A Day in Our Crazy Life V

It's September... time again for ADIOCL!  The day I chronicled in photos was Monday, September 22.

5:30 AM: My alarm goes off.  I'm supposed to get up and go running before M starts work, but my throat is incredibly sore and I just want to go back to sleep.  So I do.

7:00 AM: I hear all three girls playing Hot Wheels car park in the living room.  M gets up and gets his laptop ready to go downstairs and work (work-from-home day!)  I emerge from my bedroom and find this:

 

This intense game of Hot Wheels has been going on since yesterday, if you remember.  There's an epic saga of some sort going on, involving some of the cars getting married, I think.

7:15 AM: C helps me make eggs (she taps them, I crack them); I grab some coffee that M has already made.

7:40 AM: We all sit down to eat breakfast.  C helpfully brings the plates of eggs to the table and gets a fork for everyone.  She picked this fork out for me because it "matched my shirt".

While eating I quickly post the sight-singing assignment for my online music theory students.

8:00 AM: We are pretty much done; I get up to get dressed.  My sore throat feels much better after extra sleep, drinking and eating, and so I start to feel guilty for skipping my run.  I put on running clothes to motivate myself to squeeze in the run somewhere else in the day.

8:10 AM:  The girls get started on their morning chore board:

It's a good morning-- I only have to tell them once to get started on chores.  They don't allow themselves to get too distracted so it doesn't take long.  (Not all days are good with this!)  I help C complete her chores but the older girls are pretty independent with it.

 

C prefers smiley faces to check marks.

8:30 AM: We begin our school day.  In the next 90 minutes, N practices violin

 

does her calendar board and records the temperature for the day

 

completes handwriting activities

 

writes in her journal

and flies through a couple of pages in her Explode the Code book.  (Not every school day is this productive.  She was very well rested after a relaxing weekend and rarin' to go.)

While I'm helping N with these things, L and C are playing happily together in the playroom next-door.  L and C playing well together is a new thing in the past few months.  I have to intervene occasionally to police sharing, but for the most part they are peaceful and are really beginning to enjoy one another.  I have all sorts of school activities planned for both of them, and we do them whenever they are interested, but today they just wanted to play.  I never "force" school on them and always give them the option of just playing if that's what they want, since free play is so important at their age.

Anyway, they have a dance party in the playroom for a while, and then bring some Duplos into the "classroom" and build a tower while N finishes up.

9:50 AM: C has an accident.  I take her upstairs to clean her up.  This hasn't happened in a while, but since she's been sick over the weekend her potty training has backslid a little.

10:00 AM: Daddy takes a break from work to do "bike class" with the girls.  (I had been lamenting the fact that we live on a busy road and the girls have no safe place to practice biking, and so as a result, N could not yet ride without training wheels at age 6.  Daddy agreed that on his work-from-home days he would do "bike class" with the older two girls and teach them safety rules, helmet fitting, and balancing on two wheels.  As I predicted, it took less than a week for N to start riding without training wheels, and now she is quite confident.)  Daddy takes N to the empty church parking lot to practice.  L opts to stay home.

10:15 AM: I figure I can hurry through a 5K on the treadmill while bike class is happening.  L agrees to "baby-sit" C, so I settle the younger two girls back into the playroom and they play while I get 'er done.  (Again, it's nice that L and C are happy companions-- a treadmill run while girls are awake is not something that would have been possible until a few months ago.)

11:00 AM: I finish up on the treadmill and stretch out.  Daddy and N return home.

11:10 AM: We start "music class"... we play a musical alphabet game and a different game for rhythmic sight-reading:

C "helps".

11:45 AM: I start lunch while the girls keep playing with music games/Hot Wheels cars.

12:00 PM:  Lunch is ready.

Cheese cubes, apples, grapes, cucumbers, and bread for girls.  Green salad with leftover peanut chicken for Mama.

12:30 PM: Everyone is done, although nobody ate much.  We're all still pretty sniffly and appetites are not great.  The girls get up from the table to play on the porch while I start cleaning up and give them a 10-minute warning for rest time.

12:40 PM: L and C use the potty and I read them a picture book on George Washington.  Then it's kisses, a few "slow tickles" and into bed for both of them.

1:20 PM: I tackle the mess in the kitchen while N rests with a coloring book on my bed.

2:00 PM: Everything is cleaned up.  I sit with N and we have afternoon reading time-- she reads me a bit of a Frozen easy reader

and a chapter from Days with Frog and Toad.

I read her a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods.

2:45 PM: I realize we are out of coffee (MAJOR emergency) and so I decide to run to the store, hoping to take N with me while the other two sleep.  But N just wants to stay home and play cars (like I said, epic Hot Wheels saga going on).

So I report to M and he says it's okay for N to stay home and play while he works.  L pokes her head out of the bedroom just as I'm opening the door to leave (no nap!), and she wants to come with me, so  we go.

3:00 PM: We leave for the store.

A little treat for Mommy while we're out...

It's a beautiful afternoon and it's nice to be out of the house for a bit.  Fall colors are popping out and it's sunny, crisp and clear!

We get the coffee at the grocery store, and stop by the bank and the liquor store.  I'm hoping to enjoy one of these

with M later on after the kiddos are in bed.  (You gotta try it.  The best.)

4:00 PM: We arrive home.  C is just waking up.  N does one page in her math workbook and then we head outside to enjoy the beautiful day with more biking!

Poor N has to ride in circles in our tiny driveway.  But she's still enjoying herself.

5:00 PM: We head in for dinner-- M warmed up leftover pizza.

We take some silly dinner pictures.

5:30 PM: I head downstairs to the playroom "office" with my birthday present to myself that I made over the weekend (apple pie) to start my evening work shift of grading.

Daddy handles supper cleanup and bedtime with the girls while I'm working.

7:30 PM: M comes down to inform me that the girls are in bed ready for their hugs and kisses from me.  I take a break and head up to kiss them goodnight, then head back down.  I can hear M upstairs having to return C to bed several times (she seems to have trouble going to bed while Mommy is downstairs working).

8:30 PM:  One hour later than I had hoped, I'm finally finished with the grading I needed to do.  My head is really starting to fill up and I'm feeling quite sick.  I hear C upstairs crying.  I know she's not feeling well too and so I wonder if there's something wrong beyond just her usual having trouble with  Mommy working.  I go in to check on her and give her a few "slow tickles" but she's still having trouble and doesn't want me to leave.

9:15 PM: I finally leave the room.  She's still crying, but she falls asleep within a few minutes.  I head to our bedroom and M is asleep in bed with The Roosevelts playing on his computer.

9:30 PM: I get undressed and fall into bed.  I'm feeling pretty sick and all I want to do is sleep.  So much for my beer.  Oh well; it will keep for another night.  As I'm falling asleep a million things run through my mind, and one of them is that C barely drank any water that day.  I figured her tummy must have been bothering her and that might have contributed to her trouble falling asleep.  I make a mental note to give her tons of water first thing in the morning.

Then I fall asleep.