0445- Superman wakes up, brushes his teeth and dresses for PT (physical training).
0500- Superman wakes me from a semi-coma. I stumble to the bathroom, where he's loaded and laid out my toothbrush (how sweet is that?) and brush my teeth.
0505- We meet downstairs for 30-45 minutes of prayer/scripture reading.
0545- Superman grabs his uniform and boots, kisses me, assures me of his undying devotion, and heads out the door for work.
0550- The bread machine beeps. I dump the dough into my hands, shape it, place it in a bread pan, cover it, and leave it to rise while the oven preheats.
0550- I sit down with a cup of tea, my Bible, and a journal and take advantage of the only minutes of quiet solitude I'll have for the day.
0600- The washing machine beeps, informing me that I programmed it correctly the night before and is now starting its first wash cycle of the day.
0630- Bread goes into the oven. I check the day's menu to see if anything needs to be pulled out of the freezer. Back to my Bible and notebook.
0640- Schmabbers and Banana come downstairs and are sent back up to rest quietly until 0700. (I need my alone time!)
0700- Both little girls are back downstairs with happy grins, big hugs, and dragon breath.
0705- 0715- I wake up the remaining sleeping kiddos and make sure whichever teen has class at the high school is up and getting ready for the 0815 bus.
0715- Another beautiful, feather-light loaf of whole wheat bread comes out of the oven. Yum!
0730- Breakfast is started while the kids de-stink their collective mouths.
0730- The washing machine beeps again, this time to announce the completion of the washing. (These crazy German machines take 1:45 to finish a load and only hold 8 lb. of clothes! We do laundry all day long!) 'A' usually hears the machine and puts the clothes into the dryer for me, then starts a new load before coming up for breakfast.
0800- Kids clear their dishes and head in different directions- getting dressed, making beds, picking on each other and starting fights...If all is going well, this is when I can jump in the shower.
0830-0900- We try to start the school day at about this time, depending on what else I'm involved in at the moment. If I'm at all distracted; forget it! Nobody is motivated to start until I'm looming over them.
0900-1200- School, reminders that siblings' body parts were intended to be neither pin cushions nor punching bags, questions, answers, laughter, bickering, reminders that bad choices mean earlier bed time (Horrors!), moments of frustrated mental-blocks, and victorious accomplishments.
0930- Dry clothes out of the dryer, wet clothes in, new load started.
1145- Lunch prep and table/kitchen clean-up.
1145- Dry clothes out of the dryer, wet clothes in, new load started. This is ridiculous! Couldn't we just try having a Naked Day once or twice a week?
1200-1230- Lunch. We like to read a book during lunch, but we've been out of our groove lately. I'm trying to decide which one to start next. In the meantime, 'J' has been occasionally been reading excerpts of whatever book he's reading. He's a great read-alouder!
1230-1315- Recess/free time. Now that the weather's warming up the kids usually head to the back yard to kick the soccer ball around or play tag. If it's cold we have characters in all sorts of dress-up clothes running around in make-believe land. If I'm feeling especially benevolent I might let the older kids play "Dance, Dance Revolution".
1315-1500-The younger kids are often finished with school work by lunch or right after recess. The older ones are usually done by 1500. (It would be earlier if they didn't all suffer from such severe ADD!)
1330- Another laundry switch-out.
('M' working on history while I start beans for tomorrow's dinner of Mexican waffles.)1500-1630-The kids earn tickets for school work completed and can turn them in for minutes on the computer, playing video games, or watching a movie.
1500- Today's snack is apples and peanut butter. Banana came screaming into the room with her mouth wide open crying about the hot peanut butter. 'A' didn't realize we were out of regular, so he gave her the spicy kind (peanuts, honey, cinnamon & cayenne). Oooops! Banana and I made up a quick batch of plain, boring p.b. in our fabulous new Vitamix.
1630- Kids work on a quick check of their weekly chore responsibilities while I start dinner and go over school work. I try to enter grades into the computer daily, but I'm usually a couple of days behind.
1730- Superman is usually walking in the door. After recovering from an onslaught of tackle-hugs, he goes upstairs to change for dinner.
1800- We try to shoot for dinner at this time, but life seems to get in the way an awful lot lately. We're almost always done, though, by 1900.
1900-1930- Either Superman or I usually help the child whose dish day it is, so clean-up goes faster.
1930- The last load of the day comes out of the dryer to be folded while we watch our show. Tomorrow's first load is programmed to start at 0600. One of the little kids grinds flour for tomorrow's loaf of bread and the bread machine is programmed to be finished with our dough early the next morning.
1930-2000- Baths/brushing teeth/story time/prayers/kisses. We try to get the little girls into bed by 2000. 'J' heads downstairs to his bed to read until 2030.
2100-2200- Superman and the older two or three kids and I sit down and watch an episode of whatever tv series we've borrowed from the library. (We don't have cable, so we don't watch regular tv) Lately we've been watching season 7 of Gilmore Girls. Season 3 of House is next. On Sunday, our electronics-free day, we challenge each other to Blockus or chess or Apples to Apples or Labyrinth.
2200- I check the menu for breakfast and set out anything that needs to thaw. We hug our teens, send them to bed, brush our teeth, and turn-in.
I need to squeeze a block of work-out time in there somewhere, but I haven't figured out how to do it consistently yet. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!
11 comments:
Now I'm the one that's tired! Whew! Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your very busy day!!
Blokus is our FAVORITE!!
Many hugs to you and yours. 8-)
Even for a retiree, making time for the work-out is not fun. It doesn't come naturally, not something I'd choose to do if there weren't a specific reason to keep the bones healthy and the old body functioning at a somewhat good-for-me pace. So I do double duty since the work-out is rather mindless. That's my prayer time --might as well engage the mind and connect with the One who loves me most. I may slack off on other "chores" but that's the one I really miss if it goes by the wayside. So my advice is to do the daily work-out discipline a few times then incorporate the prayer. Works for this person. Of course, I don't have several younguns to interrupt. But I feel a bit like Hannah Wesley who used to sit with her apron over her head when she needed to spend time with God; and her brood of 18 knew not to mess with her when she was so postitioned.
You asked for a comment so there you have it. Anyone else who reads this is welcome to try it, too.
Hi Mom!!
Deb --- honey --- you MUST slow down some....nowhere but your house does 1500 come BEFORE 1430...Take a nap my sweet!
First and foremost, welcome back to the blog! I've missed you dearly.
If anyone ever doubted that we're sisters, which wouldn't happen so often if you weren't a stinkin' foot taller than me, this post proved it. Through the hullabaloo of this last month of my schooling I've dreamed of what my typical day would be like and it starts with a bread machine beeping to announce the arrival of a fresh, springy ball of heavenly dough. Look at you! You're living my dream life! I've been saving my money for a bread machine so that this will become a reality. Let me say it for you, "I just want to be you!" :o)
As for when to sneak in the workout, I have a couple suggestions. The first is that you could have mommy recess when the kids have recess or the second is that you could forgo the sitcom and workout then. Personally, I think mommy recess time would be easier to stick with. But for heaven's sake, don't even think of waking up earlier to work-out. Humans shouldn't rise that early.
You're so on top of life and I admire all the sacrifices you make to home school your kids. You're a great mom!
O.K., I think I'm going to try working out while the kids have recess starting tomorrow. That really isn't the cop-out it sounds like; 'A' has a dental appt. this morning which means a 3 hour round-trip commute, so I won't be home for recess today. I could do my indoor workout during showtime, but any running (which this sad, flabby body desperately needs) has to be done during the day. Remaining upright while moving quickly is always a challenge, so trying to run in the dark...not an option for me. Fortunately, spring is coming, which means we'll soon have daylight until 11pm. I'm going to plug in the iPod and tune the kids out and implement Mom's suggestion of using that additional time to focus on the most important Person in my life.
Thanks everyone!
I'm with Peyton's Mom -- take a nap!
I loved reading this. Very insightful. Have we mentioned we *may* want to homeschool our children?
I firmly believe that "what gets scheduled gets done" is true. Even more so, the opposite is true. If it's not on the schedule, it probably ain't going to happen. This includes time with the Lord, exercise time, "recess", etc. So it really helped me to see how you squeeze the important stuff in! :)
A few salient points...
1) In contradiction to the previous comment, there is no "may" involved in that thought.
2) Naked Days are the best. We have ours on Wednesdays.
2) Naked Days are the best. We have ours on Wednesdays.
ROFLOL!!!!!!!! I spit my Raspberry Leaf tea alllll over my laptop....
Thanks a lot Scott.....!!
FWIW ~ We just call ours 'Casual Friday'!! ;)
Good heavens!! Reading this post is further proof that: 1) a blogger I will NEVER be!! 2) I'm NEVER visiting Scott & Anne on a Wednesday!! ;-)
I sit and read the blogs the 3 of you write and think.. WOW!! Are my siblings really this INSANE or do they really behave this way?? It's almost more than I can handle. Whew!!
So, instead of EVER blogging, I'll just sit back in amazement/awe as I read my siblings blogs and munch on my incredibly delicious slow-cooked pot roast w/ carrots and potatoes... that, sadly, they won't ever be privileged to eat. Hey, that means there's more for me!! WOO-HOO!!!!
Come on, Tam! If *I* can do this, ANYONE can! The trick is choosing not to be intimidated by the expert wordsmithery evident in Scott & Anne, and Kristin's blogs. (I try to cover my intimidation with effusive verbosity and hope no one notices the lack of true skill.)
;)
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