sliced tomatoes.

There are a lot of words you could use to describe being a stay-at-home mom. Rewarding. Joyful. Messy. Backbreaking. Spiritual. Tiresome. Fun. Hilarious. Tedious.

Yes, I think "tedious" covers it. There is joy in the tedium, but sheesh. It's the same thing every single day, no nights off, no weekends off, no holidays, no breaks. The children are such a sweet sigh of relief, coming up with weird ways to pass the time and entertaining me while I keep things running.

Luckily, I enjoy doing the same thing day in and day out. I'm a routine person, so staying home with the kids suits me pretty well. But like any person in a manual labor job, there are days where I feel like there is just no end to the SSDD Syndrome. Today was one of those days. They're infrequent, but DANG was I bored today!

At the end of each day, Andrew sits down at the table and starts the, "how was your day?" chatter. The kids just eat it up. By dinnertime I am just so wiped out that I just sort of sit there and listen. What am I going to say, anyway? "Oh, my day was just wildly interesting. I woke up, made breakfast, got Lucy out the door, gathered laundry, started the laundry, finished yesterday's laundry, swept the floors, mopped the floors, vacuumed the floors, did the dishes, wiped down the counters, ran errands, made lunch, swept the floor, gathered more laundry, picked up the family room, sorted out dinner, bathed the babies, swept the floor, drank some water, made dinner and here I am! Wait, I'm sorry. Did I say the same thing last night? And the night before that? And three nights ago? I'll probably say the same thing tomorrow!"

So I usually just listen. Tonight Andrew happened to be away for dinner so Molly started the talking. "Lucy, how was your day?"

And here's how it went:

Lucy: I had a hot dog for lunch!

Molly: You did? Wow. Hot dogs are so good!

Lucy: Yeah..and chocolate milk, because I always have chocolate milk if Mommy lets me buy lunch. (which is like twice a year)

Molly: So cool.

Lucy: And I had a tomato. I thought it might be pepper, so I licked it first but it was a tomato. It was so good. You know I love tomatoes.

Molly: I don't.

Lucy: I know. This one was actually two tomatoes. Sliced.

Molly. Wow. Claire's peeing.

::silence::

Claire: I am.


So maybe I'm wrong. They might actually get a lot of entertainment out of my day. At the very least, it's nearly on par with a tomato.