How A ‘Good’ Day Goes Here …Day #94

I wrote a post back in October 2011 of a day at our house. I thought it’d be fun to post another day here at our house…now that it is 2 months later. It might be more typical than the first post But maybe not {both days have a trip to the ortho- that only happens every 4-6 weeks}.

My dh wakes up every morning {practically} at 6:00 am and wakes me at 6:30 with a goodbye kiss. That is how the day starts. Wonderfully for me.

I woke up at 7:56 am {although there was a moment around 6:30-7:00 am that I know I was physically awake- I’m sure of it} and after going to the little girls’ room, promptly went down two flights of stairs to feed my alarm clock cat. While down in the basement I checked on the cat bed that was in the dryer from the night before. Not dry- turn it on again. Our cat is …weird. She pees in her bed and then gives us dirty looks when she cannot sleep in it. Maybe all cats are weird?

After that coffee was a necessity. I woke with a horrible headache- one where my stomach is flipping back and forth from. Bleh. Coffee, caffeine, usually helps. {I still have a headache and some stomach nausea} Grind the beans. Filter the water. Wait. Fill coffee maker with water, fill basket with grounds. Press brew. Wait. This morning, perhaps because of the headache, I forgot about breakfast. Usually it is eggs, toast, juice and coffee for me.

About 8:26 am I knocked on each of the kids’ doors and say, “Good morning”. Or something like that. It may have really been “Get up”… I’m not a morning person and my people skills aren’t in use {don’t seem to even be available or exist} first thing. Something to work on perhaps. And I had a horrid headache.

Lee was the first of the two out of her room this morning. That is not normal. She usually is stubborn and has to be told a few times to get up. Fox came strolling out of his room about 8:40 am and immediately headed towards the food cupboard. Were his eyes even open?? He can probably find his way around the kitchen without sight Lee had already ventured to the cupboard and was eyeing her choices. Cold cereal or …hot cereal. She picked cold. No surprise.

Sometimes I make things like eggs {remember I forgot my breakfast}, pancakes, coffee cake, or the extra special scones. But not this morning. They usually like cold cereal if I haven’t made something. This morning they both had that- Fox chose rice crispies and yogurt {odd combo??}, while Lee went for the traditional honey nut o’s with milk {only to discover there was barely any milk thawed}. This caused a bit of a heated discussion –mostly on the part of Lee- but I reminded them that if they pay attention to how much milk they have consumed {they are the only ones that use it}, they would know they need to get a jug out of the freezer for thawing. Fox and I got the laser stare a few times from Lee..but we ignored it…she got over it. I told her to look on the bright side- her cereal wouldn’t get soggy!

At 9:00 am Fox asked what time it was. Then I remembered that Lee had an orthodontist appointment at 10. Lee decided to take a bath {our downstairs shower doesn’t work correctly} and got done about 9:20-ish am. While Lee was taking a bath, Fox started to work on his school. First he did his Bible reading. Today was Luke 21. I forgot to ask for his narration. Headaches make me more scatter brained than usual.

Lee had started her school work as well by then (about 9:30 am). She does things in pretty much the same order each day- and that isn’t always how it is written on her schedule. She almost always starts with Bible reading. Today it was Acts 23. Fox does it as it is written even if it isn’t convenient for others; he feels the need to have the same routine. I try to accommodate that but sometimes he has to be more flexible. Today was one of those days.

They both said their verses before we went to the ortho appointment. Lee recited Colossians 3:1-12 {which seems to be going backward since she memorized through 14 the last time we had school- eh, well, time has a way of taking what we remember} and Fox recited Proverbs 15:16-20 {the same as weeks ago}. They read it, write it and then recite it. We will move forward next week.

At 9:45 am we drove the few miles to the orthodontist office. It isn’t very far, thankfully. When Lee was finally taken back {after waiting for about 20 minutes and us all playing Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire}, it took less than 30 minutes for her to be done. She chose light blue bands this time. That might be the most fun part of braces; choosing the color each visit.

We made it home about 11:00-ish am, give or take a few minutes. Fox immediately wanted to watch an episode of Naruto {gag, ick, don’t like the show} but the rule at our house is any screen time must be earned. In order to earn time, specific chores must be done, and completely. The amount of time it takes to do the chore is the amount of time that they are allowed for screen time. They actually hate the rule. But it is a rule and that is that. So we had a bit of a time when we first got home with Fox getting over what is always the same. There are times when they will earn time and I will reward them with extra time but they must earn in the first place. Anyhow, moving on.

Shortly after getting home Fox worked on Jensen’s Grammar, lesson 8. I worked with him on it- it’s usually a fairly independent subject. About 11:39 am I started on dishes. We’d run out of dish soap two nights ago and I kept forgetting to get more. Yes, we had dishes filling the sink and the countertop. The hazards of having a lot of counter space? Or a laid back housekeeper? LOL maybe both! About 12:00 pm I made cheese quesadillas for lunch.

Fox had finished School of the Woods, chapter 6, Murche’s Science Reader, lesson 38, and First Form Latin, Lesson 24, worksheet 3 by lunch time. Lee had done chapter 7.1 & 7.2 outline reading, pages 115-119 and worked on vocabulary for Biology. She also did First Form Latin, lesson 24, worksheet 3, Greek review {she listened to the pronunciation cd}, History of English Literature for Boys and Girls, chapter 47, read in Utopia and Mark commentary. After lunch Fox and Lee worked on Ohio Study using this site. Lee worked on Excellence in Literature, comparing and contrasting two short stories {The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe and The Diamond Necklace by Guy De Maupassant}. I tried to help her with her confidence in writing. She is a great writer; she lacks confidence. She had already finished lesson 101 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra and worked on Current Events. Fox read from Animal Farm (chapter 1) and finished CK12 Math- 7th grade, lesson 1.1 & 1.2.

School was all done about 3:00 pm. Fox did a load of laundry in order to earn some screen time {to watch the episode we’d talked about earlier} and Lee swept all floors in the house. Both earned screen time and it was quiet for about 30 minutes Lee then vacuumed for more time and Fox suggested that they walk to the library. It might sound strange but physical activity earns them screen time as well. Walking to the library takes 25 minutes =25 minutes of screen time. It is a really nice day today so they decided to walk. Lee is saving her time for some serious screen time. They left about 3:35 pm.

I still need to finish my last bit of dishes and start dinner. I start dinner around 5:30-5:45 pm because we usually eat about 6:30 pm, depending on what I cook. Tonight I plan on making something with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, rice and veggies. Sometimes I mix it all together, like a soup; other times a main dish with sides. I think I will make biscuits tonight instead of the rice. Yum.

Dinner is usually done about 6:45-7:00 pm. The kids tend to go to Lee’s room and read or play together. I check emails, update my blog and/or website. Depending on when my dh gets home, we might watch some Top Gear in the living room {lol time well spent!} or by 8:15 pm, hubby and I will watch something upstairs.

I go upstairs and get ready for bed no later than 9:00 pm. The kids have ‘lights out’ by 9:30 pm. And everyone is asleep by 10:00 pm. It is very funny that our start and end of the day is quite predictable- it’s the in between that changes.

This post was composed for the TOS Blog Cruise. See how others spend their days! The Cruise post will be live January 17, 2012.