Tuesday, April 17

A Day in the Life - a Monday uncensored


 
12:40 am – to bed  (late night for everyone – got home from dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s past 10:00pm, when I’ve normally been going to bed)

7:30 am – I’m up!

7:40 am – settle on the couch for my reading of the day’s Jesus Calling and Bible readings, but first have to separate the pages of my favorite little Bible that are stuck together due to an empty to-go coffee cup that was put in my purse and ended up upside down and dripped onto the pages…  

7:45 am – while looking out the window at the beautiful day starting, I pray for the day, about what I’ve just read, and that I’d trust God’s sovereignty today

7:55 am – check email and facebook (I don’t allow myself to do this before reading and praying… started this last December and it has made a world of difference.)

7:56 am – thankful no kiddos are up yet… I was hoping they’d all sleep in because of the late night…  back to my email.

8:05 am – Annika walks up the stairs to where I’m sitting with a big punching balloon in hand for me to blow up that she received at a birthday party yesterday, she’s always the first kiddo up – blow up the balloon for her… finish up on the computer 

8:13 am – turn on the Hillsong station on Pandora as Annie tosses, kicks, and does an interpretive dance with her huge pink balloon… get off the couch to start a small pot of yummy decaf coffee (I haven’t been able to do caffeine for a couple years now..)

8:23 am - I get ready to get in the shower while Annie starts a puzzle in the kitchen – I tell her I’ll be right out… usually the big kids are up and eating with her at this time  

8:24 am – Morgan wanders up the stairs and joins Annie with her puzzle.  Perfect.  Drew comes up one minute later and plops on our bed to snuggle up.  Now my shower.  Drew first lets me know that the “Tooth Fairy” forgot to come… he of course knows it’s me, as do all of the teeth losing kids, I apologize (I always forget) and tell him to snag four quarters out of our coin jar.  Shower for real.

8:44 am – out and refreshed, Annie is still at the counter with her puzzle.  Grab that cup of coffee.  Remind kids to finish chores and be at the table by 9:30 am for school.

8:45 am – Gavin appears, wants to help Annie with her puzzle – helps her a bit.  I remind the boys that it’s a shower day for them, and they’d better scoot.     

8:51 am – I make my bed, then get out the morning’s group school stuff

8:58 am – slice some strawberries for Morgan and I to have with our toast, everyone else has cereal

9:00 am – slice up the rest of the loaf of yummy bread Jeremy made yesterday  

9:05 am – eat my toast and strawberries with my coffee

9:10-9:17 am – find some copywork passages online at Quote Garden (Spring ones) and copy and paste them into a Word document to print.  A Robert Browning poem for the boys to write a few times, and a shorter springy quote for Morgan… usually they write out of books or Bible verses, but today I felt like mixing things up.  Quote Garden is great for that!

9:26am – prep some preschool work for Annie out of her preschool workbook (Race Into Learning by Crayola) to do while I’m working at the table with the bigger kids… grab her crayons and glue stick.

9:30am – I grab another cup of peppermint mocha creamer, I uh… mean coffee, then change the Pandora station to the Nickel Creek station… we gather at the table… we do the following all together: Bible, Devotions, Simply Grammar, read/listen to The Story of the Orchestra, and copywork that I just printed out.  Annie starts her preschool pages and projects… 



9:53am – finish One Year Devotions for Kids, Bible reading & discussion, Simply Grammar together out loud – babies are awake now – give the kids their copywork instructions and set them on their way while I get the babies up and dressed.  



10:05am – out to the living room with the babies, break up an argument about colored pencils between Morgan and Annie – boys still doing copywork (writing the poem out three times that I printed off for them), Morgan starts Explode the Code and Handwriting Without Tears until I can get back to them at the table.  

10:10am - Babies in highchairs, give them each a banana broken up, dry Cheerios on their trays, and a cup of water




10:16-10:20am – pop in to check email, answer one… get back off the computer, back to the table all are done with copywork – having loads of Braxton Hicks contractions today, which is normal for me in later pregnancy… ouchie.  Every 5 minutes or so. 

10:22 am – read The Story of the Orchestra and listen to the classical piece it assigns from the CD it came with – with Gabi done with her food asking to get “out” and “up please” the entire time I was reading.. I shushed her several times, asking her to wait, wanting her to learn patience…  

10:31am – 10:35am– get up to put the CD in… listen to a piece from Haydn and one from Mozart after reading about the Classical Era… get Gabi and Levi down from their highchairs.  Keep the CD in after we’re done listening… the kids begin their independent work… (Geography, Handwriting, Reading…  and Math for Morgan only, the boys recently finished their Math for the year. Yay!) 

 Oh my, this is already three pages of a Word document… feel free to quit reading!

10:41am – Morgan takes a break for a while, and heads downstairs to play.  Annie finishes up coloring and wrapping her works of art up with a ribbon, starts playing with Morgan… babies are now playing with play dishes and a tea set... boys are reading in the living room.





10:48am – pick up the bathroom, put away some of my clothes that were lying around… get Gavin set up to do some writing on the computer at Scholastic.com doing the Story Starters  activity:  http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm

10:55am – change a stinky diaper

11:00 am – run downstairs to put in a load of cloth diapers to quick rinse, babies both cry at the top of the stairs at the baby gate.  Come back upstairs, put fresh towels in the upstairs bathroom. 

11:04 am – take a book away from Gabi that she can’t play with, give babies their box of books

11:08 am – snitch two Dove coconut crèmes, tell babies no-no for climbing on top of the fort Drew made to finish his school work in

11:15 am- 11:24 am – read 5 board books to babies… Levi screams because I won’t let him turn the page before we’re ready, he finds his own book while still nestled inside my legs with Gabi

11:23 am – girls arrive upstairs to make a blanket fort too… Morgan says Annie can’t come in until she’s finished, they argue.  Drew tells Gabi no-no for trying to break up his fort.  I help the girls solve their argument… Morgan says Annie can come in when she’s finished.  



11:26 am – Levi falls over, cries.  Comfort him.   Gabi falls over, starts to cry.  Sets Levi off again, he starts wailing louder.  

11:27 am – take babies to their room for some new scenery, make them a “fort” between their cribs with a blanket.  Levi hits the fort out of frustration, reprimand him… follows me out to the kitchen crying.  He is REALLY fussy today… Pick him up, he picked up a cold that arrived last night... he looks sleepy too.   



11:30 am – all four big kids are in forts now.  Gabi finds and puts on her new coat I got her for next year on clearance for $4, wears it for a while.  



11:32 am – Jeremy calls, tell him he’ll enjoy reading my Day in the Life…  

11:40 am – phone call from Levi’s social worker

11:42 am – put babies’ laundry away, take the babies with me into their room

11:45 am – Morgan comes in crying, Annie kicked her in the nose... solve that issue, they hug and make up.  

11:47 am – Levi hits Gabi, gets put in his crib.  Keep going on laundry.

11:52 am – finish laundry, ready for Levi to get out of his timeout in the crib… shouts "NO!" at me for no apparent reason, he serves more time.  That is absolutely not tolerated around here.  

11:55 am – clean up books and play dishes off the living room floor with the girls

11:57 am – have a talk with Levi, and get him up

12:00 pm – Drew invites the babies into his fort.  Happy babies.  

12:03 pm – proof Gavin’s story with him, he makes corrections.

12:14 pm – Gabi gets put in a timeout in her crib for being ugly to Morgan.

12:21 pm – go get Gabi up – boys are now downstairs playing until lunchtime.  Morgan playing with Levi in a fort.   

Oh, my word, the babies are fussy today…  hmmm… what to do, what to do…  

Tickle and wrestle Levi for a while until he is belly laughing.  That gets him out of his funk.  Play with him in his room for a while…  Gabi plays with the big girls in a fort. 

 Annie kicks Morgan again in the fort, gets sent to her bed for being a stinker.  

12:35 pm – start thinking about lunch… grilled cheese?  I think so.  Ugh.  Braxton Hicks – that was a bad one.  

12:50 pm – start lunch for real.  Put babies in their highchairs to get them out from underfoot while the boys load the dishwasher.  Play a little bit of a Richard Scarry’s Busytown video for babies on the laptop while I make lunch.  

12:55 pm – remember that I sent Annie to her bed a while ago… oops… figuring she fell asleep, sent Gavin down to bring her up.  Yup, she fell asleep.  The late night and early morning for her is taking it’s toll!

1:07 pm – still making lunch, a friend calls.

1:17 pm – serve lunch

1:29 pm – everyone is done, Gavin sweeps the kitchen.  I try not to get frustrated by the disastrous state of the kitchen and forts mess.  Put babies down for nap.  Blast the Passion 2012 album.  Start post-lunch clean-up.  Kids clean up the forts and head downstairs for some quiet play.   

1:40 pm  – Plop down on the couch for a MUCH needed rest and break.  Grab the laptop and begin searching for good end of season deals on some Bogs boots for next year to pass down through all the kids… and a snow coat and snow pants for Morgan of really good quality to pass down through all four girls eventually.  Nothing super promising out there that I need to jump on.  I’ll keep looking at another time.

Need to do Science and History with the big kids and Math with Morgan, but I just can’t bring myself to get on that yet.  I feel exhausted from the morning - I’m gonna chill here a while.   So sleepy…

2:00 pm – 2:55 pm – laid down on the couch with kids downstairs… can’t sleep… but sure tried.

3:00 pm – call kids up for the rest of school… boys unload dishwasher, while I do Math with Morgan.  Annie plays some preschool games on the computer.  I’m still super sleepy, um… and grumpy.  

3:18 pm – pray together with the kids, since we’re all feeling a little grumpy…  then read with the kids from three different books about the planet Jupiter, in our study of the solar system this spring.  

3:32 pm – read two chapters of Betsy & Billy with Morgan, the boys listen in while playing solitaire separately on the floor with cards.  

3:50 pm – finish Math with Morgan, then load the dishwasher with Drew’s help

4:00 pm – the kids ask if they can watch their favorite PBS Kids TV show downstairs(Wild Kratts), I say yes, and turn on Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson to listen to on the radio, while I pick up the living room and kitchen – great broadcast on marriage.

4:16 pm – send out an email 

4:26 pm – start soaking cloth diapers in the washer, no dinner prep today... hooray!  Jeremy made today’s dinner for me yesterday:  chicken noodle soup and homemade bread.  I just need to heat it up.  What a husband.  Thank You, God!  

4:42 pm – have the kids head outside to play until dinnertime, bring the clean and dried load of cloth diapers from the other day upstairs and set them by the still napping babies’ door to be put away when they wake up

4:56 – put away all of the large hand-washed dishes from earlier 

5:00 pm – Jeremy calls from town, asks if we need anything before he heads home…  hang up, watch the big kids outside riding their bikes out the window… listen to some more of the Passion 2012 album – good stuff.  



5:14 pm – jump on the internet... check facebook for a sec. Go to my blog, check out my favorite links.  Watch Annie, who is now in full ballet attire, copy ballet steps from a library book she has me pick out for her to copy.  

Big kids still out on bikes… the road is clear of snow, but the rest of our neighborhood is still covered. 



Read a few blog posts that look interesting.

Drew comes inside… starts drawing at the table with The Art of Drawing People set.  

5:31 pm – start heating up dinner!

5:40 pm – have Drew go in and wake up the babies… yikes, they’re still sleeping!  Didn’t realize it was so late even though I’ve been writing out the time all day long.  Going down for a late nap has it’s cons.  

6:00 pm – Jeremy arrives home after a stop at the store and post office… we sit down to eat… 

6:15 pm - then I read them this chronicle of our day. Whew!

The kids laugh at all of the troublemakers and antics throughout the day.  

We sit on the couch and floor to pray with our new little prayer bucket we got for Easter as a gift.  Each craft stick will eventually be filled front and back with people, things, and events we are praying for.  We all grab two sticks, and take turns praying out loud.  




Then Jeremy reads a chapter from Big Truths for Young Hearts to us all… we’ve been s l o w l y  working our way through it since we received it as a Christmas gift.  





7:00 pm – babies are shuttled back to get a bath by Daddy… I hear Levi’s contagious giggle coming from the bathroom… I go in to see what’s so funny… Gabi is dumping water over Levi’s face, and he loves it.  Over and over again.  What baby loves that?  I’ve never known one until Levi!  I take over Gabi’s bath, washing, conditioning, and detangling her hair while Jeremy gets Levi out and dressed in his jammies…  



Okay, I’m done recording the day… I’m burned out – ha ha…


I’m not sure if anyone actually read through this whole day - but this day was so real and hard at times. More so than other recent days.  But it was good at the same time too.  I feel so blessed to be home with these kids.  They are awesome kids.   

Jeremy loved hearing about the day, but said he was exhausted just hearing about it.  Obviously he knows what goes on around here, but he's always at work when we do a full school day - they are much different than lazy weekend days for sure!  











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7 comments on "A Day in the Life - a Monday uncensored"
  1. Amanda,
    I read the whole thing. There are days when I could just lay down in the floor, where Perry would find me a puddle. I know, truthfully, that I'm not the only mom that feels this way, but it is reassuring that we all seem to make it through each day. Not a heap on the floor, but tired, exhausted, frustrated, angry, thrilled, happy, exhausted, determined, etc... I don't know how I make it through, even with the Lord's help. I fail everyday, but I can only imagine what life would be like without His help. Your blog is a blessing and a reminder that there really is enough time in everyday to read, pray, teach the Word to our children as well as taking care of our husbands, children and homes. Thanks tons!

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  2. Phew. I'm tired reading it! I love how your bigger kids settle themselves into schoolwork. At what age did that start? And I like the prayer popsicle sticks, been mulling over ways to make our prayer times more meaningful.

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    Replies
    1. Ruth, I want to say the independent school work time started in the last two school years... they're in 4th/5th now... the boys have a stack of things they do everyday on their own - but Morgan (1st) has seen their example and settles in to work on her things that she can do by herself whenever I have to leave and tend to the little ones. It has been so nice... things sure are changing with age and maturity!

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  3. I read the whole thing! I like getting a glimpse into other moms' everyday lives.. especially a home school day!

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  4. Amanda!

    I read the whole day! Loved it! Woah! U are a busy gal...thought maybe I should record my day like that to keep me going! Also, I have some smaller size MUCK boots that my kiddos have grown out of I believe. (have to dig them out!) Not 7..haha but a couple pairs. :) If you are interested, we can find a way to get them to you and your crew! Keep it up girl, you are such a godly inspiration. Thanks!

    Danielle Pepperd

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  5. PHEWEY Amanda! You had one FULL Monday!!! It made me tired just reading it, but I know the Lord gave you the strength to tackle every situation and its needs. I know you can do all things through HIM who gives you strength too. If only I can do stuff half as good if and when I have kids as you do.
    In Christ,
    Bethany

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