typical tuesday: Vashti Radder

Hola! Have a good independence day? I hope so. I found myself stuffed full of BBQ, sitting in a lawn chair, holding a half naked baby in my lap, smelling fire cracker smoke, and watching fire works. Dreamy. 

ANY way. We have a typical tuesday from one of my dearest e-friends. No joke, we were actually raised in the same town and had the same friends, but never really crossed paths. But thanks to the blog world we are now friends. We keep tabs on each other and kinda "check in" when we know there are rough patches in life. Kinda funny how the internet opens doors and friendships. Back to Vashti, she recently just finished a year with out her husband. Yup, a military family. He was away in training and she was  the mom with two girls at home making it work. HARD. Now they are in CA living with him on base. All I can say is I have so much respect for military families. Thank you Radder family for all you do.

Thanks Rachel for having me on your lovely blog!

Firstly we need to address the picture issue. The last few guest bloggers have been photographers, therefore their pictures were magical. My camera is as old as the hills, therefore my pictures are slightly less magical. You have been warned.

It takes me a long time to wake up fully in the morning, so I didn't start taking pictures until a little ways into my morning. Typically Olivia waltzs into my room when she wakes up to tell me "It's light out Mommy, I'm awake!". This morning it was at 5:30 am.

After a little movie time with her I jumped in the shower, made the beds and got breakfast rolling. Shredded wheat with sprinkly toast (toast with brown sugar).
While the babes eat their breakfast, I do very important things. Such as check my email, google reader and facebook. After breakfast, I get the girls cleaned up and I whip up my breakfast. Then I give them their toothbrushes and tell them it is now sister play time. They play in Olivia's room and then this is where my game starts.

I race myself to see how much of my chores I can get done while they are holed up in Olivia's room. I do really good under time crunches, so with the threat of them deciding they could be all finished playing at any moment I race around like I am on a game show. They love their morning play time, it is like it is some secret club that no Mommy's are allowed. Often their room is a disaster, but the clean up for that is a group effort.
This morning I ate my breakfast for the first little bit of them playing. Scrambled herbed eggs. I read a recipe wrong this week and bought WAY too much parsley and scallions. So everything I have been making all week is having them added. Even though it is only like a dollar of produce if I didn't use it, it hurts my brain to have it go to waste. So herbed eggs it is!

Plus a day is not typical for me without my beloved Crystal Light. Yes I understand there is nothing natural in it. Yes it has artificial sweeteners. Do I care? No. It is like the nectar of the Gods to me. I should invest in Crystal Light stock because I am pretty sure my consumption is single handedly keeping them in business.
So this morning they played super well. It gave me enough time to sweep and mop all main living areas. Do the dishes and laundry as well as put on my makeup. Right about the time they were ready to come out I was getting our snack ready for the park.
Sigh. Please meet my Bob. How I love him so! It was our first big purchase of anything like this and we got it right before we moved to CA and it has saved my life. We use it EVERY day. It is like a dream!
We live in the Ord Military Community (formerly Fort Ord) and we love it here! This was our view on the walk to the park. Ocean as far as you can see! The weather is bi polar here so I always leave our house prepared. Like sometimes it is total dense fog at 58 degrees and then ten minutes later the fog burns off without a cloud in the sky and a warm 75 degrees. Dressing in layers helps. I love the fog. It is so magical. I feel like I live in the Mists of Avalon or something.

There are a kerbillion parks where we live and we usually hit up one daily. A bunch of us Moms text or put it on fb and then we all meet up and let the kids play!
After our park extravaganza we come home for lunch, PB&J with strawberries.
Then naps for this girl.
AND this girl. Olivia doesn't always take a nap, but she didn't sleep very well the night before and I lucked out with her passing out too!
I have a strict rule for myself. I clean, organize and do chores while the kids are awake. When they are napping I do not do any chores. It is my break time (unless I switch a load of laundry). I eat lunch and relax and then hit the routine hard when they awake. It leaves me feeling fully refreshed and ready for the girls.

Today's lunch was leftover Cheesy Broccoli Soup, so good! I also watch my new favorite show right now. Monarch of the Glen. I LOVE BBC. It has some saucy shows on there but their period stuff and comedy's are my favorite ever. Netflix suggested that I would like Monarch of the Glen, so I gave it a go. I watch an episode while I eat my lunch. This show rocks! It is witty and funny and the characters are so perfect. The crazy old Dad, Hector, is my favorite. I am pretty sure I was English in a past life or something.
When the girls wake up we begin Daddy watch. Today was a rainy day which is pretty rare around here. Normally we would play out front and do side walk chalk while we wait for Daddy, but today our vigil was from Bianca's room.
The girls totally spotted him before me. Daddy! We are in CA because Marcus is attending the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey. He is learning Korean to be a Cryptologic Linguist for the United States Army when he is done here. He is about 1/3 of the way through the course. The testing requirements to go to this school are really high and we are so proud of how hard he is working! The days are really long and there is a lot of homework he has to do every day. We really try to take advantage of any free time that we have and explore this beautiful place that we live in!
This is very typical. Marcus pretends that it is too tough for him to get his boots off and asks the girls to help. They take this job really seriously and "help" him get them off.
I have dinner done when Marcus gets home so after a quick outfit change we sit down to eat. Cheesy Ranch Chicken with Herbed Rice (told you, this week is herbed everything) and corn.
We tag team the dishes and dinner clean up and then I go on a little run. There a couple gals in my neighborhood who like to run too, so we always meet up around 6:30 or 7 and go on a little run. Like 2-4 miles depending on which route. Marcus gives the girls baths while I am gone and by the time I get back I can still see the girls and we can do family stories and prayers all together.
This is how I look after I am done. All sweaty and crazy. Running really helps me calm down my mind. I feel all mentally rejuvenated and it is a great stress reliever for me. Depending on how things are at the house when I get back, I try to do some Pilates or crunches and stretch out my muscles.
Then we will sometimes watch a little movie together, or make a "floor bed" to all cuddle on. Marcus working on Korean when he is at home, very typical.
Tonight, after getting the girls down, Marcus had some meetings. I invited my friend Tammi over and we watched Becoming Jane and had a little girl time. When I am liking something, I REALLY like it and this week I have been having a really fervent Becoming Jane phase. Like I have been watching it every night, seriously. Tammi couldn't believe I would watch the same movie over and over like that and having not seen it herself, I invited her to come watch it with me.

After the movie Marcus got home and then it was homework for him for a little bit and then bed time for both of us. We normally finally go to sleep around 11 ish. That is what a typical Tuesday for us looks like! Thanks for having me Rachel!

Thanks Vashti!

Wanna share a typical tuesday with us? Just email me, K?