A Day in the Life of "A Family of 12"

Originally Posted on
November 1, 2011

Weather:  Absolutely Beautiful!!

Stress for the day:  None really

Number of cars: 1 (2 broken down)

Starting point:  Glen Ellyn, IL

It all started with a wake up call for my husband, Tim, at 5:3o am from his boss.  I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't work.  At 6:00 am, as I was in and out of sleep, sort of, Tim woke me up and asked if I was taking them.  I thought for a second and said "sure".  So, here we go.............

First stop.  Drop Barrett off at the farm in Carol Stream, then drive to Schaumburg, and drop off Tim.  Drive back home and in less than 15 minutes, sew a button on Dakota's pants, iron his shirt, and be in the car to get him to work in Winfield by 7:30.  Drop him off.

Drive back to the farm and pick up Barrett.  Drive him home and drop him off.  In the door and out in less then 8 minutes.  Out the door with my smoothie in hand and Shane, and head to Arlington Heights so Shane can be at work by 8:30.

On the way to Arlington Heights, stop for gas.  Get to Arlington Heights at about 8:32 (traffic was not good).  Drop off Shane and run to the grocery store for some garlic.  Then to another grocery store in Lombard for more major food.

Go home, and now with the help of the kids, have the car unloaded of all the food, cleaned out and vacuumed (not finished the way I would have done it, but for now it will pass).

In the midst of all this and washing dishes, we start to work on dinner.  It's about 10:45 am.  We will be delivering dinner to a friend who had an unexpected hospital stay.

2 pots of chili.  One for our friends (there's 5 of them), one for us (12).  So chop and measure and mix and stir.  While that's cooking, start the cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies.  No chocolate chips?  No problem.  Chop up chocolate chunks.  While the cookies are baking.  Start the bread.  Finish baking the cookies.  Bake the bread.

Polish the silver tray.  Oh, yea, another miner detail.  Dakota needed to bring a treat to work today for his birthday (October 31st) because he didn't work yesterday.  After a little debate, we decided that they could wait until Thursday for his birthday treat.  But wait.  We are driving right past his work on the way to our friends house.

So..................make another batches of cookies and chop more chocolate.  Oh, wouldn't kettle corn be a nice treat for the office also.  Sure, so grabbed a bowl to put on the silver tray along with a dollie, and popped some popcorn.

Barrett is our popcorn maker and has been making popcorn for about 4 years now and has only burnt it once before, about 3 years ago.  But now twice.  The first batch today didn't turn out, can't figure out why.  Ok, just toss that batch and make another one!!  Done.

Finish all the food and prepare to leave by 1:20 ish.  But first I needed to jump in the shower.  Ok, shower is done, but no time to comb my hair.  Got dressed.  Make the silver tray pretty, load the car, and just enough time to grab a pair of flip flops (or go barefoot).  Thankfully the weather was gorgeous!

Drive to Winfield to drop of the Birthday treats for Dakota.  Emma delivers them and off to Batavia to deliver dinner. 

Cruising music?  Perfect. 

Pachelbel meets U2 by Jon Schmidt, Theme to Titanic, Aria by Yanni, and Yo Ho Hero by Veggie Tales, etc.  Love my new iPhone just for the music, so far!

(Oh know, forgot something.  How is Dakota going to get home from work?  Hm.............called Tim and asked if he could use the work van to get Dakota.  Schaumburg to Winfield back to Glen Ellyn.  Done!!)

Drop off dinner, talk for 4 minutes and drive to Glen Ellyn for my dentist appointment at 2:45 pm.  Leave dentist office at 4:10, drive home.  Drop off Emma and Esther and pick up Landon.

Drive to Prospect Heights to pick up an order before 5:00.  Arrive just before 5:00, pick up order. Drive to pick up Shane at the Mount Prospect Library, thanks to his boss for dropping him off!!

Pick up Shane.  Drive to Des Plaines and pick up a dryer and Landon's sweatshirt (very important).  Hungry.  Stop at Wendy's for a snack, the only place on the way home.

Arrive at home just before 7:00 pm.  Eat a bowl of yummy chili.  Open up machine and learn how to use it for our customers.  Thanks Barrett.  Write a blog post, finally fix the holes in Barrett's pants for tomorrow morning.  In bed, hopefully before 11:00 pm.  Midnight.

Ending Point:  Glen Ellyn, IL

Tired?:  Now I am, it's 10:15

Miles driven today:  162.4

Could I have done this all myself?:  Not a chance!!  Love those kids!!

Would I change my life?:  Not in a million years

The Peterson Family is here to serve you, our customers.  So if you need anything special, please ask, we might be able to help you!!

Thanks for listening.  It was a whirlwind today. Tomorrow.......up at 6:00, drop Shane off in Barrington, pick up Barrett after he is done milking, he needs to eat, drive him to work in Glen Ellyn.........open store at 1:00.............another full day ahead!!

Plumfield circa 1868