Ahhhh, This is the life!

Just like you, we have extremely hectic days, and then we have our nothing days.  I like both for different reasons.  But we also have our "normal" weekdays, my favorite days, when all goes according to plan.  We have chores, school, work, playtime, and our extra curriculars.

Here is how my favorite day goes:

Morning Routine:

I am the early riser.  Can't help it.  I'm up by 6:30 most days but some days earlier.  I get my quiet time with my Bible and coffee first, followed by checking emails, reading blogs, and work.

After a quick calendar check, I glance at our school planner.  I set up the whiteboard for the boys' boardwork and fill their workboxes. 

If there is time before my boys need to get up, I'll do some general light pick up around the house, or whatever chore I have slated for that day.  I get myself together, and do a "swish and swipe" as taught by The Fly Lady.  If you aren't familiar with her or her household cleaning program, I encourage you to check her out!

Thoughtful and Spunk get up, ideally at 7:30, while I make breakfast and tidy the kitchen.  We have our Bible Devotional time during breakfast with discussion and prayer.

Morning responsibilities are next, and if they finish quickly enough, the boys will often go ahead to tackle their chores.  We have 10 minutes of quick clean up time every morning and every evening so that our home is never out of control messy.

Then free play for a bit.  Breakfast, Bible, chores, and free play total about an hour's time.

School:

8:30 / 9:00-ish, or roughly an hour after the boys awake:  When I call "school time,"  the boys sit down at our school table and begin on their workboxes.  I alternately interrupt their box time to give them each a daily lesson in phonics, spelling, and language.  New math lessons only come at the beginning of the week, and I stagger those within their workboxes so that I can watch their Math U See DVDs with them.

I would like to give the boys 45 minutes with their workboxes then let them have a break.  However, most days, they continue through their boxes until finished.  This takes about an hour and half, max. 

We break for a snack and playtime.

Many days, we do read aloud time during snack.  Our "break" often includes a walk or bike ride.  We usually finish chores, play educational games (or just games, because let's face it, they're always learning something when we play), go fishing, ride the 4-wheeler, shoot bb guns, or some other way to play outside.

We usually have lunch sometime between 11 and 12. 

This is where it gets a little crazy.   Our home days are Monday, Thursday, and Friday.  When we're home, we hit group studies after lunch, which include Science, History, Spanish, Nature Study, and whatever Unit Study we're working on.  This goes no later than 2 or 2:30. 

Afternoons are for playing or random running around our little town, library, grocery, .... boring stuff like that.  TV comes back in the afternoon.  We have quiet time for a bit, for all of us to rest our brains and calm our bodies.  I don't mind the TV being on during quiet time, in fact I like it.  Usually, they choose an educational show anyways.

Extra curricular stuff & my cleaning schedule:

We go go go Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, and Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

Tae Kwon Do Monday and Thursday nights
Baseball Tuesday and Thursday nights
Park day with homeschooling friends on Tuesday
Art class on Tuesday
Co-op on Wednesday morning until lunch
piano lesson on Wednesday

We'll hopefully go nowhere on Mondays and Fridays.

I break up house cleaning to do a part everyday so that its not an overwhelming job.  I do all of the laundry on Mondays, starting when my feet hit the floor.  Then I give the house a once over on Fridays, scrubbing bathrooms, etc.

Weekends:
I use it as my "catch up" time for the stuff that got missed during the week. Thoughtful should have baseball games coming up on Saturdays too.  We relax and play, have lazy time, swim, fish, and enjoy each other on our weekends.  And of course, Church on Sunday morning!

Our nights:

In my perfectly scheduled mind, the kids would get showers and a snack at 8:30 and be in bed by 9:00.  Some nights, we aren't even home until 8:30, so realistically its quiet time at 8:30, then bedtime is usually 9:30 with lights out by 10:00, (and lately, more like 11:00, but Hubs and I vowed to break this TONIGHT!).

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE, WITHOUT ANY NOTICE, AND FOR NO GOOD REASON.  Sometimes, Hubs comes home during workbox time.  We all drop what we're doing to excitedly love on him.  Sometimes, my office calls with an emergency "Can you do it today?" request, and our afternoon studies get pushed aside. 

And then there are sick days, or tired days, or I'm-having-difficulty-with-this-assignment-so-I'd-like-to-make-your-day-harder-Mom days and field trip days.  I truly dislike the disruption that these "sometimes" moments cause.  I wish that everyday would go without a hitch.  A girl can dream right?  But I know that we're all learning, even in those moments.

What's your day like?  I am really, REALLY excited to read all about it!  Perhaps I can get some ideas to make the glitches transform into smoother days.

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