I've seen a lot of bloggers do "A Day in the Life" post that basically gives a picture of a typical day in their life. I've thought about doing it many times before, but felt like I didn't have time to document it all. I was right....I don't! Ha! But, I made the time for it because I will want to look back and see how crazy our days were. ;)
Day: Tuesday, September 6th, 2016
Our Ages: Jared is 32, Katie is 32, Arabelle is 2 weeks shy of 8 years old, Bo is newly 6 years old, Mae is 3 years 3 months old, and Zeke is 15 months old
6:15 am: Jared is already up and outside moving some dirt around in the drive way to level it out, I am up trying to get dressed, etc before the kids wake up. The few quiet moments before the day begins is priceless!
6:45 am: Zeke is awake and crying, so I get him quickly before he wakes Bo. He gets a sippy cup of almond milk and we snuggle and watch Curious George for a few minutes.
7:10-8:30ish am: Bo and Mae come downstairs, so we all get breakfast. Waffles with PB & Nutella with a banana for all of us! Arabelle follows a while later and fixes herself a bowl of cereal. We do a few chores (laundry, clean up the kitchen, pick up a little) and get dressed. It's all a little chaotic at this point trying to get everyone doing what they need to be doing. Jared leaves for work a little before 8. We do our Bible verse for the week and devotion, read a chapter of the biography we are finishing up (Squanto), and introduced our poetry for the week (Daybreak by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
8:30ish: We went outside to get some fresh air and I attempted to do some exercise, but it was kind of a flop (fighting kids, chasing after Zeke, etc), so we walked/rode bikes down by the pond and to the craw fish hole. We stopped to look at some cool bugs and flowers, of course.
Around 9:00 am we came inside, got a drink of water and the little two kids went to the play room to play. Arabelle and Bo took turns doing their hand writing lessons (independently) and All About Reading lessons with me.
9:30 am: I went upstairs to get Mae and Zeke from the playroom. They are finally adjusting to playing up there for about 30 minutes without having a meltdown. I set the kids up at the table (Zeke in the high chair) to do Play-doh and read our Story of the World chapter on Ancient India. We had discussion and found India in our
Maps book.
10:00 am: We grabbed a snack and went on the porch with a library book Emily's Balloon. This was a pre-school book and Mae really enjoyed it. We read it twice, then the kids played in the yard and on the back porch for awhile.
10:30ish, we all came inside. The big kids went upstairs to play Legos and the little kids played cars and watched Zoo Clues on Neftlix while I folded clothes.
10:50 am: Arabelle came down to do her math lesson; Bo did a math app on his tablet and Mae played a letter game. Zeke just stuck with me while I did A's lesson with her. Zeke was starting to fall apart at the seams at this point. Dropping that morning nap has been a little rough!
11:15 am: lunch for Zeke, Bo, Mae, and me while Arabelle finished her math work book (her choice...wasn't withholding lunch!)
11:40 am: Arabelle was eating lunch, and the others were finishing and I started cleaning up from lunch. Bo and Mae put clothes in the dryer, I started the dishwasher, Arabelle played with Zeke and a bouncy ball, which he LOVED and finally made him less cranky. :-p
12:00 pm: Finally made it to Zeke's nap time (yay!).
12:15 pm: I turned on a Paw Patrol show for Mae. Arabelle started on her cursive handwriting book while Bo and I did his math, then Bo finished his writing book and Arabelle finished her math workbook.
12:35 pm: Read aloud another chapter from our Squanto book and had the big kids work on retelling.
12:45 pm: Took Mae up to nap and read her a book. I laid with her until around 1:00 and actually slept about 5 minutes. It wasn't much but actually made me feel a lot better.
1:00- 1:20 pm: Did Arabelle's reading and spelling lesson while Bo looked at a Lego book and played with Hot Wheels. They were anxiously awaiting their Amazon packages...they both ordered Legos last week and UPS usually delivers soon after lunch. Arabelle wore the UPS hat all afternoon waiting (thanks Aunt Dawn!).
1:20-1:50 pm: The kids played on their tablets while I cleaned out the carport and van then did laundry.
1:50 pm: I sat down to do a little home school planning and read some home school blogs.
2:05 pm: Zeke woke up from his nap. He is always so snuggly and cuddly after he wakes up. I love it! He seems so long now when I hold him!
We peeked on Mae and she was sleeping good!!!
2:05-2:30 pm: The big kids got off their tablets and we played in the den for a few minutes.
2:30 pm: Snack time (grapes and Vanilla Wafers) and cleaning up
3:00 pm: Mae came downstairs for her snack and the kids played a few games of Sequence
3:15-3:40 pm: Arabelle got ready for swim stroke class (first day back to it!) and I turned on Thomas the Train for the little kids so I could get dressed and get us ready to head out. We took silly pictures and videos to send to our babysitter Lysa, who is away at college now.
3:40 pm: UPS finally delivered the coveted Lego sets the kids ordered with their money!
4:00 pm: Out the door to get Arabelle to swim. She was really excited to be back in the pool!
4:45 pm: Arabelle is signed up and swimming and we ran to Walgreens to get Bo some cough and cold medicine and Harvey's to pick up fruit.
5:05 pm: Back at the college while Arabelle finishes swim. We stayed outside and played until it was nearly over at 5:45.
Here's a video of Mae and Bo running.
Zeke kept trying to put a rock in his ear....that was annoying. Ha!
6:05 pm: HOME!! Mae and Zeke both wanted a cup of milk and I only had one clean milk cup, so I put milk in Zeke's usual water cup and he had a full on TANTRUM. So fun.
Mae was sweet and swapped cups with him:
She he laid on the floor and drank the milk. Ha!
6:10-6:40 pm: Big kids went up to shower right away. They wanted to start on their new Lego sets, so they were eager to please and get going. I took the night off from cooking since we had leftovers for lunch and Jared was going to be playing basketball (he doesn't like to eat much after playing). The kids had peanut butter Nutella or PBJ sandwiches and strawberries and yogurt. Big kids were down and finished eating pretty quickly. they cleaned up their plates and ran upstairs to start their Legos.
6:40 pm: Mae and Zeke into the bathtub together, then to the playroom for books and toys before bed.
7:20 pm: Mae downstairs to watch a TV show, Zeke to bed (he was exhausted and went down quickly!). The big kids were still deep into Legos.
7:30 pm: Kitchen clean up and playing with Mae. She loves to help clean up!
8:05 pm: JARED'S HOME!!! and almost finished cleaning up.
8:20 pm: I go up to tell the kids good night while Jared does bedtime with them and I shower. I am DONE for the night with kids and chores and finally sitting down!
*I almost didn't do this day because it wasn't typical (didn't cook a meal, started swim class, Jared wasn't home in the evening), then I realized no day is ever really 'typical', so I went with it. :)
