5:25 Raymond wakes me up with little but persistent cries. I rescue him from his bed in the closet and nestle him in my arm, under my covers where he eats and I sleep. I love nursing in the morning. Baby is so happy and sleepy and content.

5:35 Rose screams from the other room. Cali comes in to tell me to get Rose. I put happy full tummy Ray back in his bed but not before he gives a monstrous stretch and closes his eyes. Then I go try to console the girls before they wake the entire house. Warm milk for Rose and a sippy for Cali ( though she doesn’t drink the sippy anymore) a quick diaper change and the girls are content once again.

5:45 I reset my alarm for 6:50 instead of 6:40 since Raymond has already eaten and I snuggle back into a good sleep for one more hour.

7:00 face washed, teeth brushed, hair combed, walking shoes on and out the door for my morning walk with Julie. We walked for 56 minutes. It warmed up 10 degrees while we were out.

7:56 I return to a quiet house. Sit down and make my “to do list” for the day because yesterday I made a list and I actually did EVERYTHING on the list! that never happens but it happened yesterday and it felt good. Right down to mowing the lawn at 7:30pm. So I made a list for today. It is not quite as cut and dry as yesterdays list but I hope to be just as productive. (and yes, blogging is on the list.)

8:03 my quiet time is over and Benji is telling me about his scary dreams that were a mix of his aunts and uncles and jimmy neutron and it was all at our church and we were chasing him and… that kid can sure jabber when he wants to 🙂

8:25 the girls are awake for the day. I get Rose out of her crib and get big morning hugs from her. (I need to remember to do morning hugs with the big kids too) Another soggy diaper. I hear Ben start his shower. Cali wants Toast. No cereal. Maybe Pancakes. I make chocolate chip pancakes and let them use the herseys syrup for chocolate milk. (I am in chocolate breakfast mode apparently because the other breakfast of choice this week was cocoa pebbles with chocolate milk poured on them  – that is good stuff.)

9:15 I finished the dishes and sat down to blog. Ben is off to work, no breakfast for him. The older kids cleaned the Living and Family Rooms so they could watch a show. Rose is playing with car seats and buckles and keeps telling me that she needs to poop so I went and got the baby potty out of storage and she has been sitting on it for 10 minutes (I left her diaper and clothes on – she is only 21 months old and none of my kids have potty trained before age 3). Raymond is still sound asleep.

The next thing I need to do is figure out how to fit some quality scripture study into my morning and I’ll be happy. I’m thinking it would have fit nicely right during this half hour that I sat down with the computer. I’ll try that tomorrow. Life is good. Now Rose is naked and begging me to put her on the real toilet so I am off.