Welcome to Not A Rose Girl’s Sunday Scaries Series. This features the random happenings and musings from a stay at home mom’s end-of-weekend diaries (and the never-before-published photos from her camera roll), where she more often than not has grand plans to dump the kids on the Husb and run fake errands. How do you power through to Monday morning?

It’s the first weekend in January after nearly two weeks of winter break for my kids, and I’m more than pumped to slay the new year – but maybe starting after this weekend. Even though we had a lot of downtime at home since we didn’t travel, the busyness of the holidays with kids is still draining – which is why I was expecting the Sunday Scaries to hit me especially hard this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my kids didn’t break me and that the Husb stepped up his game to help me with the kids. I’d say that I scored pretty high on this first-weekend-of-January Sunday.

8:30 a.m.

The earliest time my oldest is permitted to step foot into our bedroom on weekend mornings. (On school days, it’s 7:45 a.m.) Max is like clockwork, because he always makes his grand entrance on the dot. I briefly wonder how long he’s been awake in his room and willing his clock to turn 8:30. Then I banish him to our closet to play with the toys until one of us parental units (usually me) can stir ourselves awake to go downstairs and make breakfast. Don’t feel sorry, it’s a walk-in.

8:36 a.m.

No. 2 is awake and comes to our room. Also gets banished to the closet. They’re supposed to play quietly together with the toys in there. Noone’s allowed downstairs until No. 3 is awake or else they will incur my wrath.

8:57 a.m.

Things are escalating in the closet, and in between fighting and laughter, I hear things like: “RoRo broke your hanger!” and “Don’t move Momma’s nipple cover thing!”. (That’s 4-year-old speak for bra.) That didn’t take long. I yell at them to quiet down or else Momma’s not making breakfast later.

9:30 a.m.

Breakfast. Avocado toast to feed my millennial soul. Cheesy toast and sliced ham on the side for the kids. Second course is fruit because the kids never have trouble eating fruit so I always withhold it until they finish the main part of their meal.

10:36 a.m.

Kids are playing bank. Or is it bank robber? I don’t know, there’s something about lockdowns going on in there. I peek in quickly to make sure all is well, and I see Max has tagged up his little brothers with nametags that say “I am Rowan I work at the bank”. Atticus has an extra nametag that reads “Best #1”… I guess he’s been made Employee of the Month?

11:02 a.m.

In between bank-playing, photoshoot with Max for an upcoming blog post. Promise it’ll be a good one called: “It's Commitment Month: How to Better Yourself with Just One Word This Year”. Stay tuned!

11:48 a.m.

Trying to change the linens on my bed with 3 kids be like. Have you ever seen a human “burrito wrapping” in action? Yea, turns out my 7-year-old’s got mad skills with a giant duvet cover and a hankering for Mexican.

12:15 p.m.

I make a quick lunch of Annie’s mac n cheese with green peas, and a side of baby carrots with hummus, patting myself on the back for this being an “easy lunch” that all three kids will no doubt devour. Wrong. Max comes upstairs from the basement with a pouty face, so I ask him, “Why the sour look?” He says, “Dadda won’t let us play Nerf ball.” That sets the tone for this meal, along with “I don’t really like today’s green peas in this mac n cheese.” Which prompts No. 2 to say, “I don’t really like this mac n cheese.”

1:29 p.m.

I threaten the kids that if they don’t take a nap, they can’t go to our neighbor’s house for the Bears vs. Eagles football game tonight.

1:59 p.m.

Babysitter arrives. Clapping myself on the back for arranging an afternoon date on a whim for us at our fave local orchard. Fifty degrees, live music, wine tasting, and cheese plates, yaaaasss! Freedom!! I’m not jealous at all about the poor chumps at the next table over who have their two toddlers in tow.

2:15 p.m.

This is a picture of the Husb’s wine flights because I don’t drink. But I really enjoyed the free chips and homemade apple salsa. Like, so much that I look a little uncouth stalking the wine table, waiting for the wine lady to turn her back.

4:22 p.m.

Relieves babysitter from two wild monkeys (I mean kids) who are up from naps.

4:40 p.m.

Kickoff for Bears vs. Eagles game. Husb brings kids over to our friends’ house across the street to watch game. I stay home and prepare a Greek salad with shrimp and tomatoes to bring. We used to do weekly dinners together more often the first couple years we moved here, but this tradition has dropped off a bit as kids get older and busier with activities.

7:48 p.m.

After a few too many **Baked by Melissa** mini cupcakes and a painful last 5 minutes of the game, which turned into more like 25 minutes (I hate sports), the clock finally ran out and I herded everyone home and upstairs like cattle to get ready for bed. They haven’t had a bath in two days, so it’s time, even though the big two are whining about it being a “hair night”.

8:22 p.m.

Tuck in, snuggle, say goodnight and close the door. Pray to the sleep gods that No. 2 is too tuckered out to come out of his room, say, 6 times.

8:39 p.m.

Relish in the sweet scent of No. 3’s (freshly washed) soft hair as I finish nursing him before bed. He’s our last baby (not really, he’s 27 months old!) and I want to bottle it all up. I can’t believe I’m still breastfeeding him, but I’m in no hurry to stop and neither is Atticus.

8:42 p.m.

Go through the bedtime goodbye with Atticus. Before blowing him kisses and leaving, I name everyone in our family who loves him, starting with Momma and finishing with “Deer” and “Baby” per Atticus’s request. (Deer, as in the wild deer in our neighborhood, and Baby – well I’m not really sure who Baby refers to lol)

9:01 p.m.

Face mask time, oh yeaaaa! I treated myself to a couple new masks from Glossier during the Black Friday sale, and I also got a bunch of other masks from my sister for Christmas. I can’t wait to choose which one to use tonight! Picking out a face mask or which candle to light is a bit like being a kid in a candy store. There’s a certain feeling of nirvana surrounding this process of selection. I settle on the Glossier Mega Greens Galaxy Pack, which is supposed to be a detoxifying juice cleanse for your face.

9:12 p.m.

Face-masking while Netflix and chilling. See, I can multi-task. Boo-yeah. It’s both horrifying and strangely satisfying watching the new Tidying Up with Marie Kondo series. The empty nesters in Episode 2 are so, so cute, but total hoarders!

10:51 p.m.

Still going strong watching Tidying Up. But my creative juices are also going: planning my monthly editorial calendar for the blog, finishing up a post for Tuesday, and planning an exciting giveaway with RealEats.

11:48 p.m.

Does anyone else’s partner talk about the weirdest things? I guess that’s the thing about married life. He’s going on and on about some new Band-Aids he just ordered off Amazon. He calls them the Bentley of Band-Aids: “I'm so impressed with these new Band-Aids. I almost want to leave a review on Amazon. They're super flexible. They don't stick to the wound at all. Yea, I think I will write one.”