A peek at a day in our home

I have a confession to make…I am nosy. Now, I’m not one to be all in your business but I love to see what people are doing in their homes. It’s like sitting and talking with my girlfriends and someone asks, “So what did you do today?” Except when someone posts it on their blog, it usually comes with pictures! And being the visual person that I am, I love it!

I have always wanted to do a “day in our life” posts so here it is:

We awoke on Friday to rain and dreariness. Dave offered to help me with breakfast (which he does cook for me as many days a week as he can) but today he suggested McDonald’s. So the kids awoke to a Friday morning treat and a little TV.

We have a no TV after 8:00 am on a school day rule so they soon were up and moving. Everyone got dressed, made beds, picked up their room, brushed teeth…all of the typical morning routine stuff.

While they were completing their morning routines, I tried to finish up my beauty routine. Of course, I had a little “help”.

I ran around the house like a mother hen trying to get my morning routine completed. But I didn’t take pictures of that. I’m sure you don’t want to see my laundry and dirty dishes! My older boys were great helpers too. They vacuumed, emptied the dishwasher, and helped with the baby when needed.

Now, Fridays are not typical school days for us. Usually, the older children have completed the bulk of their work on Monday – Thursday. So on Friday, we usually take tests and tie up unfinished business. They did need to finish history and do a math lesson, but I decided to surprise them. More about that in a bit.

As I’m running around doing this and that, I saw that we had a visitor.

He was probably a bit disappointed since that feeder is out of food.

Before school, we also cleaned the girls’ room with a little help from U2, Harry Connick, Jr, and the guy who sings the song, “I’m Blue, da ba de da ba da, dabba de…” (It’s an oldie from the 90’s or 80’s, not sure. It’s on my mp3 player though.) Music motivates us all to get the job done.

Yes, we dance while we clean and yes, we are Baptist! <gasp>

Then we settled in for our Friday Fun School. I told the older kids that they could do the activities that the younger children were going to do today. They are always wanting to join in on the fun. (and they sometimes do) It’s good to change it up now and then. Life is short, you know…

Since Sunshine Girl was learning the letter S, we did the following activities:

We painted to make snowmen and snowladies. ( Idea found here.)

We made snow using a little kit that I found at Michael’s in the dollar section. I believe it was called Mad Lab. Everyone had something to put in the snow like Barbie’s (who are most inappropriately dressed for the snow), ponies, and cars and trucks.

And we read books with snow themes…The Snow Lion, The Biggest Snowman Ever, and others.

We even made snowflakes out of tortillas (hat tip to Never a Dull Moment for the idea) and fried them in a little oil. Then we dusted them with powdered sugar. Sunshine Girl said that the powdered sugar looked like snow. This was our dessert after lunch.

After lunch, we usually try to go outside for a little while before the two younger children take naps. Today, the rain kept us in so we turned on the oldies but goodies on the TV. The kids played in the living room and I shoveled cleaned the mess in the kitchen.

Normally after this we get the kids to sit for quiet time. The older boys and I read from our novel for the week while the girls draw and color. While I do this, the Baby is taking a bottle before his nap. But today, I needed a little stillness and quiet so I sent everyone to a quiet place with a quiet activity.

I snuggled my baby boy.

Sweet dreams Baby boy…

While it was quiet, I searched for recipes and started planning my garden for the summer. Then I started dinner. It was a comfort food night for us. We had a big pot of beef stew, some homemade rolls (yum!), and a cherry cobbler that I made especially for David. He rarely gets dessert anymore since I’m <ahem> trying to lose weight. He on the other hand has lost a lot of weight since starting his new job. And I’m not the least bit jealous… ;)

After Dave got home, I flitted around trying to get things cleaned before the weekend. I was so tired last night. We try to have a family fun night kind of thing on Friday but Dave and I were tired. We sat around watching some old Underdog cartoons on the On-Demand freebie list. Then we got everyone in bed, including ourselves. Well, after we fell asleep on the couch, that is.

So there’s a look at a busy day at our house. Not your normal typical school days (that’s a whole other post) but a fun, busy day. To quote Kate Gosselin, “It’s a crazy life but it’s our life.”