Monday, April 14, 2014

When the Order is Reversed

So, for 2014 I've been doing a post a month about a day in our lives. I like up each month with Tristan from Our Busy Homeschool to let you into a day of our lives unedited. I show the good, the bad, and even sometimes the ugly. 

Here are some of the previous posts so far:
Just Another Day (January)
One Day in February
Project Days (March)

Each one of those days has been slightly different. And this month's chosen day isn't the same as any of them either. Of course there are elements that are the same in each and every one of these "day in the life" posts, but that doesn't make them identical.

So, I invite you now to settle in with a cup of coffee, tea, or a glass of something cold and peak into how our day went on April 10, 2014.

It's hard to say when we started this day because Daddy and I never went to sleep on Wednesday night! The girls did and ECJ stayed up most of the night helping but Daddy and I didn't sleep at all! Daddy did take a nap from about 6:30 AM until about 9 AM but that's it. Why didn't we sleep? Well, we were laying carpeting and linoleum in our living and dining rooms along with the school area.

 Such a difference from subflooring and mix matched wood laminate! And so much more wonderful to walk on with bare feet!

From around 6:30 AM until 9:14 AM Mommy had the house pretty much to herself. A week's worth of laundry got almost caught up on, dishes were run through the dishwasher and put away, email was checked, and so was social media accounts. Of course it was YCJ who woke up first and she was extremely surprised to find that the rooms were finished!

She spent a quiet forty-five minutes with me before Peanut wandered out of her room to find us sitting in the newly carpeted living room. I quietly got up and woke ECJ up, figuring if he didn't get up at 10 AM he'd wouldn't be out of bed before noon.

The campers made their beds, straightened their rooms, brushed teeth and hair, got dressed, and ate waffles for breakfast. Mommy and Daddy ate a couple of waffles too, Mommy needed the small sugar boost as her energy was getting a little low and you can survive on coffee alone for only so long.

As soon as we'd finished our breakfasts and ECJ had finished his chores we headed off for a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few small things that we were lacking for supper. We stopped into two other stores in the same small complex just to peak at the new items and then leisurely walked home. Normally we save our outside time for after lessons, but they were calling for rain starting at 2 PM. 



We got back home around noon and headed right back outside to plant our three sprouted onions. For those of you that want to do this sprouted onions that you've purchased at the grocery store can be planted, they will not yield more onions however you can eat the tops! Leave about a quarter of the onion showing above the top soil and add enough water just to moisten, you do not want too much water or the onion bulbs will rot.






This gives us the beginnings of our container garden this year and it's something edible as well. The children enjoyed watching the onions perk up within an hour or so of being planted. I gave them a quick snack of yogurt to help them remove the taste of onion in their mouths.

We spent a few more minutes outside and then began our lessons for the day. Nothing spectacular mind you, review for everyone involved. ECJ did finish off his English book today though! This means he's free to concentrate on literature based learning and creative writing for his English through the rest of the school year!



A pop up card ECJ made for Peanut, unfortunately you can't make out the details in the picture.


After about an hour or so of lessons we had lunch and then went back to our lessons. Peanut had reviewed letters A and B by the time we were ready to eat and so she didn't go back to her lessons after lunch, instead she played by herself quietly (not a very common occurrence). But, I did coral her for a moment to do our Monday Mailboxes (yeah, we forgot all about them this week until today.). They each had a message from both siblings and Mommy which made them happy.






I called a halt to lessons around 3:30 PM, considering that normally we spend our mornings on lessons and our afternoons outside if the weather is nice this was a reversed order day if ever there was one. The children were day dreaming out the windows and dragging their feet to finish what had been assigned. They were getting frustrated and so was I. We called it quits without too much fuss and they headed back outside to play. I spent a little time finishing up the laundry and straightening up a bit before prepping for supper.

6:30 PM we ate supper
7:30 PM the campers got ready for bed
8:00 PM the campers went to bed
8:30 PM I jumped into the shower and was in bed and asleep by 9 PM

All in all it was a pretty "normal" day other than our order for it being reversed and Daddy and I working on very little if any sleep. We don't often stay up all night any more, it's not like we're youngsters that head out and go places at odd hours and feel like we'll miss something if we're sleeping. Three days later (Sunday) we were still recovering from the lack of sleep Wednesday night.

apple pie
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4 comments:

  1. Holy Cow! All night long! That's astonishing! It sounds like you managed beautifully through what could have been a horrible day. Isn't it exciting to finish assignment books!? I've been putting a completed book away here and there for different kids over the past couple of weeks, and we all love that feeling. We're going to have an actual summer break this year, and we can hardly wait.

    And special kudos to your kids for tolerating (and thriving during) a backwards day--it's hard when routines are changed!

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    1. We don't pull all nighter's very often any more. We did that one and one a week or two prior to that, but until then it'd been since fall that we'd been up overnight like that. It's not something we enjoy any longer lol.

      All of the kiddos have completed at least one assignment book, some more than others, but that feeling is great. We school year round here but have a much lighter schedule during the summer months so everything that we can accomplish before summer is one less thing to think about :-)

      Yeah, the kids were real troopers with the backwards day, but after spending the morning outside and no rain actually showing up in the afternoon it was hard to get lessons finished through day dreaming :-)

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  2. I must admit I've never been a night owl. Even as a teen I was happy to get up for the day at 4:30am but please let me go to bed at 8pm or 9pm. We are getting ready to pull up carpet downstairs - it should be interesting. Mason's wheelchair works better on the wood floor areas of the house so we want to uncover the wood in the downstairs. I have no idea what it looks like under there though. :P

    I think the kids have one onion planted out in the garden that was sprouting. We usually plant romaine lettuce heads, or the stumps of them I guess I should say, and the leaves usually regrow to get another head out of them. It's fun!

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    1. It's always interesting to reveal what lies beneath the carpeting. Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised by wonderful flooring that only needs swept and wiped down ... and sometimes not so pleasantly surprised. I pray that it is an easy transition for you.

      I used to be a night owl. Give me middle of the night star gazing and reading by moon/candle light on the patio and I thought life was grand. Since getting a bit older and having children I'm not so much of a night owl anymore. I am still most creative in the evenings but my energy for big things just isn't at it's peak. I'm working on getting up earlier each day, some days it works ... some days not so much.

      I'd love to plant some lettuce this year, and we just might if we can possibly get a small raised bed put in. I think this year is going to be all container gardening though. We've much still to accomplish in the yard and house and Daddy (as well as I) have surgeries that will begin in a few months. I do so love gardening though and am aching to get my hands dirty, even a little!!

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