Right now it seems like there are no typical days. We have only lived in our new community for about 3 months and with a daughter graduating this year, a house needing a lot of work and a variety of ages to school, we haven't exactly gotten on track. I have a Managers Of Their Homes schedule I made when my 2 year old was an infant, and although I have updated chore charts, I am still fine tuning them. Today was not a day I would choose as an example of our life, but it is real life, so here you go.
4:30 My 4 year crawls in bed with us, she is not feeling good so we try giving her a bath to help her get back to sleep. I finally get her settled down about 5:30 at which time my 2 year old wakes up.
6:00 Hubby gives the two year old some almonds to snack on and I drowsily keep watch over him until my 8 year old comes and gets him. I fall back asleep and they watch Blues Clues in spanish.
7:45 I wake up to coffee brought to me by my 13 year old son. I sit and chat for a bit with him and my 17 year old. My 17 year old reads me portions of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. She finds lots of parts of the book meaningful.
8:30 Get quickly dressed, brush teeth, make bed. Remind the kids to get their chores done and get a dish of yogurt with oatmeal for my 4 and 2 year olds. Eat some yogurt and drink some more coffee.17 year old starts laundry, 15 year old does the dishes, 13 year old feeds the ducks and chickens, 2 younger boys tidy up and empty garbages.
9:00 My boys help their grandma, who arrived yesterday, unload her car. I tidy my room, get the baby dressed and give them a five minute warning for Bible time.
9:30 We sing several hymns accompanied by my oldest daughter on guitar. I have to remind the children that I don't want to sing a solo, (the boys are distracted by a chess game they were finishing) Grandma organizes her stuff in the room, littles play quietly nearby while we read our devotion from Long Story Short. It was good today and dealt with Jesus being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We read verses out of Psalm 2, Revelations and Timothy.
10:15 I read a chapter out of Pocketful of Pinecones, by Karen Andreola. It is a nice book about nature study. We then go to the kitchen and eat an oatmeal cookie made yesterday by my 13 year old son.
10:30 I read Evolution Crunchers (author?) to my 3 middle students (15, 13, 10) ,they take notes on the reading and copy out the geologic column. We also read a few flood stories and were amazed at the significance of many Chinese symbols to our faith. The 15 year old has learning delays and the 10 year old is a bit advanced, so they work well as a threesome in many school subjects.
11:45 The 13 year old starts his TT Pre Algebra, 10 year old on the computer with TT5, I help the 8 year old do three pages in Math U See Gamma. The 2 and 4 year olds are "helping" Grandma get ready, I caught the 2 year old trying to put toothpaste on his toothbrush. 17 year old doing reading for school and 15 year old finishing a workbook on analogies (test prep).
12:30 Grandma leaves with 15 and 8 year old for a special outing. Emelie makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the rest of us while I help the 10 year old finish his math. We eat lunch very randomly today, I heat up some leftover strata from last night and eat it on the couch. The four year old has been asking me to play Movie Theatre with her (her whole day tends to go from one make believe to another right now). I put on King Corn (a government and agriculture documentary from Netflix) match socks and try to pretend we are doing all this at a movie theatre. The two year old makes a tall block tower from duplos.
2:00 This terribly unproductive day is flying by. I change the baby's stinky cloth diaper and wash it out, read him a story and put him to bed for naptime. Next, I head outside with the 4 year old and the 13 year old to work in my front yard. I am trying to landscape it which involves digging up all the weeds, hauling excess dirt away and raking it smooth before I put in some plants and flowers. My 4 year old gets in the van, parked very close and emerges with a hat from the Jelly Belly factory, a cup from In N Out and a baby doll. She informs me that she took her baby to the forementioned locations for a field trip. Amazing imagination and props to help her. The 13 year old helps me dig and rake for a while and then decides to clean the car. The 10 year old emerges from the house to work on his garden box that he is building from salvaged wood. My oldest daughter is in the house planning dinner and working on administrative work for her part time job.
3:45 Husband arrives home, we greet him and I continue digging for a while longer. When I realize my neighbor is spraying his walnut trees we all head inside. I was glad for the excuse to quit digging.
My husband is researching cars for my 17 year old. I work on tidying the front room and then get involved in a chess game with my 10 year old. Meanwhile the 2 year old wakes up, not at all happy, he is tending to wake up hungry and grumpy after his naps lately. Emelie is making Burundian Soup which she will post on her blog.
5:30 Grandma and the two children arrive back home. We sit down to eat, a lovely split pea soup, the recipe comes from a country in Africa (Burundi). Grandma contributed a loaf of sourdough bread, we drink water. The soup tastes great and was very economical.
6:30 Scott and Emelie leave for the Alpha class which they are taking at a nearby church. We have still not found a home church here, but are trying to continue fellowshipping with believers as opportunities present themselves. I help the boys with the dishes, dance a waltz with the 8 year old and read a book to the 2 year old at his request ("Read Book"). I love hearing him begin to talk and I love being with my kiddos. We finish tidying the kitchen and dining room, there was some yelling from the boys over who should do the dishes, but it all got ironed out quickly. We ate some grapes together and talked some and then went in the living room to read some books and try to watch The Grapes Of Wrath. We are studying migrant workers and The Great Depression in our history co-op this month and information seems scarce. The movie is pretty boring for the younger ones (good because it is also a bit depressing) the little set up a house and the 8 and 10 year old boys set up a running track. The two groups fight over the chairs (one group wants to jump them, the other group wants to sit on them) I send them to get jammies on and brush teeth. We resolve the conflict quickly, the older one has an issue with an angry response and the 4 year old is being selfish. I then read another book to the two littles and put all the younger children to bed. The 13 and 15 year olds and I share a chocolate, watch a few more minutes of the film and then I send them off in time to greet hubby and oldest as they return from their class.
Not a day I am proud of, it was a little scattered and light on schoolwork, but any day that includes singing to the Lord, reading His word together and spending time with my children is pretty special.
"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" Psalm 118:24
Carrie @ Our Full House
Christi @ Where the Creek Meets the Lake
Elizabeth @ Yes They're All Ours
Kathy @ Kathy Mom of Many
Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage
Lori @ Happy Busy Mama
Monica @ Natural Mama
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