Never Too Small to Pitch In.

We took care of my mom and dad's place while they were gone for a week visiting my brothers. Doing Grandma's chores was the highlight of Little J's week. 'I'll fill the water can Mom!" He filled it so we could give water to the newly hatched baby ducks. Then he'd head into Grandma's house, grab an apple off the table and walk around checking up on everything while eating his apple. He'd walk past a patch of mint growing, rub it between his fingers and say to me " This smells good Mom, Papa told me. " Then as he was about to put some lemon balm in his mouth his sister yelled to him " No J! Don't eat leaves!" "Yes!" he replied, " It tastes yummy - it smells like lemon! Papa told me!!" He was right. He really remembers every word Papa tells him. Just wait until Papa tells him about watching the submarine races and being related to bigfoot!

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.

A Day With Little J.

Hi! Wanna come spend the day with me doing some of my favorite things? I like to wake up early. My Mom doesn't. My big brother and I will eat our breakfast and drink our Ovaltine or Juice while we wait for the rest of household to get going.

My big brother first showed me this movie. It's his movie but I like it so much I ask to watch it all the time. I can't focus on anything else when it's on. It's about tractors!

It also has horses that talk on it! My favorite part is where one horse tells me " G is for Gait!"

The horse talks so funny it always makes me laugh.

After the movie, my big brother asks if I'd like to go outside and help him with his chores. I nod my head real hard because boy would I!

Mom's up and she says I should get my diaper changed first but Mom, I don't have time for that right now - I gotta get out and feed the rabbit!

Next we go get a bucket of chicken feed to feed the chickens. My brother is telling me that he'll go in the pen first and throw out some feed so the chickens don't peck my fingers. He says they might think my fingers are caterpillars. I don't know what caterpillars are but they sound like they might taste good. If the chickens want to eat them!

I wait for my brother to unlatch the door - he's real tall and strong so he can do that. He always makes sure I stay safe. After he gets the chickens their food he lets me come into the pen and get the eggs out of the nest box, all by myself!

I got one egg this morning, there will be more later. My brother tells me to take the egg to Mom. I run as fast as I can to the back door where Mom is waiting. I only fall once but make sure to hold onto my egg and it doesn't break.

At the back door, my brother catches up to me and helps me up to the door. We're working on some dirt and rocks back there and they say I might fall.

My mom tells me I did a good job and that she's real proud of me. Chores sure are fun! After the chores are done I'm feeling hungry and I hear my two sisters playing back in their bedroom. They invite me in and while they play with their Barbie dolls, I make some lunch on the kitchen set.

Both of my Papa's cook. I like to go to Grandma's house because Papa is there and he's usually cooking and let's me taste. When I get big I'll cook like my Papa's.

I always feel more hungry after lunch at the kitchen set so Mom makes me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I really like those.

My eyelids are feeling really heavy after I eat. Mom cleans me up. I wander around the living room for a few minutes and then notice my Tater on the floor. A boy's best bed is his dog!

Thanks for stopping by to spend some time with me and my favorite things!

Shelves to go With!

A quickie update: The Murphy bed is stained. The shelves are built, stained and holding books! Yay, books are off the floor! My husband can now easily see all of his gardening and landscaping books, home improvement books, dog training books, hunting and gamebird books, and his massive collection of magazines regarding all of the above topics!

He also has his new flat screen TV set up on the low shelf which houses 2 of our video game consoles, VCR and video game collection for easy playing! Hmmmm.... I might never see him again. No, if I step into the study, I can see him, let me rephrase ~ I may never hear from him again. Next thing on his list: Another hunting trip for upland game birds. My list: Laundry, Clean bathrooms, Mop floors, Clean out kitchen junk drawer, Scour kitchen sink, Make January Menu ( yes, I realize January is half over, if I procrastinate on this long enough I'll just start on February's. ) And, clean out and organize the homeschool supplies / books and children's book closet. The weather is much too dark, wet and dreary to do anything outside and note to my mom: Yes, I did go outside today ( the first in 4 days ) and scoop the doggy pile carefully planted by my Tinsel on top of the lid to the in ground hose bib. It was decorating our front yard to greet everyone that stopped by. Busy, busy, busy!.........

Common Misconception #2

Tuesdays are my busiest day of the week. I've been up for only 2 hours and already done 2 loads of laundry, vacuumed the living and dining rooms, nursed the baby twice, had breakfast, loaded the dishwasher, read 4 pages of the kid's history lesson to them, ( really interesting on the different Indian tribes here before the pilgrims ), made my phone calls to bank and mortgage company, rocked baby to sleep ( he's growing so fast that I don't like to rush that one. ), cleaned off our counters, fed and watered animals outside and a few other miscellaneous chores. This brings me to another common misconception people have - that the more kids you have - the busier you are. Okay, this might only be a misconception for me - I don't know how anyone else's lives work but I think every single time anyone asks how many kids we have and I reply (4 ), they always say " Wow - so you're really busy! " They said that when I only had one child. On some of those makeover shows I think it's funny when they're giving a woman a makeover and they need to give her a haircut that only takes 5 minutes to style or a 5 minute makeup regime because she has one or two kids and has no time for anything.

The thing is, I was way more busy when I didn't have any kids and I seem to get less busy with each new child. What's that saying? " Many hands makes light work." John Heywood

So this is where I admit, I did not do all that work this morning by myself.

I used to have to do it all myself and go to work in between. Now I have many little helpers around and the more quickly we get the work done, the more time we have to play!

Look here, I have time to write this very wordy post on my blog! The kids are, at this moment, playing video games and I'm pretty much free for the rest of the day until I need to get started on dinner and then take CT to tae kwon do and KN to piano lessons. Many ask how I have time to blog? I was reluctant to start blogging for fear it would take up time with my children but soon realized that I was struggling to keep up our photo albums and scrapbooks. Something I used to do quite efficiently and then got way behind on sometime after the birth of baby #3. I still had the same amount of time to sit and put the albums together but was tired of the huge mess it created all over the dining table which then had to be cleaned off to eat meals and it was also extremely expensive to buy the albums and other items needed to create them. With this blog I can document and post pictures all for free and without the mess and in only 10 minutes or so.

The 3 older kids have many chores. MN is really good with laundry. Here she is this morning loading the washer. The only part she can't do on her own is put the soap in - the rest she is proud to do herself.Here is KN and Tater doing the dishes. ( Don't think I let the dogs out of pulling their weight. They live here too! ) CT takes care of all of the outside animal chores and recently switched his indoor chore of vacuuming the whole house to cleaning the bathroom which he is really good at! We've divided up the rest of the chores and every few months we rotate them - some are better at certain things than others and believe me - they still find plenty of time to play after chores and school work are done. ( Didn't I just say they are playing video games right now? ) They also seem to find plenty of time to be bored which I will remedy very shortly. =)