-made all beds, showered, dressed, folded/put away another load of laundry

1:30pm - took 2yo to drop 15yo at his soccer game (30 min one way trip)

2:00pm - drove back to house

2:30pm - picked 6yo up from bus stop, got her a snack, packed car for soccer game

3:15pm - 8yo got home from bus stop, piled in the car, drove to soccer game

3:45-5:00pm - cheered on oldest son at soccer game

5:00-5:45pm - drove home...thank you Cali traffic

5:45-6:15pm - put dinner in oven, make 2yo food, feed her, give her and 6yo bath

6:15pm - 2yo goes down to bed

6:30pm - eat dinner with kiddos (hubby not home from work yet)

7:00pm - 6yo goes to bed (after teeth and hair get brushed), I blow dry my hair

7:30pm - 8yo asks to play a game...so we get out Connect 4

7:30-8:00pm - me, 8yo and 15yo play Connect 4 (hubby comes home)

8:00pm - 8yo goes to bed

8:15pm - Make dough for sourdough bread in the AM (it needs to rise for 8-10 hours), set up coffee, turn off outside lights, make sure toys are picked up, run the Roomba

8:30pm - Realize I didn't give myself my "20 minutes" of writing today...and here we are...

9:30pm - I'll be in bed (hopefully)

*update...it's 9:53pm...I'm posting this then bed (sigh)

There are days where I will be just as busy as today and still feel at the end of the day like I have gotten nothing accomplished. Why is that? It's madness I tell you...or witchcraft...that has these days flying by filled with endless to-do lists.

Tomorrow, I'll do it all over again, with different chores on the list.

If you feel my insanity, rock on rockstar.