A Day in the Life: A More Typical Day

As I look over my notes from today, I'm both gratified to have done this and a little intimidated at the thought of typing it all up!  It is a busy and full life, but it is a wonderful one too.  And seeing my day scrawled out on this piece of binder paper next to me brings this home in a way I hadn't expected or experienced.  And I'm so glad to have the pictures that go with this day too.

Here's a quick summary of where the time went:

Reading out loud (mostly for school, includes narrations):  1 hr, 55 min
Prayer (alone and with kids, includes spiritual reading):  1 hr, 20 min
Cleaning:  50 min
Laundry:  30 min
Dishes:  1 hr, 15 min
Exercise:  1 hr, 5 min
School (in addition to reading out loud):  2 hr, 5 min
Personal (personal hygiene, email, blogs):  55 min
Personal learning:  30 min
Cooking:  2 hrs
Eating:  1 hr, 30 min

And overlapping with many of these things...  time spent with a 13 month old on my back:  5 hrs, 45 min!

6:19 - Up, praying morning prayer, Magnificat and Letter to the Hebrews

7:00 - Dressed, ready for the day, and downstairs.  Rolling out dough for donuts (because we're into healthy eating around here, folks!  Actually, this is a surprise treat for everyone - usually donuts are only done as a birthday breakfast around here.  The dough was made last night and rested in the fridge overnight)  Frying donuts, making chocolate glaze (might as well go all out!)

7:20 -  Breakfast.  Read Matt's latest NaNoWriMo installment, chatted with Matt and the kids.

8:00 - cleanup, sweeping, read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Nathan.  Yesterday Emma was doing Alphabet Path with him and they did an activity about the life cycle of a caterpillar.  Nathan was so excited to see that we had a book all about this very subject!

8:25 - Trying to decide if I should change Justin or squeeze in my consecration reading.  Decided to change his diaper, then handed him off to Emma for dressing.  Read 33 Days to Morning Glory.

8:40 - Started prayer with the kids - Mass Readings, narration

8:55 - Justin goes in the Ergo.  Memory work for everyone, including me!  I'm working on the new translation of the Nicene Creed, Emma is working on "To be or not to be..." from Hamlet and Mark Antony's funeral oration from Julius Caesar.  Gregory is working on At the Zoo by A.A. Milne.  We also reviewed work they already know.

9:05 - World History read aloud - Augustine Goes to Kent, narrations

9:15 - MEP math with Gregory (or since it is from the UK, I should probably call it MEP maths) Lesson 48, Year 1.  Love this program - such a great combination of hands on, logic, problem solving, review, facts practice...  and it is free.  What a wonderful find, I couldn't be more pleased with it.  Emma did reading, Stack the States app for map practice, and XtraMath for math facts practice.  Nathan was crazy for a bit, then settled down to instrument 3 part cards, then building with sticks and blocks.  I practiced counting and grouping with him as Gregory worked on problems by himself.  Gregory also did the Dot to Dot app for some skip counting practice.

9:55 - Recess.  The boys played ball and Emma and I walked while she narrated from St. Columba by Forbes and Life in Celtic Times (not really narrated from this - more talked about pictures that she found most interesting)  Visited briefly with the UPS guy (delivered our new router, yay!) and my father-in-law.

10:20 - Copywork and weather observations for Gregory, and reading practice with his reader and with the movable alphabet.  Emma worked on Delta, and Nathan worked with letters.  I wanted him to do some letter cards, but he was much more interested in the letter magnets.  I bugged him a little bit, then seeing he was working industriously I let him work.  He fished out all the square letter magnets, carefully lined them up ("N leads the way on the happy parade!") then rearranged the magnets on the board to spell his name again.  Gregory wandered over to spell his name with magnets, then went back to his work.  After this Nathan seemed ready for another activity, so we did the letter cards together - he has the sounds for about half the alphabet at this point.

10:50 - Snack prep.  Half a homemade sourdough whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, sliced pear.  (see, it isn't all donuts around here!)

11:00 - Snack and read aloud.  Today it is Tree in the Trail.  Discussion and narration.

11:15 - Read from Abraham Lincoln to the boys, nursed Justin.  Narration.

11:35 - Boys out to play.  Quickly typed Emma's freewrite from Monday (she was retelling a fairy tale from another character's perspective).  Discussed with her how to expand and improve it, helping her to find some places to add description and dialogue.  Left Emma to flesh out her writing.

11:45 - Huge diaper change.  Happier baby.

11:55 - From Emma:  "Mom, it is fun to write giant-talk, especially when they are arguing!"  Justin is back in the Ergo, and I'm picking up from snack.

Noon - Angelus.  We gathered outside to pray with the boys.  Took lunch orders.  (PB&J for two, quesadilla for one, Leftover chickpea and veggie curry with rice for Justin and me.  Apples for all.)  Working on lunch, chatting with Matt.

12:15 - Justin is asleep, but wouldn't transfer to his crib.  Back in the Ergo he goes.

12:40 - Starting laundry, finally serving lunch.  We watched a video from Discovery Streaming about Salmon spawning in preparation for our fish hatchery tour on Friday.

1:00 - Clean-up, Emma has programming class with Matt.

1:15 - Reading to the boys.  A River Runs Wild, Sword in the Tree, A Drop of Water.  Gregory also read for about 15 minutes.  Justin went in the Ergo at about 1:30 and I read while pacing.

1:55 - Water dispersion experiment - was supposed to be just the boys, but Emma wanted to join in.  Justin is finally(!!) asleep and transfered to his crib this time.  Phew!

2:10 - American History read aloud, Judith Lankaster

2:35 - Read Captain Small to Nathan

2:45 - Boys out to play again, I start a Rosetta Stone Spanish lesson.  Emma is finishing up some of her schoolwork then goes outside for awhile to boss around play with the boys.

3:10 - Briefly check email, answered one

3:15 - Folding laundry, doing dictation with Emma.  She's trying to populate her recipe box with recipes she likes, so I dictated a pulled pork recipe for her to record on an index card.

3:30 - Justin is awake and crabby.  I nursed him and read blogs.

3:55 - Justin goes in the Ergo while I put away laundry, put up chores, and got ready for a walk.

4:10 - Walked the deer path at the top of the property down to the 30 acre property and back by the road with Emma, Nathan and Justin.

Alas, poor Yorick...

4:50 - Cleaning chores - dusting, cleaning a few windows.

5:10 - Dinner prep.  I made a double batch of chicken and black bean enchiladas, one for tonight and one to freeze.  I also added diced tomatoes, bell pepper and onions to some plain brown rice from Monday night and made a salad.

6:25 - Dinner is finally ready.  I was tired and not moving as quickly as I usually do.  Thankfully Matt came down and helped at around 5:30.  He also rode herd on the kids as they did their cleaning chores and picked up.

7:00 - Dinner is over, time to do dishes.

7:40 - Dishes are done, kids are in PJs and Matt is reading Little House in the Big Woods to the boys.  Emma is helping with Justin.

8:00 - Bedtime for the boys.  I say prayers with the boys in their room, then nurse Justin while I pray the Rosary.

8:30 - All the boys are asleep.  Whew!  I had a little dessert (a piece of cake that Emma made), made some tea, added up some numbers and started typing this.  And now it is 9:30.  And now that I've dumped photos, made some photo collages, and uploaded photos, it is 10:15!  I'm not sure I'll be doing this very often...  but still, I'm glad I did.  I enjoyed creating this.  I hope someone has enjoyed looking at it!