Reordering the Schedule

With recent new developments here we're in the middle of figuring out how to reorder our schedules. I just started a new job, which is starting out part time but could be full time shortly. On top of that I have several orders for crochet items that I must get finished within certain time frames. We also have our first full week worth of our Fall session beginning on September 8th, which means that our lessons will be taking longer each weekday to complete than they have all summer.

So, for this month's "Day in the life" post that will be joined up with not only be linked up to Our Busy Homeschool but also I Homeschool Network's "Not Back to School" blog hop.


I've chosen to highlight August 21st for our Day in the Life, and here's what happened:

This was Peanut at 11:45 PM the night before, we'd walked out to check on them
and we found her sleeping on the couch...

8 AM- My alarm went off, instead of hopping directly out of bed since the children were still silent (meaning they were either still sleeping or resting in their beds before getting up) I said my morning prayers, did my rosary, and quietly talked to Daddy about our plans for the day.

9 AM- We heard the first faint stirrings of our children beginning to get their breakfasts and do their chores. Out of bed I went, dressed and did all my other morning things before heading out into the main part of the house. All of us having taken our showers the night before we didn't need to worry about taking care of that. We did sneak in a few smoothies this morning so that Mommy had something in her stomach before work.

9:45 AM- I left for a quick two and a half hour session at work, where we were all spoken to about what will be expected of us during the next few weeks. While I was at work our plumbing basically broke, having most of our drains back up and a plumber to be called while I was gone. The children spent that time crocheting, coloring, or otherwise engaged since it's kind of hard to walk through lessons with them (even review lessons) while you're responding to a plumber's questions every two minutes.


12:30 PM- Saw Mommy home again from work, the plumber steadily working on the clogs in the lines, and Daddy working right along side the plumber.

1:30 PM- LUNCH TIME!!!! On today's menu we had pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, string cheese sticks, V8 Spicy Mango vegetable juice cocktail, and sliced apples.

2 PM- Afternoon chore time. This includes feeding the dogs, cleaning the bird cage and feeding the birds, cleaning the cat boxes again, straightening up loose books and toys, and lunch dishes. 

2:30 PM- We were able to do our family Bible readings and discussions during this time. Normally we do them first thing in the morning but right now Mommy is still trying to figure out how we'll get everything done with all the new things beginning.

3 PM- One hour was spent here doing lessons. We currently have one hour scheduled Mon - Fri this week and next week for our review lessons before we take a week off and then begin our Fall session. We're reviewing math, language arts, and phonics. 

4 PM- We head out to an event two towns north of us...

6 PM- A quick stop at the grocery store to pick up something for supper (Daddy and I both forgot to lay anything out last night and this morning) and we're home and cooking.

6:30 PM- SUPPER TIME!! On tonight's menu we have fresh from the garden sliced cucumbers, seasoned boneless porkchops, and sauteed peppers with squash and zuccinni as well as some maccoroni and cheese! And these campers ate every bite!!

7:00 PM- Quiet reading time. We do not skip this on any day, and if the children are at Grandma's house they're expected to read for at least half an hour each day that they're there. Most days this happens in the afternoon (to give us parents a bit of quiet time to gather ourselves) some days, like today, it happens in the evening. Peanut is also given her migraine medicine at this time.

7:30 PM- Quick cookie for desert, PJ's on, teeth and hair brushed... Quickly straighten the afternoon mess in our rooms and it's off to bed for the younger campers. Mommy or Daddy reads Peanut a Bible story, turns on her movie, and tucks her in by 8PM...

8 PM - 9 PM - ECJ spends this time reading or crocheting in his room. I caught up on my correspondences and then went into my room to get ready for Big Brother and to attempt to finish part of one of my crochet orders. Daddy is already resting and waiting for the show.

10 PM- ECJ goes to sleep, Daddy watches the news, I take a quick shower and then crochet some more.

11 PM- Night time prayers, quiet discussion about what we have planned for tomorrow and the weekend, and then I drift off to sleep aware that I start work tomorrow at 7:45 AM (GAH! I've never been much of a morning person and I'm not looking forward to being at work by that time to start unloading trucks full of merchandise.)

During the summer we're hardly ever awake before 8 AM unless it's Sunday and we're getting up for Mass. During the school year proper I usually wake up before 7 (barring those days where I turn off my alarm for more rest) and we begin earlier in the day. With this new job I know that once the 1st of next month comes I won't be required to be at work until 9 AM on any day. But, for the next two weeks while we set up the store I need to be up early and ready to go, this has never been an easy task for me and it's harder after several months of letting myself sleep in since we had less work to do and we relax over the summer. However, one finds that anything can be done when it must be and that we're more resilient than we think we are.

I'm not sure at the moment what our Fall session schedule is going to look like. I do know that Daddy will be doing the campers lessons with them while I'm at work on the days I do work. I'm still in charge of lesson plans and correcting papers along with record keeping and grading. And I'm sure that it's only a matter of time that it all becomes second nature to us. In the meantime I'm slightly stressed as I cannot begin planning out September's lessons until at least Monday evening, I'm not sure how many lessons need to be done each week to get us to where we want to be, I'm out of ink until the 3rd so I cannot begin to print off our morning binders or even our binder covers, and the list goes on and on...

*I finished this post up late Saturday evening after referring to my notes from Thursday. I'm still adjusting to working outside of the home and believe it or not muscles that I'd forgotten existed are screaming at me to take a long hot bath with some Epson salts.*