My Every Day

Every day for me is pretty much the same and yet brand new things happen every day. Like in the above photo when Little J hopped up to peer at the miniature village set on our counter, unaware I was watching and started moving the pieces around, making them talk to each other - a whole story playing out in his head. That was something new. But still, every day is pretty much the same for me, starting back 12 years ago when I quit my night job as a school custodian, just months before giving birth to our first baby - CT.

Whether it's remarkably different or mundanely the same as yours - we all have a certain way we do things and run our days and our families and this is a peek into how ours rolls, morning to night. ~

This is me. In the place I spend most of every day. In our kitchen. Usually NOT holding a cup of tea.

Before it even gets light outside, my husband is up and getting ready to go to work, then he feeds our dogs outside and is off for his daily adventure which brings us aid for our finances. I think it would be fun if we all acted like 5 year olds and went about every day things as if we were cowboys or pirates on an adventure. If my husband decided to put a patch on his eye, a scabbard on his belt and his bandanna on his head and spent his day at work acting out a pirate voyage. That would be fun wouldn't it?! I'm sure he'd have more fun at work if he did it that way.

Okay, this post is not about his day, it's about here at home. So ~ The older 2 kids are up first in the morning, followed shortly by Little J calling from his crib for someone to come get him. Which they do. They make and eat their own breakfasts ( either cereal, oatmeal, toast, english muffin or pb&j sandwich ) and watch cartoons or play a video game in the living room. MN will get up later ( she always has ), about 1/2 an hour before I get up. This time in the morning is their free time to relax and play since I'm not a morning person. As soon as I get up - all fun stops. I make something quick like cereal or oatmeal for MN and myself for breakfast and have some tea all while surveying the lay of the land and what morning destruction now needs to be tidied and doing half the tidying myself before I've taken even a bite of breakfast.

I send children to get dressed and off to do chores. CT starts taking care of his room full of reptiles, then, mud boots on, heads out with the bowl of food scraps for the chickens to feed and water the chickens and rabbits, bring up a wheel barrow of fire wood or haul down the garbage can to our gate. KN begins unloading the dishwasher and putting away dishes, usually accompanied by Little J, then takes care of her cat. MN is cleaning up her room and helping tidy the living room.

After chores are done ( for the kids ), the two oldest have to start their school work. We started using Switched On Schoolhouse ( click on it and it will take you to the website if you're interested ) the beginning of 2010 and I really like it as it does all the instructing and grading for me. I still have a few kinks to figure out on how to manage the thing but boy is it a time saver for me, especially when Little J was making it quite impossible for me to read aloud each subject to each child or help with math problems with out stopping every 5 seconds to undo some major damage he'd caused while I was focused on the other kids. I do still read aloud a Bible lesson and / or help out with a math problem or something one of them may be having trouble with and oversee that their work is getting done.

Then the 'I'm hungry' s start and "What's for lunch" s. So, I ( with help from one of the kids ) will fix up lunch for the 4 of them and as they are eating, I'll fix lunch for myself ( usually a sandwich, tea and maybe a cookie. ) They somewhat help to clear their mess from the table and I begin to eat lunch and this is always when some catastrophe happens with either the dogs, a kid, a visitor stops in, the phone keeps ringing or Little J poops his diaper. Something that requires me to stop eating and get up and do too much talking. ( I do realize this is a normal occurrence for mothers )

After the lunch is over with and I've cleaned up that mess, I'll move on to stoking the wood stove, laundry, vacuuming or whatever else needs to be done in the house that day. Little J is getting whiny at this point so I'll help find him something to do. The older 2 are usually drawing, playing legos or outside working on a fort of some kind and MN is usually taking this opportunity to bother her little brother so I'll sit her down to work on her reading with me. ( My chance to sit down!!!!! )

Around 3 PM I start dinner preparations and the four kids settle down in the living room for some 'after school' cartoons or CT catches up the Nature shows he's recorded. I cook. And clean at the same time. While something is baking etc.. I might have a few minutes to pop into the study and check emails or do a few things on the computer. A couple of hours later, dinner is ready and my husband rolls in. We all eat dinner together, then Little J will either fall asleep or will want to watch something on video or will wrestle all over the house with his brother. The girls may go play in their room or we'll all settle in to watch something on TV. I'm cleaning up dinner food, dishes, counters, things that have been tossed around the house throughout the day and last minute things I didn't get to before dinner. My husband heads off to the computer or TV, a couple of dogs are following us around the house and a couple of hours after that, the kids get it pjs, teeth brushed and head to bed. This is when I pack my husband's lunch for work the next day, make sure the house is tidy for the next day and after all my tasks on my list are checked off, I'll finally sit and watch something on TV I want to watch or maybe get some time on the computer myself ( like tonight because football is on and I don't like football ) and being as late night is the only quiet time there is with no one to clean up after, I'll finally relax until my eyes say I need to go to sleep.

So, there it is, that's how it's worked for us for the past 12 years and it may change when the kids grow up or it may not ( my mom seems to be busier and does more cleaning now that when she was raising us kids! ) at least I'll have this 'journal' to remind how my every day was.