Not Back to School Blog Hop - A Day in the Life

This week's theme for Heart of the Matter Online's Not Back to School Blog Hop is called "A Day in the Life" I get to give you a glimpse into what an "ordinary" day of my life looks like!

6:27 am - I roll over, look at clock, realize I need to get up so I can fit a shower into my day before anyone else needs me

6:40 - Actually get out of bed for said shower

7:10 - Sure enough, Judah (17 months) is up and chattering already (even though he didn't go to bed until around 9 last night... why can't this boy sleep in?!) Oh well, just means there's an early nap on the horizon!

He always starts his today with a banana and a smile! Today there's an added bonus of an airplane, too!

7:20-7:30 - More sleepy stragglers are making their way to the bathroom. Breakfast isn't until 8, so they all retreat back to their rooms for now. I start putting breakfast together - today its something easy, just bagels with some scrambled eggs.

7:50 - As I prepare breakfast, I have to move paint cans, rollers, and trays out of the kitchen. I even discover a roller wrapped in plastic in my fridge! Michael has spent the past few nights up until 2 am, busy painting various rooms of the house. I'm making an extra strong cup of coffee for him this morning - I don't know how he does it! The house is looking great, though - we've lived here for 3 years without much color on the walls, so its a huge improvement!

8:10 - The house is buzzing! Breakfast, followed by some chores is the typical start to our day.

Something is particularly funny this morning!

8:30 - Chaos is threatening to take over. So it goes when you have 6 people going different directions, doing different things, and a baby wanting to join in with everyone! Its just the normal hustle and bustle for us... it will settle down as soon as we get school started (hopefully!)

8:35 - I print out and edit a story Isaac (9) is working on. He takes the corrected page and gets started working on his final draft. We're waiting for one person to finish their chores (its always the same one... we have a dawdler in the family ;-)

8:45 - Aforementioned dawdler has finished his chores and is now playing "Hachiko" with his brothers. An argument soon breaks out because everyone wants to be the dog, and no one wants to be the owner that dies, go figure. They decide to change the game to "Homeward Bound" and everyone is happy again. I take this small break to go downstairs and spend a few minutes chatting with Michael. I love having a husband who works from home!

8:55 - It's time for us all to gather on the couch for Bible... off to round up the troops!

9:30 - Bible is done - both older boys have memorized Psalm 8 completely, yay!! They all get a snack while I put Judah down for that early nap I mentioned a few hours ago. That takes all of 6 minutes (I read a short story and sing a song), but by the time I come back out, I have to separate arguing brothers and work on "conflict resolution skills", such as, no pulling hair just because someone takes your blocks. And, no taking blocks just because you're mad about something somebody said. Guilty parties have apologized and offered forgiveness to eachother.

9:50 - Back to the grindstone, on to History!

10:15 - Big boys get settled in to do their independent work (Math, English, Reading, and Handwriting) while the little ones and I snuggle down for some fun storytime!

Ezra and Isaac hard at work

Ezra takes a break to sharpen his pencil

Hi Isaac!

10:50 - Preschool time is over and I'm correcting the work the big boys did. The kids have free time from now until lunch. Hooray! I love being able to take a good sized break halfway through the day. The rest of school will happen this afternoon while Nathan (3) naps.

11:00 - Judah is awake, and joins in the fun with his brothers. He is transitioning between 2 to 1 nap a day, but today he will have 2, since he woke so early from this one. I have to be really flexible with his nap times!

(I think they're devising a plan on how to conquer and rebuild the world)

12:30 pm - Two people are crying, its definitely time for lunch!! We're having left-over Lentil soup, yum! (and no worries, both criers are a-ok now!)

1:00 - Everyone has been sent outside to burn off some silliness and enjoy the sunshine! I am taking advantage of the time and catching a quick cat-nap (the pregnancy fatigue still lingers, at times).

1:35 - Everyone is back in and taking a quick shower - 4 boys + 90 degrees + dirt = stinky!

2:00 - Nathan is taking his nap and I start one-on-one time with Joel (5). We're halfway through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! The older boys are doing their math - they couldn't do it earlier because Michael was on an important conference call and the TV is downstairs where he is! Judah is climbing on us and keeping himself occupied by playing with things he shouldn't touch. Which is also keeping me busy.


3:05 - Judah's down for his second nap, and I'm done with Joel's work. No melt-downs (on his part or mine!) today, so I call it a success. Reading lessons can be challenging for all involved ;-) I'm off to correct the older boys' math work.

3:35 - We're sitting down to read Walk the World's Rim, our Read-Aloud for the first few weeks of Core 3. The boys love it! They play quietly with blocks while I read, and I make sure they really listened by asking them some questions when I'm done. They did!

4:00 - Nathan's about to get up and we're all going to have a snack. Then comes our afternoon chores - these are the bulk of our chores and usually take an hour or so. The kids have "zones" that they work in, while I check off my Motivated Moms list for the day. For a little while, anyway, we enjoy some peace that a clean house can provide. It is usually not the same by bedtime, but such is life with 5 kids under 10, I think!

4:15 - I had to return a phone call to a friend, so my chores are put on hold for a minute. The boys continue with theirs while I go into my bedroom to be able to talk in relative peace and quiet.

5:15 - We're still working on chores. Normally by this point, I'd be getting dinner started, but tonight Michael made plans with friends of ours to go out to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant! Yum!! That is definitely NOT part of our typical day! If today were more typical, I'd make dinner and we'd eat sometime between 6-7. Michael is reading through a chapter of Luke each night with us, then he and the kids usually do some dad/boy things (ie. Nerf sword fighting, hiking up Stone Mountain, working on a house project, etc).

5:30 - We're loading up the car and heading off to dinner! We're excited to see some friends we haven't seen in over a month.

9:30 - We finished dinner and everyone has come back to our house for some ice cream!

It's important to have a good variety available!

12:10 am - Our friends just said good-bye for the night (isn't it great when you can have such fun fellowship with people that you literally don't notice the time?!) and we are all heading to bed. This, again, is not typical ;-) Typical looks likes bedtime for the younger set at 8:30, the older two between 9-9:30, and then for Michael and I around 10/10:30. So tomorrow will be a later start on things, for sure. But, that's the beauty of homeschooling - flexibility!

Thanks for spending the day with us! Be sure to check out other homeschoolers' days at the Not Back to School Blog Hop!

Nathan waves good-bye to everyone!