so how was your weekend?

They ask you that in the office on Monday morning. You grin and invariably say, "Good! I just stayed home, playing with the kids."



But, ladies and gentlemen, a real Sunday at home looks like this:

5:00 am. My 10-year-old is shaking me. She wants to jog and play badminton in the local park. I groan, tell her we’ll do it next week, and promptly fall asleep again.

6:00 am. I get up and prepare breakfast: rice topped with taba ng talangka, dried squid and fish, salted eggs, and lots of coffee. My husband has started applying glazing putty on the bare kitchen cabinets, part of the now month-long home improvement project.

8:00 am. I attack the laundry while the nanny attends to the 3-year-old who wants to jump into the soapsuds in the washing machine.

9:00 am. I go to the market with my 10-year-old while the nanny continues the laundry. The 3-year-old is now watching Dora on DVD.

11:00 am. Both kids are bathed. I am not. It’s time to prepare lunch. The 10-year-old has repeated four times that I promised we’d cook maja blanca today and has scattered Angry Birds playing cards all over the living room. I seriously consider being an Angry Bird.

1:00 pm. I sand the double deck in the children’s room, prior to repainting it. The nanny has both kids in our bedroom to get them away from the dust, where they're probably wrecking my little library.

3:00 pm. I peel and slice cassava, which I will cook in syrup and butter, for the afternoon merienda.

4:00 pm. The nanny rushes off to get a pedicure in her favorite salon while the 3-year-old is sleeping. I am applying a second coat of paint on the double deck. My husband, freshly bathed, goes into the bedroom and turns off the aircon. The 3-year-old promptly wakes and starts whining.

5:00 pm. We’re all watching Dora on DVD, and we’ve memorized the parts where Swiper the Fox appears, and we all recite “Oh, man!” so he will stop swiping. The 10-year-old, sick of Dora, hides in the bedroom with a laptop so she can download song lyrics to Korean pop songs.

6:00 pm. I prepare supper.

7:30 pm. The nanny comes back with a new haircut and purple toes, along with the ingredients for the maja blanca, which I had hoped my 10-year-old would forget.

8:00 pm. I start cooking maja blanca with my 10-year-old. We’re done in an hour, and they start eating it hot off the pan. My arms are aching.

9:00 pm. I eat my own supper while Dora (what else?) drones on and on in the background. It’s now playing in the portable DVD player so that the others could watch something else on TV. Dora and Boots get somewhat tiring after three dozen DVDs.

10:00 pm. The nanny is still returning freshly folded laundry in the closets, which means I cannot relinquish the 3-year-old to her yet. We draw lots of ABCs, count pens, and go up and down the stairs (hoping she’ll tire herself out and drop to sleep). By 11:00 pm I’m ready to drop and the kid is still bouncing around.

12:00 mn. The 3-year-old has a bad cold and cannot sleep, so I have to nebulize her. I’m only lying down on the bed when I see my 10-year-old’s PE pants that’s ripped in the crotch, which she has given me on Saturday to sew. So I bring out my sewing kit.

1:00 am. I cannot find my cellphone, which is important because I have to set the alarm for 4:45 am, so I can prepare breakfast. I realize it’s Monday already, and I remember I have not taken a bath.