The Week Reviewed

It has been a busy week. Actually, my life is just plain busy, period. While I may "just" be a stay-at-home mama I do not lay on the couch watching soaps and eating bon-bons. As a matter of fact, in the last week I have only had the time to watch one and a half hours of television. In a whole week. And I'm fine with that because tv rots the brain anyhow and this whole summer I have probably spent a total of five or ten hours watching television, if that. But what gets me is that so many still think that mothers at home have so much extra free time. That we are bored or have nothing to do. I'm not going to compare working mothers to stay-at-home ones because both jobs are hard but I do want to say that I bet the working mothers get to go potty at work all by themselves or eat lunch alone sometimes. Just saying.

So anyway, this past week has been full of appointments. Dentist appointments for all three kids and just one ended up having her first cavity. Vet appointment for Buddy for his shots to be updated. Eye appointment for Ben who happened to get a piece of metal in his eye. Speech therapy for Jacob who is still going twice a week due to delayed speech.

The errands never stop either. Run to the post office to pick up stamps and mail a package to the winner of the contest here on the blog. Go grocery shopping. Run to Wal-Mart to pick up Ben's antibiotic drops for his eye and grab a package of diapers and a box of kleenex. Drop an ad for our van off at the newspaper office. Drop books off at the library. Run a check to the bank.

And the chores. Please don't get me started on the chores. Washing bedding for the second time in a week due to a child's accident (we won't name names), finishing up going through all the fall clothing and switching everything around in the dressers and closets, laundry that is never ending, dishes that won't stop getting dirty, floors that never stay picked up for longer than a minute, bums that need wiping or changing, food that needs to be prepared, phone calls that need to be made, animals that need to be fed, floors needing to be mopped, spills needing to be cleaned, school needing to be taught.

And all that is done with three little ones trailing along. Peace and quiet is a rare event in this house. A moment to relax is even rarer. Quality time spent with hubby is almost non-existent due to never being alone. Being a stay-at-home mama does not give you more time, more peace, more relaxation. It also doesn't give you a paycheck. But it does give you a reward far more valuable than time or money.