How was your day?

6am wake up call by 2 kids, " can I take a shower, can I take a shower". Key the sound of the door locking and the other boy screaming for 15 minutes to get out and saying, " It's my turn, its my turn"

2. Breakfast of champions, cereal, bagels, coffee you get it, all 4 up and atom no later than 6:45
3. all gear ready for the day of sports
4. Hubby leaves to coach game #1 of the day by 8am.
4.a. tech guy comes to fix internet and cable by 8am
5. 8:30a travel basketball game for 10 yr old-manchester
6. 9:30am daughter soccer, danvers
7. 10am, 6yr old basketball manchester
8. 12:30p leave for pool for 9yr old swim team practice, beverly
9. 1:15p bball game for daughter, manchester
10. 2:30pm basketball game for 9yr old that just finished swim practice
11. 3:30p-5:30pm bball skills and drills for 10 year old in Marblehead
12. 6:15p basketball game in manchester for 10 year old
13. 7:30pm basketball game in manchester for 10 year old

I'm just saying, having 4 kids under the age of 4 in diapers was much easier then trying to figure out logistically how to manage 4 very busy sports related kids.

p.s. I did manage to get in a long bike ride while my son played bball for 2hrs at the JCC in marblehead, thank goodness these places have gyms.

Sunday is a much better day.

d

Stay at home mom

In todays world and most importantly my group of friends, we are all very busy and just trying to make it through the day. Gone are the days of sitting in front of a T.V. eating bon bons, its just full all out busy. ( Yet, I don't ever remember having the time to eat bon bons and actually I don't even know what they are).
Anyhoo, I digress, when I was working full time in the hospital there were weeks I worked 40 hours and there were weeks I worked well over 90, sometimes I slept in the on call room and just got up in the morning to go to work. It was exciting when I first started having kids and staying home, being busy was just different.  After being home now for 10 years and raising 4 great kids who are still only 10,9,8 and 6, it gets old when people say to you, " What did you do all day?", " Why couldn't you just do that when it would of only taken a few seconds?". There are a million questions like that but just like it was when I worked in the hospital as a Nurse Practitioner, there were days that were so busy I couldn't take a call, never mind stopping off at the store to buy groceries or make dinner I was just soooo busy. Again, busy is just different as a stay at home mom. But why do I have to justify "busy" as a stay at home mom when I never had to "justify" how hard I worked at the hospital? Hmmmmmm.

Let me get straight to the point, I'm not complaining, yet sometimes I really want to, I love being home most of the time, I do miss work but I wouldn't change seeing my kids do everything and being in the classroom with them ever. The only thing I ask is that I get some respect for what I do, that just because I don't have a defined "job" title perse, I work really hard, just like all of us do everyday, its just different. I shouldn't have to write down on a piece of paper a list of what I did all day to prove that I was busy, I shouldn't have to account for what I did all day to justify not picking up the phone or not calling back, sometimes its just busy. My life is no different then anyone else's we all have busy lives but I just need to know that what I do is important and that it is clearly as important as any other job that someone does, again its just a different job. It's just weird that I never had to do this when I had a paying job in the hospital only as a stay at home mom. Just my 2 cents, rant over. Back to sterilizing the house.

Would love anyone's input.

Frigid 5k race report and post christmas stuff

Ok, we'll start with the cats and dogs fighting, that is what my house was like during christmas break. As you probably know ( or anyone that knows me ) I have 4 kids that are only 4 years apart in total, they love each other and they dislike each other every day, they can play well for about 1hour and then somebody has a bloody nose, scratches, whatever. Have you ever heard this, " mom, so and so did this," " Mom", he hit me, " Mom, get him off me he's trying to kill me". Well that was probably the majority of what I heard during the 17 days off my kids had for christmas. Now, they are back to school this morning, I had a little school dance I did  in front of them and then again at drop off but it wasn't too embarrasing for them. Anyway, christmas break was fun but in my opinion way too long.

What did we do during break, a little skiing, sledding, some movie watching, lots of basketball, soccer and swimming and some friend playdates. We worked on some school projects as well. But did I say they are back to school, yeahhhhhhhhhh me.

Ok, so during the 17 days it was tough to get everything in from a workout perspective. I either had to put my bike on the trainer and pop a movie in for the kids or run on the treadmill while a show was on it was hard. I only got to the pool a few times because that would require getting a sitter and believe me no-one wants to sit my 4 kids so I can go for a swim. During the afternoon and evening my kids have sports so its hard to go to the pool then and realistically I'm exhausted by the time my hubby gets home at 7p and all I really want to do is chat with him and then go to bed at 9p. Anyway, thank goodness we are still in base mode so coachie wasn't too upset at the sporadic nature of my workouts but I was getting frustrated because my only outlet to my angst is working out and I just need my endorphin rush for a little bit everyday, it just makes me a better person. Well, its back and my time is back so I can get in what I need to so hopefully I haven't lost too much fitness.

So during my 17 days of craziness I had a 5k to do, I begged and pleaded with coach not to have me do it, I was feeling gross and fat and lazy after this unintended minimal workout phase for two weeks but he said lets just see how you do. I used a few choice words for him which I won't post  but I went yesterday to Quincy to run the Frigid 5k. Quincy is were i grew up so it was fun to go back to my old stomping ground and drive around and see familar places, it was cold but not too bad. The course was laid out to be fairly flat with about 1 long hill between 1.4-2 miles so a little over .6 miles of climbing, but then it was downhill and then flat to the finish. I believe the course was a little short but whatever. I ran the course in 22:08 they have me at 22:10, whatever, 7:10 average, my best is a 7:06 pace, avg HR was 163. I was pleased with my performance, not ecstatic but pleased given my fitness level at this point. I placed 1st in my age group, 6th overall female so that was good. My good friend Brian Hughes was there, owner of Fast Splits multisport in Newton, Mass and fellow Qt2 teammate, he came in second overall with a blistering pace of 17 minutes total, good lord and after being sick for 3 weeks.  

Anyway, I have a 5 mile road race coming up in 3 weeks and then the Hyannis Half Marathon which I seem to do every year but for some reason it kicks my butt, lets hope for better results this year.