A day in the life

I am joining Darcy again for her "Not Back-to-school Blog Hop". This week's topic is "Day-in-the-Life". So, here goes!

"For unflagging interest and enjoyment, I recommend a household of children. If things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison."

-Teddy Roosevelt

Today is Wednesday (right?). I slept in until 7:00. No coffee and Bible reading with hubby (he was out of town), so I opted to read later and sleep now. The house was a wreck (Tuesdays are crazy busy for us and we had dinner with friends last night), so I decide to recruit the kids to help me clean the house before school starts. Today is our only day to not have a commitment in the afternoon or evening, so this will be a "work day" around here!

We have cereal and their devotions. We are reading Leading Little Ones to God, the Toddler Bible, and First Catechism questions. Then we:

~Pick up the house

~Change the litter box for the cat and kittens

~Vacuum the house

~Collect and take out the trash

~Water the flowers

~Pull sheets and dirty clothes and begin laundry

~Sweep kitchen and wipe down table and counters

~Wash dishes

~Wipe down bathrooms

~Put away gifts from birthday party and organize play room

(They also pretended they were some scary thing and ran around with their comforters on their heads and played a game of tag. Boys will be boys!)

10:00 We are done. The kids are dressed. I have not had a shower! They are hungry. We grab a snack and head to the school room.

Between now and lunch, we learn from:

::Phonics (Explode the Code 4 & 7)

::Writing (Journal for 1st gr. and my mixture of creative writing and BJU for 3rd gr.)

::Unit (1st gr. is learning science and history from my own units- will start Mystery of History next year)

(Not so excited about this project.)

(But loved this book and art project. Can you see the sparkly fin?)

These are the books we've read in the past week.

::Spelling Workout (B, C)

::Handwriting (Abeka cursive)

::Reading (Floss + an art project from Veritas Press' comprehension guide for 1st grader) (complete Alice and Wonderland + book report mobile for 3rd grader)

Toot's reading project: a Floss puppet

Jaybird with his book report mobile

::Logic (Mind Benders puzzle for each)

*These subjects were taught while "ping-ponging" from each boy, and the 2 year old. And occasionally I ran upstairs to work on the laundry. Here are some of the things Lydie did during morning school time: (She has been drawing faces the past few months. Aren't they cute?)


Then she put glue on her brother and lost the opportunity to play with him. She spent the next 20 minutes in her room playing alone (with my Grandmother's breakable miniature tea set!!)...and eventually changed her attitude and came down to apologize.

And Toot finished first, as usual. I am so glad he has the freedom to do something creative with his free time and not just busy work. (He also made a yarn ladder on his chair for the kittens.)
12:30 We stopped work and took a break for lunch. Here's how far we got with our list for today.I grabbed turkey dogs, mac and cheese and apples. I gobbled down my lunch while the kids ate. Instead of reading a book to them as I planned, I wrote a card to a friend. Then Jaybird unloaded the dishwasher (I forgot to turn it on last night so we couldn't do it until now!). While he and Toot cleaned the kitchen, Lydie watched a show and I folded laundry.

1:30 We run to Blockbuster...Wednesday is movie night! It is a gorgeous day, so we stopped by the playground for 30 minutes or so. Ahhh, love to breathe in that fresh sunshine! I ask them to let me sit on the picnic bench and rest, but then realize there will not be time to mow the grass later. And this was my plan for exercise today. So, I get off my rear and run and play with the kids.

2:30 We're home and the kids are starving AGAIN. I let them pick a snack. Lydie and I dance and sing around the kitchen to some silly music while the boys eat AGAIN. 3:00 Lydie went down for a nap. We sang and read and cuddled. The boys played together. I put in a new load of laundry and fold clothes. I (finally) hopped in the shower.

4:15 Time to finish school. The boys are hungry, again! But yogurt smoothies will have to do. We learn from :

::Math (Saxon 3 and Horizons 1)

::Grammar (Shurley 1 & 3)

::History (Mystery of History, Vol. II)

::Latin (Prima Latina)
::Bible (Veritas Press)
(Their interpretation of the cherubim and flaming sword guarding the tree in the Garden of Eden. Complete with glitter and everything!)
::Art History (We are studying Etruscan art to go along with history. I made up our history study because I wanted it to be chronological with history.) (Jaybird's Etruscan tomb painting)

As the boys are working on assignments, I create an "art gallery" for the school room, fold laundry and send emails.

6:00 We are just done with school!! Normally we are done by 2:30/3:00 and have extracurricular lessons in the afternoon. We got way off schedule today. But, we had a great day!

Since it's so late, we ordered take-out. Lydie was still asleep! I woke her up and we rode to O'Charley's for curbside service. (Love that!)

6:30 We came home, put out blankets and lap trays and had a picnic. Movie time! It was Jaybird's turn to pick and he chose Alice in Wonderland since he completed the book today.

8:00 A severe thunderstorm passed through. And, Andy came home early from his trip. We turned off the movie, oooed and ahhhed over the sheer power of God revealed outside our windows, and hugged on my husband. The kids passed on popcorn and had some candy instead.

9:15 We cleaned up our toys & food and the kids got ready for bed. I scrambled to get sheets on the bed and gave them permission to put their clean clothes away tomorrow. I read with the kids, prayed with them and gave kisses.

9:30 All is quiet. Andy is already asleep. I had the devotion I missed this morning, put up my clean clothes, started the dishwasher, used the computer, and made sure I am ready for tomorrow.

10:15 I am going to get under the covers and read and pray.

Tomorrow we will have a play date and karate, along with another full day of school. I will need to have an earlier start! (But at least my clothes and house are clean!) This sounds like the CRAZIEST life...why do I love it so much??