It's officially spring, and Southwest Florida has obliged us, by scaling down what was already the start of a scalding summer.  Several other families recently have shared Day in the Life post, and just last week, another soon to be homeschooling mom, asked what our days look like.  I've thought about doing one of these for a while, and so I thought, I'll sit down and do it today.  Of course the disclaimer, I have to add, is that while there are some common features to all of our days, most of our days have a high degree of variation, after all I have four children in this household, and flexibilty in it's many aspects continues to be the number one reason why we homeschool.

6:45 Gary woke me up to give me a kiss and tell me bye, before leaving for work.  He normally leaves about 6:20 or 6:30.  He's running late this morning.  I don't remotely remember him leaving.  I frequently don't I'm seriously NOT a morning person.

7:02 Britt and Ruth both show up in my bed, claiming that they didn't sleep any last night.  I only know the time, because I knocked the phone of the night stand scooting over to make room for them.  We all go back to sleep.

8:20ish Britt wakes up and wants to go fix a bowl of cereal.  I remind him to get dressed and pick up his room before he can go play with his legoes on the back porch.  I also remind him no tv, as we are trying out some new electronic limits.

8:45 I give up on getting anymore sleep, with Ruth abusing me in the bed.  I wonder when I'm going to adjust to the time change, and get up at 8 without feeling like I've been run down by a truck.  I must be the exception to the homeschooling rule.  These moms that start their day at 6am or earlier sound like someone from another planet.  Who wants to be up before the sun?  Shortly there after Kate wakes up, so I fix her a 5 oz bottle, since the bigger ones aren't clean.  I go out to the back porch to see if Britt and Rebecca have done asked.  They have eaten but they are still in pajamas.  I send them to get dress.  Then have Rebecca hang out with Kate, while Britt helps me drag a few more downed tree limbs to the road, the wind last night, dislodged some more that broke off during the Hurricane.

9 am The temperature is great, so I open all the doors, and turn off the air.  I call Gary for the first time today, consulting on whether or not to force Ruth up.  Like her Momma she likes her sleep, but this is late for her.  Verdict let her sleep till school time.  I feed Kate almost half a banana then eat the rest.  Then, vacuum the house, with her trailing me around the house.  I have to set up the baby gate, because she just figured out how to navigate down the steps and she's bee-lining toward the legoes on the back porch.  I clean up the kitchen, and start the dishwasher, since I forgot to after supper last night.  Then, I straighten up part of the back porch.

9:45 I wake up Ruth, send her to get dressed, brush, hair and eat the cereal at her spot at the table.  I warn Britt and Rebecca that they have 15 minutes till school time.

10 am To start the day, Rebecca has to pick up her room since she forgot when she got up, then she has to fold towels.  There is much wailing and nashing of teeth.  After threatening a spanking and loss of school, she gets started.  Ruth drags into the kitchen to eat.  Britt says he's almost done with his lego creation.  I remind him that his morning chore today is to vacuum the kids bedrooms, and he can't do that till he picks up the mess that was in his room that he didn't last night, and he didn't when he got up.

10:20, Ruth is finally finished with her breakfast, and I send her off to her morning chore cleaning my bathroom.  I set down from hurrying people along to scroll through facebook for a few minutes.  I usually do that before I get up, but didn't this morning.  I remember I want to write this post.  Katherine stops following me around to chew on my computer cord.

10:53 I realize I've lost my phone again.  I text Gary from the ipad to call it before his meeting starts so I can find it.  Three calls later, I find it on the back porch.  Rebecca puts up the last of her 5 poorly folded towels, I will have to fix them on my shelf later.  She bounces off excited to start school.  I start her on math, since she doesn't need much help with it.  We usually start with Alpha-Phonics, but I am still corralling the others.

11:11 Finally finished with morning jobs, Britt begins to set up the letters for All About Spelling and lays out his and Ruth's handwriting books.  He and Ruth start with handwriting this morning, while I look over our school planner, and finish filling in a few things I want to accomplish today.  School will be tight today, since we have afternoon activities, and we didn't start right at 10.  Rebecca moves on to handwriting.  Katherine is ready for her second 5 oz bottle of the day.

11:24 Someone has knocked the sale ads off the table, and Katherine is attempting to eat them.  That child likes to eat paper better than food.  Rebecca moves on to some flashcards I made to review the first 7 lessons she's done in Alpha Phonics.

12:04  Kate has just drifted off to sleep with me rocking her at the table, so I lay her down in her bed.  Rebecca moves on to some reading readiness pages in one of her workbooks that we got from who knows where or when.  Britt and Ruth start All About Spelling with me.  During all this time, I say about a million times, pick up your pencil, stop knocking the letters in the floor, we are not fighting over letters to spell them first.  And I have to wonder how much faster they would complete school if they just cooperated with me.

12:15 I stick the left over ziti from last night in the oven.  Gary usually carries the left overs for his lunch the following day, but he has a meeting today, and they are providing lunch.  So, there's enough for the kids to split.  We are going to need to eat earlier today, since Ruth has speech.  I munch on the last of my tuna fish and crackers while doing spelling with the kids.

12:56 Spelling is finished.  Ruth goes to unload the dishwasher.  Britt does his journaling.  Rebecca is finishing up her coloring on her reading sheets.

1:07 The kids eat lunch while I read our current read aloud to them.  Right now we are reading "Gone Away Lake" for our next book club meeting, with our fellow home schoolers here in town.

1:26 I tell the kids to get on shoes and get in the car.  Katherine wakes up cranky.

1:31 We pull out of the driveway.

1:37 We arrive at Speech two minutes late.  I hate being late.  Seems to happen fairly often though, grr.  For the next hour while Ruth is in Speech at the local elementary school, Britt and Rebecca pick Anastasia to watch on the car DVD player.  Kate starts out sitting with Britt, but ends up fussy.  So I put up my ipad and notebook hoping to do my bible reading later, and hold the baby.


2:45 I pull out of the school mad house parking lot, and head for CVS to pick up a prescription.  While in the Drive Thru I fix Kate a 4 oz bottle, and mentally remind myself to put a new container of formula in the diaper bag.  After sitting there a while. They can't get our insurance straight, so I leave and swing by the doctor's office to pick up my latest lab results.  Then I go through the drive thru at Wendy's.  Sometimes after Speech I let the kids have a key chain frosty, and today seems like a good day for it.

3:18 I drop Ruth off at Speech, and come home to call Gary about the insurance.  He says he'll check and pick up the prescription.  He tells me about arrangements for a co-workers funeral, and tells me he probably won't be home in time to pick up the kids from ball, for me to plan to get them.  Meanwhile Britt takes out the trash and Rebecca does her afternoon chore of washing dishes.

3:48 Memaw calls, while we are on the phone Britt dozes off leaned up against me.

4:18 Britt wakes up to blog with me, but is CRANKY.  I offer him some Dr. Pepper, but he's uncooperative.  Maybe he really didn't sleep much last night.  So, I send him off to change into baseball clothes, and Kate follows him, babbling her sound for him "Bwa, Bwa." Rebecca brings me a note rolled up on toilet paper, she hasn't been washing dishes.  She has copied my note to Britt for when he got home from shooting club yesterday, before I got back from ball practice to carry him to his game.  When he is dressed, ten minutes later, we try again, and get a story that has both of us laughing.

4:43 I pick up Ruth from sewing and we all head to ball practice.  Britt starts at 5, so we are there a few minutes early.  I leave when his coach pulls up.  Then we go over to Ruth's practice field.  We are there quite a bit early, so I spend about 20 minutes playing catch with her and a couple of other girls that get there before their coach.  Rebecca asks me to turn on the Eagles in the car, and sings to Kate who falls asleep.

5:22 We leave Ruth at softball practice and head back to CVS.  Gary called them, and got whatever straightened out, so we pick up my prescription before coming home.  Rebecca chatters non stop about riding her bike, playing a game just us, and baking brownies before we have to get the other two.  I leave Kate asleep in her car seat with all the doors open.  She never stays asleep if I try to move the seat, or get her out.  Rebecca first has to finish the dishes that she didn't finish before we took everyone to practice.  I go to put the chicken in the bowl to soak, but I'm out of soy sauce.  I call Gary to verify what time he's coming home for supper, and that he's still planning to grill chicken.

6:00 At Rebecca's insistence, I again put aside my ipad and bible study time on the front porch. She and I play a short game of checkers, that follow no known rules, but I still manage to win in 8 minutes flat.

6:18 We are back in the van on the way to pick up kids from ball practice.  Rebecca manages to wake up Kate as she gets in.  So she might have managed a 45 minute nap.  Really good for her, since she doesn't really nap in the afternoon any more.  While we wait Rebecca sits on a blanket in the grass and plays with her newest Barbie - Pocahontas.  I pull out my iPad and have a little Bible study time finally for about 15 minutes.

6:58  We arrive back home, both practices ran over.  Britt goes to wash up some more rocks and a massive conk shell we found in the yard, to add to the collection he has for me on the front porch.  Rebecca goes out to ride her bike.  Ruth sits down to blog with me.

7:11 I move the towels that I washed overnight last night to the drier, and forgot to move this morning, before I agree to make brownies with Rebecca.  Ruth goes out to ride her bike, I decide that we won't pursue any of the other school stuff I thought we might work in today.  I hope Gary's on his way here to cook.  I'm hungry.  Kate is following me around fussing, so I fix her another 5 oz bottle, and start some English peas on the stove top.  They can go with supper if I can convince anyone else to eat them, and if not, I'll make Kate some more baby food.  I go around picking up the school stuff, and miscellaneous junk that kids have left strewn around the house today, despite the fact we've not been here half the time.

7:43 I pull the peas off the stove, and sit down to attempt to finish my bible reading in the front porch.  Only to discover that the iPad is dead.  So I pull up the KJV on my phone.

7:52 Gary pulls up.  I have him get the kids started picking up their toys and things on the back porch.  Not quite 5 minutes into it Rebecca throws a toy at Britt, Britt is screaming, Daddy gets to start handing out spankings.

7:58 Gary comes back to the front porch to talk and rock the baby.  As the timer on the brownies goes off.  I get them before I come back.


8:17 Gary goes to start on supper and I go back to my Bible reading.  2 minutes later Britt shows up on the front porch to talk.  Then Rebecca comes to ask if I will read her read aloud book now.  Ruth then asks about her book.  Britt wants me to read his blog to Ruth.  About 8:30 I give up, and I hand him the phone to read it to her, decide it's getting too cold on the front porch, and I come in.  I tell Rebecca to fold the rest of the towels.  Cue a riot.  Gary is frying chicken.

9:06 I finish cleaning up most of the supper dishes, as Gary dishes everything on to plates for supper.  Rebecca kept being distracted by Britt, so he got to help her fold and put away towels.  We finally eat supper, about 2.5 hours later than usual.  But on Wednesday Gary's t-ball team doesn't practice or play games, so he tries to work late on those nights.  I often cook on Wednesday, but he wanted to grill chicken tonight, and I don't touch his grill.

9:42 Everyone is finished eating and has put their dishes away.  Britt is doing his evening chore, mopping the bedrooms.  Ruth is cleaning her and Britt's bathroom.  Gary finishes up feeding Kate and will give her a bath.  She's still going strong despite it being an hour past her bedtime.  Rebecca is in pjs and ready for me to read to her.  Her current read aloud, is the book that she got for her birthday "Fairy Ponies."

10:00 Rebecca goes to bed an hour late, as I finish reading to her.  Ruth is ready for me to read to her.  We are starting the 5th book in the Addy series in the American Girls collection.  Gary has Kate cleaned up, a bottle fixed, and puts her to bed.

10:20 I've finished reading to Ruth.  Britt was just too wore out to wait up for me.  Sometimes I do his reading about 9:20, sometimes, I skip and he comes to my bed first thing in the morning and I read a chapter or two of the current Redwall book before I get up.  Since he's out I go and finish cleaning up in the kitchen.  Gary put all the food away, fixed his plate for lunch tomorrow, but I wipe everything down.  We let Rebecca skip dish washing tonight, and Britt skipped sweeping, so that needs doing as well.  I normally have some laundry or school work that needs to be finished up about this time of day.  Tonight, I just look over the schedule and lesson plans for tomorrow.  Take a few minutes and scan through facebook.

10:38  Gary's been watching some Harrison Ford movie set in WWII, but he'd like me to read some of the book we've been reading aloud.  So, I am scraping the rest of the plans for this evening, and getting ready for bed.

10:56 I climb in bed with the iPad, thinking we'll probably read about an hour or so before heading to bed.  Only to start it all over again in 6 to 7 hours.  But we finish up the book just shy of midnight.

11:58 Gary turns back on his Harrison Ford movie.

12:28 He decided to turn it off that he might be ready for bed.  What ends up happening is that we lay in the dark and talk about his day at work until 1 am.

1:07 I hear him snoring and thing, I really should get to sleep.