Just Another Day

Tristan,  from over at Our Busy Homeschool , had another one of her great ideas and came up with a monthly link up about a day in the life of...

So, being one who absolutely loves great ideas I decided to join her for January's edition! And, to confess, I'll probably be doing this again each month that she has it all year long.

So, sit back and watch just one of our days here at Homeschool Camper unfold before your eyes.

I am very tempted to start this just like a ship's log for Star Trek but in deference to those of you who do not like Star Trek (though why you don't I'll never understand) I'll just say that the day that follows is dated: January 21, 2014.

12:05 AM finds me just getting off of the computer for the night. I straightened up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, set the rest of the dishes to soak until morning, looked at ECJ's science "kits" to see if we might feel like doing them after lessons, and then went to check on Peanut. It's still a very new thing for her to be asleep before midnight any night.

12:35 AM rolls around and I decide that a half hour or so of reading should have me finished with my current "bathroom book" Star Trek: Enterprise The First Adventure. So, I finished it. 

After having crawled into bed next to Daddy a few minutes after one I began to drift off to sleep. Within minutes Peanut's at the edge of the bed. She's cold and wants to snuggle. So, into bed she gets placed and I get chilled to the bone. I ask if her bedroom's chilly and she says, "Nope, just me." OK then. I drift in and out of sleep for the next hour and a half before she nudges me and asks to be taken back to her own room. Slowly and surely we make our way to her room at the other end of the house. You do not rush a legally blind person when the only light is nightlights and they aren't wearing their glasses. Plus, if you try to rush her when she's tired the whole next day is just chaos! I helped her back into bed and then went back to my bed, but not before she asked me to get the camera so I could "keep a kiss forever". I'm glad she did...

3 AM - 4 AM I spend getting in and out of bed trying to figure out if Shadow dog is checking the house because he's nervous or just wanting to lay on the couch because he keeps going in and out of our bedroom (he learned how to open the door a few months back). Each time I check all the doors and each of the kids before going back to bed. Sometime right after four I fall asleep.

COCKA-DOODLE-DOO! cocka-doodle-doo! COCKA-DOODLE-DOO! Mutter, mutter, grumble, glare at phone and hit the snooze button. It's 6:30 AM. This is my goal time to get up. Nope, not happening today. I roll over fully intending on getting up in 15 minutes when the alarm goes off again. Nope. Instead I realize I'm chilly and I snuggle Daddy, planning on only a few minutes of snuggle time but waking up about two hours later!

Rubbing my eyes I grumble my way out of bed. Take care of my morning hygiene, getting dressed and putting my hair, you know the normal things that people do when they wake up. Out I trudge into the kitchen and plug the coffee pot in, slapping the button over to on when my hand returns towards me. I do not function well without coffee. These are the *ahem* faces that greet me this morning:

YCJ may always be the first one up but she's not "awake" until at least 9 AM.

Peanut didn't want to be up at all at all.

ECJ was actually doing his chores when I walked out of the bedroom. No, he didn't do them all right but at least he was doing them today.

 A few minutes after 9 AM finds most of us dressed, I've had my first cup of coffee, and a few of us are actually eating breakfast. Not one of our "fancier" breakfasts, just cold cereal. By the time I remembered to snap a picture Peanut was at the table and YCJ had finished her cereal. Those cupcake cups were picked up at a local restaurant on ECJ's birthday and are one of the favorite choices around here now. I like them because they're pretty hard to spill! I've even gone around and opened curtains to let in daylight by this point. Second cup of coffee in hand I give them a few minutes to "get it together" while I check my e-mails, finish unloading the dishwasher of the things that ECJ can't reach to put away, and reload it. 

Around 9:30 (wow, only half an hour off of my planned start time) the morning binders are gotten out. I gather the other school supplies for the girls and get YCJ's English binder ready for her. It's helps her when I get her organized in the mornings. I remind ECJ that he never did his copy work from yesterday and so today he has to write it out twice. As you can clearly see Peanut still doesn't look all the way awake.

 With everything in place, including our supervisor Moragon, I begin our morning Bible readings just as Peanut starts her work on her play dough.

Today we learn about Saint Damien de Veuster who ministered to the lepers on Hawaii and eventually contracted the disease himself. We said our morning prayers, read Psalm 116, Sirach 51:1-2a,3, and said our intentions for ourselves and others. This month we are of course using our Holy Bible, but we're also using a publication called Magnificat. It's a beautifully put together text and I received this copy for free. I'd love to continue using it, or the children's version of it, every single day. However, I cannot justify it's cost and so won't be.

While I read to them ECJ worked on his copy work for today and yesterday: 2 Hail Mary's, 2 Our Father's, and 2 Apostle's Creed's. YCJ works on her cursive handwriting lessons for the letter D and Peanut makes me a heart for God. Informing me happily that "God loves us all.... even the sad people who don't love him."

By a few minutes after 10 we've moved on to our book lessons. The Cracker Jack's begin with spelling and follow it with the rest (in no real order): Language Arts, Creative Writing (6th grade), Health, Science, Social Studies/History, and Arithmetic. And as you can tell from the look on YCJ's face, she's begun to get tired of the camera.

Peanut gets most of my attention for the next hour or so as we work through her Phonics, letter of the week ( which is "o" ), counting, and her Social Studies project which is a copy of the Michigan state flag. Sometime in here she finishes her cereal and I finish loading the dishwasher. On it goes before I forget and I pour myself another cup of coffee.

 Then it's snack time while Peanut moves on to her online lessons and computer lessons. Which at this time consists of a mixture of Easy Peasy, Starfall, and some educational Caillou games that I purchased for her. Today's snack is a string cheese and an apple. ECJ helps YCJ out with her Arithmetic once he's finished with his book work while I make Daddy something to eat. Daddy's not feeling well today at all, but thankfully the day is going well other than that. I think about grabbing myself something to eat at this point but forget to right after I pour Daddy and myself another cup of coffee.

Daddy's breakfast, two bagels, is ready just as the campers are ready to eat their lunches. Peanut has her standard American cheese sandwich without anything on the bread (I added a few slices of leftover turkey bacon on the side for her today) while YCJ enjoys a lettuce salad (also with added leftover turkey bacon) and ECJ makes himself his standard peanut butter sandwich. Daddy has the peas soaking for the split pea soup for Thursday night's dinner already and after a quick check of his Facebook while Peanut is behind him on the couch doing this ...

with her security blanket we all call "Comfy", Daddy goes back to lay down again. He really isn't feeling well. YCJ finishes looking at art online so I set her up with her Keyboard Classroom typing lessons while ECJ works on his Apalogia General Science course online, and I read to Peanut. Which of course is quickly followed by some flash cards with Peanut for the alphabet and her numbers. She's not really interested in the reading part today and I'm not really interested in being kicked while she's being goofy. But, we make it through.

Showing off her wrinkly fingers.

As soon as YCJ is finished and I've trimmed Peanut's bangs it's time for the girls to get a bath. If it was warmer outside it'd be outside play time, but we opt for a warm bath instead. ECJ keeps researching for his Michigan report and I get a chance to check Facebook, catch up on some blog reading, and play a few computer games while the bath goes on. It's now two 'o clock. I jot some notes down for this post, help the girls finish their bath, and unload the dishwasher just to put the lunch dishes inside of it. Peanut makes her bed, after a gentle reminder that she can do it. Then the girls enjoy a movie together in Peanut's room while ECJ works on his book report for The Hobbit. It's during this time that I do my personal Bible readings. Sometime around three I realize I still haven't eaten and I pop in microwave dinners for both myself and Daddy for lunch.

By four PM all of our books are put away and everyone pretty much does as they wish while I prepare for dinner, which tonight is chili dogs and french fries. I got to try out my new gizmo for making french fries! I love how it works but I didn't like how my fries turned out ... Certainly need some practice there!

6 PM finds the Cracker Jack's pouring drinks for the kids and placing every one's forks on the dining room table. Everyone sits, we say prayers, and eat dinner together. At 6:30 Peanut has her first migraine medication (a little over a week and she'll be off of this one YAY!!). Tonight we finish by quarter to seven and Daddy and I clean up the kitchen. 

7 PM means it's time for Peanut's new migraine medication, which we add to some juice in a cup to make it easier for her to take. The Cracker Jack's clean up Peanut's room, since it's been destroyed yet again and as soon as her medicine is gone Peanut begins telling me all about birds. How they take care of their eggs, why the eggs have to be kept warm, why they fly "down souf" for the winter, and other interesting tid bits. While she's doing this she's placed penguins on Moragon so she doesn't feel left out and gives me snuggles. Daddy takes the opportunity to snap a few photos. 

By eight 'o clock we've had our desert (tonight it's chocolate pudding cups), done our evening Bible readings, and ECJ has begun to read to Peanut. Peanut gets some melatonin around this time as well. YCJ has opted not to be read to nor to read to herself but to enjoy a DVD quietly in her room before bed, she's out by 8:20. ECJ reads two chapters of a different book to Peanut before she goes to bed and he jumps in the shower. 

9 PM - Bathroom being cleaned up by ECJ and dishwasher turned on again by me.

10 PM - ECJ in bed, Daddy relaxing in the bedroom, girls asleep, and I'm writing this.

11 PM - Dishwasher has finished it's cycle once again. I'm about to reload it, clean up the kitchen, set up the coffee pot for morning, and take a shower before I head off to bed and say my rosary. The only one's awake in the house right now (including animals) are Daddy and myself. Barring a child waking up within the next hour my day is basically finished.

Wow! I think I was trying to write a book based on one day of our lives!!! Sorry about how long it turned out, and I even left some things out! Like the paragraph and a half I wrote about YCJ leading the campers in a decade of the rosary right after I finished our evening Bible readings. This is a peaceful day in our homeschool. A day where everything went pretty much as it should, even if I did burn a batch of french fries and Daddy wasn't feeling well. We never did do any of those science "kits" of ECJ's because the campers were just enjoying their day too much to be bothered. I may get some more reading in (this time Dean Koontz) before I go to sleep, or so crochet work done, maybe even watch some TV with Daddy. I doubt I'll be in bed before it's officially tomorrow in any case.


The morning comes quickly around here where I'll be again greeting with a rooster crowing, thanks to my loving husband discovering that it'll actually break through my sleep unlike the buzz of a regular alarm. I might actually get up on time. I promise that my post next month won't be as long but I certainly enjoyed telling you all about our day!

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Too Darned Stressed!

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This week was possibly the most stressful week of my entire life. No joke. Not even when Daddy first started having health issues, or Peanut was born early, or we found out about her vision issues, nor when we realized that neither Daddy nor I have had a decent night's sleep together since Peanut was born (due to her migraines) were more stressful than this week has been.

No, it has absolutely nothing to do with our lessons. Our lessons, although they weren't finished until today (Saturday), actually went fairly well. There were a few moments here and there that did make me want to pull my hair out but on the whole our lessons went well. 

So, what had me so stressed out this week? Well, we had several break in "attempts" starting overnight last Friday night. Yes, we are all safe and no one was harmed thank God. However, this was not just a one night thing (you can read all about it in my post from earlier this week here ). Due to this I was angry, frustrated, upset, stressed out, and scared for several days. I eventually stopped being scared but every other feeling stuck around. One of the few benefits of this happening was that I spent several hours cleaning my home throughout the week due to all the nervous energy.



Monday all we had to do all day long was lessons. We started around 10 am, which is an hour after when I like for us to start, and were finished just after lunch. There were no major meltdowns and only a few small issues to deal with lesson wise this day. They even all worked for the whole day without distracting each other. 

Tuesday morning everyone had to be up bright and early as Peanut had a neurological exam appointment all the way down in Detroit, which is an hour drive from our home in good traffic. She very much enjoyed the exam because she got to "goof around" with the doctor and afterwards we went to visit Grandma and Papa for several hours, which doesn't normally happen in the middle of the month. Update on Peanut's migraines: The neurologist is not concerned with any points on the examination. Her vision issues did prove a part in the exam because in certain instances without her glasses she could not see where the doctor's fingers were. We're weaning her off of her current medication and she's already started a new one, which is much stronger. While we're enjoying the fact that she hasn't had a migraine since starting the new medication we're also watching her closely as it leaves her a bit groggy in the mornings. Her dosage for this is supposed to go up just as she's weaned off of the other medication and unless she's less groggy in the mornings before this happens I may have to call the neurologists office. We're talking about two hours worth of grogginess. She was also prescribed Melatonin on the nights that she cannot sleep, thus far we have not had to give her this as her medication makes her sleepy as it is. We're due back next month and barring any return of the migraines we'll be given regular check-ups and follow through more frequently with our regular pediatrician. If the migraines return it's scans and testing and sleep studies. We were also given a list of things that we could do to change in her diet and habits but thus far we've only moved bedtime back a bit to make time for proper digestion of dinner, none of us were prepared to eat dinner at 4 PM.

Wednesday came along and at first Peanut wasn't feeling up to joining in with lessons. She hadn't started her new medication yet but had had a bit of a rough night and was tired. She did eventually join us in our lessons though, after being convinced with a large cinnamon roll, chocolate milk, and a smoothie for breakfast. She did the majority of her week's lessons this day actually. The Cracker Jack's mainly were only able to finish Tuesday's lessons this day, although YCJ did manage to get one or two assignments for Wednesday done.

Thursday morning we did do lessons, although we didn't finish with Wednesday's lessons on this day either. We cut our day short due to Daddy having a doctor's appointment. While we were at said appointment we found out that Daddy is being referred to four different specialists (mainly for check ups): neurologist, pulminologist, cardiologist, and an orthopedic surgeon. But, we were able to get Daddy his new tube for his breathing treatments. Afterwards, we scooted up to the city to get a few groceries and pick up the campers pizzas from Book IT! They're really enjoying Book IT this year, it's extra incentive to read every day.

Friday came along and boy was I tired. However, we all got up and began our lessons relatively on time. Handwriting was worked on by everyone and Peanut was able to finish just about her whole week's lessons, the only thing she didn't do this week was her flag for MI. However, I just moved it to next week's lessons. She was having a lot of issues with her hands hurting for the majority of the day because we'd been neglecting her play dough for most of the week. This was quickly remedied right after her lessons were finished.

We've also moved the girls back to their school desks after their morning binders and handwriting practice is finished. Yes, that is a Christmas tree that you see in the corner. We have taken down all the other Christmas decorations and simply brought the "porch tree" inside and placed it in the corner. We've decided that this year it'll be up until sometime after Valentine's Day where we'll decorate it with valentines. We have to have some place to store all those discount candy canes after all ;-).

Saturday (today) this week also meant lessons as the Cracker Jack's were not caught up from having two days off this week. YCJ only had one day's worth of lessons to complete while ECJ had to finish up Wednesday's lessons and do all of Thursday's and Fridays. Amazingly enough they were all finished minutes after lunch was completed. 

PreK/K: Oh my little Peanut! Her preK books are nearly completed and she's continuing to fly right through them! We did resolve to "fix" her schedule to strengthen her hands a little bit more, as well as give her a chance to wake up through that groggy morning stuff. She'll begin the day with breakfast as usual, then move on to anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes of play dough at her desk, followed by her lessons and lunch, to finish up with at least an hour of play dough work in the afternoons. We're not stopping her morning binders, but she will be starting them after her sister has already moved onto English work (which gives me a few minutes to work with YCJ on her English). She also discovered, on her own I might add, how to make play dough roses this past week. That yellow one is her first one she made, the green one at the top was from this morning, and the other is her flower person "like the ones from Epic". I think I'll be posting a step by step of how she makes these as it's really rather wonderful.

Third grade: Younger Cracker Jack has had a rather good week. She's been working on the letter C in cursive and seems to be enjoying handwriting practice. She's worked on her recorder and learned a second song. Also, much to my happy surprise, she asked to do Keyboard Classroom (affiliate link) all on her own! She finished the one challenge, has improved her skills, tried all four of the games, and decided that she just really really likes learning to type using it! I know I keep talking about it but it's really working! I have never seen her more excited about typing, we'd even tried a free program called Dance Matt and she just didn't like it at all. This is just made my life so very much easier! She's also apparently decided that the long sleeved green shirt with the Christmas tree on it is the most comfortable shirt that she owns, as she's worn it half the week ... every time I wash it she puts it right back on!

Sixth grade: Elder Cracker Jack was super busy this week. It snowed again on and off all week long and so he had several driveways and walkways to shovel almost every morning, then his chores, before beginning his lessons. This obviously meant that he began the lessons each day later than the girls did. It also showed a bit in how long it took him certain days to get lessons finished, however he did do the same amount of work today and completed far more lesson wise than he had all week.... He'd borrowed YCJ's DVD player one afternoon and finally began to work on his guitar lessons. However, since he skipped over the tuning lesson which is the first two on the DVD and in the book his rendition of Three Blind Mice was somewhat off. We'll be getting the guitar tuned by a friend sometime this next week hopefully and have them show him how to do it.

So, that's our week pretty much in a nutshell. Other than the fact that we did manage to get about one hour of outside time in to add to our year to date total for the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge . This brings us up to the grand total of 153.5 hours!! With about 9 months left of the challenge (for us) that leaves us a little behind schedule, and yet I'm still not worried!

Posts you may have missed this week:
More Organization Please
A Meaty Menu
Glorious Snow-sational Fun!
Winter Bucket List Link-Up
The Did What?!?!

Linking up this week with:
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Faithful Mom of 9
Homegrown Learners
Great Peace Academy

Find us on Facebook here or subscribe to the blog for tips on homeschooling, book reviews, how to get your children helping out in the kitchen, and to see many pictures of the cute kiddos, plus much more!