A day in the life of working at home

5am – Sam gets up to go on treadmill for an hour – I stay in bed to keep it warm for her in case she changes her mind.

6:15am – Sam heads to 6:30 Mass. I stay in bed to listen for little ones waking and so the bed will still be warm when she get home from church.

7am – Sam more than likely comes home from Mass, I'm not sure since i'm still asleep.

7:30am – I get my lazy rear out of bed and take a quick shower so I will look somewhat presentable at 8am Mass.

7:45am – yell at 2 teens that are coming to Mass with me to get ready. Notice that they are already up and ready. They are coming with me since they are meeting a carpool after Mass that will take them to homeschool tutoring classes for the day.

7:50am – yell at teens to get into car

8am-8:30am – Mass

8:30am – 9am – go to grocery store to pick up milk, eggs etc for Sam…cause that’s the kind of guy I am.

9am-9:30am – make breakfast and coffee for myself.

9:30am – sit down in living room with laptop to start work.

9:31am – surf internet. Check out the blogs I like to read, running forum etc…

9:45am – holler for some to get Cecilia (2) off the counter cause she’s eating jelly and peanut butter out of the jars, and I'm too busy working to get her.

10am – do some work and wonder how I am still employed

10:30 – read short book to Cecilia

11am – noon - go running. Run 7 miles with Joey (10) riding along on his bike. Brief stop at mile 5 when Joey crashes bike.

Noon - 12:30pm – shower and then eat lunch.

12:30pm – sit back down in living room to work.

12:31pm – post on blog about my run with Joey. Wonder how I am still employed, hope boss doesn’t read my blog.

1pm – try and help Barbara (12) with fractions to decimal conversions…open calculator on computer to figure it out. Then continue working.

2pm – listen as Dominic (6) reads me a new book he just learned how to read. He messes up a lot of the words, reconsider this homeschooling thing. Just know I’ll be canned in the morning.

3:45pm – lay down on couch for 15 minutes before phone meeting because I’m tired from my run.

3-4pm – lock myself in the baby’s room for a phone conference with 15 or so people from around the country.

3:30pm – Sam leaves to go pick up teenagers from tutoring thing. Puts on DVD and leaves younger kids sitting in front of it so I won’t hurt them if they come and interrupt phone conference. You Social Services types, I'm kidding about hurting the kids...sorta.

4pm-5:30pm – done ‘working’ for the day. Watching Cheaper by the Dozen (so stereotypical) with the 7 youngest while Hot Momma is doing pickup duty for some of the older kids. I hear baby Eric crying but can’t find him. It’s kind of a muffled cry. Finally determine he’s rolled/scooted under the couch (he doesn’t quite crawl yet). Pull him out and vow kids to secrecy about the incident. Kids rat me out within 30 seconds of mom’s return. Work on dinner while watching movie.

5:30 – 6:00 pm eat dinner with the little darlings. Yell at a few for spilling the milk I bought this morning and yell at most for not eating their veggies.

7pm – Sam puts baby to bed and takes 2 older kids to CCD and then goes to her chick bible study thing.

7:05pm – loud children wake up baby.

7:06pm – Give fussy baby to one of the children that awoken him. Tell him to feed him leftover noodles from dinner.

7-9pm – Spend 2 hours on the internet and phone with Verizon Wireless trying to add a couple of phone lines when I should be doing some work to make up for the lack of work all day. Wonder if an order of contemplative monks will take me. I’m pretty sure I could stay celibate for at least a few weeks, um make that days.

8-9pm – Try and watch American Idol while dealing with Verizon.

9:15pm – Try and give baby a bottle of formula but he wants momma and the real goods…can’t say I blame him on that one.

9:45pm – Sweet wife gets home and is promptly handed crying kid.

9:46pm – Go sit on microwave while it’s on high power.

10pm – Go to bed and wonder how I am still employed.

10:01pm – Dream of tomorrow when I get to go to office for the day.