Part 1: A Scattered Wake-up5:30 Josh and Mal get up for the day. (And I say it every morning: Thank God for Josh)
6:00 Zeke gets up and asks me 1st if daddy is staying home and 2nd if he can watch cartoons. Having received two "no's", he curls up on Josh's pillow and goes back to sleep.
6:30 Josh brings me Mal (asleep! woop woop!) and goes to work. Mony Mony starts meowing incessantly but I ignore her, and then throw a pillow at her.
7:30 Malachi wakes up again and we get dressed and head downstairs. I put him in his highchair with toys so I can do a few chores.
By the time I have the hysterical cat fed, water on the burner to boil for tea, and a load of laundry started he is getting cranky with highchair time.
We move to the livingroom floor to fold towels. Mal likes to crawl towards the folded towels but he's still slow enough that I only have to pull him back twice. By the time I'm finished he's cranky with floor time as well so I try playing, nursing, rocking, and playing again to no avail.
8:30 Malachi is still fussing and now I'm cranky too. It's already to hot in the house to drink tea.
9:00 Mal is asleep on the couch.
And I'm trying to restart my day. If you put ice in tea it becomes iced tea. I pray for patience and a good attitude. I start the AC and begin to clean up the kitchen a bit (Thursday is kitchen day). I make breakfast.
9:30 Breakfast is finished and I'm beginning to worry about Zeke. I go up to check on him and am greeted by a "Hi Momma! I woked up!" It was cheerful, despite this cranky picture.
I dress him and we go down to eat breakfast together. Homemade apple juice (thanks Kaitie!) and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. Malachi wakes up for a 3rd time and has a little bit of mashed banana.
Part 2: The Afternoon10:00 We clean up breakfast, pack a bag, and head to mindful mamas. Zeke doesn't want to go and runs away, but "super Zeke" is willing so Zeke puts on a fuchsia cape and then his shoes.
Our speaker is Shelly Northern, a local midwife and she leads us in a discussion about birthing options in Spokane, the balance between respecting a woman's choices and protecting yourself in todays litigation society, and so much more. I love talking about birth. Mal nurses while we are there, and also tries to escape to the toy room a few times, but mostly he plays with toys next to me or sits in my lap. I take notes for the website. Zeke wanders back and forth from the toy room.
12:00 It's time to come home but Zeke doesn't want to. Neither does Super Zeke. He also doesn't want to wear his shoes, doesn't want a snack in the car, isn't thirsty for water in the car, doesn't want to count trucks on the drive home, isn't hungry for lunch, isn't tired for his nap, doesn't want to be carried, doesn't want to walk, and doesn't want to come back next week. I'm out of ammo. Tantrum ensues.
12:30 The tantrum is over. Zeke puts on his shoes and walks with me to the car. He says he's "very sad" and I agree. I thank the heavens for Malachi because my arms being full is the only thing that kept me from just picking a kicking and flailing Ezekiel up and dragging him to the car. I absolutely hate physically dominating him like that but its soooo tempting.
Malachi falls asleep on the drive and transfers to his crib. Zeke yells "no nap!" and runs into the backyard but by the time I've put the baby down, my bag away, and my shoes off he's changed his mind and takes his nap as well.
I hang the laundry on the line to dry.
Then I jump online. As soon as I'm finished checking my email and facebook Mal wakes up and I nurse him while I read my blogs. He falls back asleep on my chest and I read my daily chapter out of "Power of a Praying Parent". Its not quite as good as "Power of a Praying Wife", but that's ok, I've always found it easier to pray for the boys then for Josh anyways.
2:00 I watch Angel on Netflix while Mal naps on my chest.
Im an avid fan of anything by
Joss Whedon, no matter how terrible it is (I'm talking about you
Doll House).
3:30 Zeke wakes up about halfway thru my second episode. Mal wakes up as well when he walks in the room. Zeke eats lunch (peanut butter on ritz and frozen grapes) outside (by his request) and naked (also his idea).
Malachi gets crackers too, and I finish cleaning the kitchen.
4:30 Zeke has moved on to the pool.
Mal has moved on to my back.
I am almost done cleaning and Josh calls to say that he will be home at 5:30 and are we up to going to the park for a picnic. I say "yes", and realize when I look at the clock that I better hurry up. So I finish sweeping and make the executive decision that the floor doesn't need to be mopped.
I bring the laundry in, fold it, and put it away.
Mal plays with rubber blocks.
When we are finished Zeke wants to read "One Two Three!". I read it to him 3 or 4 times. I also try to nurse Mal while we are sitting there but he apparently believes this would be too convenient. Anyways, he wants to see the pictures.
I ask Zeke if he wants to go to the water park (aka splash pad) and he yells yes and runs upstairs. I go to my room with Malachi to change clothes.
Zeke starts screaming "mama" and running around frantically. He cant find me and assumes I have left him behind. I yell that I'm in my room and find that he's changed into his swim trunks and his sandals all by himself.
I pack a picnic while Zeke jumps up and down yelling "yay yay yay yay yay!" and Mal fusses about being in his highchair.
Part 3: Daddy Saves the Day5:30 Josh walks in the door and right before we all walk out Zeke yells that he has to go pee. He runs into the bathroom, takes of all his clothes, including shoes, and goes in the potty. The appropriate clapping and jelly-bean-giving ensue. I am relieved. I had forgotten that under those shorts there was no diaper.
We arrive at the park and Zeke runs off. He comes back from time to time for a bite.
Mal is stuck with us on the blanket, but he doesnt seem to mind.
Malachi and I are abandoned by Josh, who goes to swing Zeke. I start to wish I had brought a book. Mal is quite happy to pull at grass. And also to nurse.
7:30 We go home to many tears, despite the promise of ice-cream. I say that homemade icecream is better the next day when its properly frozen. Josh disagrees and says its best the first day when its still soft-serve.
I take a shower. Boys wrestle on the floor.
8:30 Bedtime for both the little ones. Josh takes Zeke and I take Mal.
9:00 Josh and I sit in the livingroom on our separate laptops. Its romantic ok?
I was not aware that tomato plants could grow so big. We must have at least 50-60 tomatoes, and that isn't exaggerating...it might not even be high enough. The plants are taller than Zeke and our stakes are sadly sadly strained.
As the weather has cooled off, I went thru and pinched off all the remaining flowers. I was worried with so very much fruit and the season being soon over that they wouldn't turn red in time. I read that if you pinch off the flowers (which wont have time to fully develop anyways) the plant will have more resources to devote to existing fruit. 
I'm not sure if it worked, or it was just time, but I picked 5 or 6 ripe tomatoes to make lasagna this weekend and already I have 3 more waiting on the windowsill.
The pepper plants ended up filling out, and now we have quite a few peppers as well. 3 or 4 per plant and we planted 9 (and lost one). The peppers are causing me a bit of a conundrum. I don't actually know how to tell when they are ripe.
We ate one with breakfast recently (scrambled in our eggs) and it tasted fine, so I suppose I will just pick them as I want them, starting with the biggest first.
The green beans never did grow very thick. I think they never recovered from that bug attack early this summer. They have pretty much finished producing at this point but we ate a good 4 meals off of our 2 5 foot rows, which isnt bad if you ask me. Especially considered we had given them up as lost. I'm excited for next year, to see how many beans we get off of healthy plants.
