Could it be? Another week of school begun?!?!? Where did the weekend go? Alas, our day began...
7:00am - I wake up and realize I have a cold toed 3yo crawling into my bed. I listen for a moment, no other stirring noises, not even the puppies... so I cuddle up with Mr. Ice Cube Feet and fall back asleep until...
7:15am - Why, oh why, did I think it was a good idea to set an alarm on my iPhone to "Wake UP!!!!!!" as it says? No worries, with one swipe of my index finger it was silenced. :)
8:00am - Micah (toes now warmed) has begun squirming but every time I look at him he squeezes his eyes shut and pretends to sleep. I am now sufficiently awake and check email on my phone before getting up... and I send the bouncy wee one up to dress and wake all his sleeping siblings.
8:30am - I have called upstairs a few times now to encourage (at varying levels of volume...) the children to do their morning responsibilities with a happy heart. They finally come down to breakfast, chocolate chip zucchini bread and oranges.
9:00am - I read aloud our poetry selection for today, some poems from William Wordsworth. My children think his name is clever... "My, his words must be expensive, being that his name is WordsWORTH"... there is much laughter as we are still in the knock-knock phase of jokes, and word play is a favorite activity. We enjoy his poem "The Sun Has Long Been Set" so much we read it three times, then I snap a photo of it and text it to our friend up the street to share with her kids. Table chores commence. Laundry is started.
9:30am - We begin to assemble in the living room for Family Devotions. Sing a hymn, go through Training Hearts, Training Minds, family Bible memory for the week (2 Timothy 3:16-17), family prayers for Missionary Monday (we have themed days for family prayer so I don't forget to pray for any major area...).
10:00am - School officially begins with my reading aloud from our Historical read aloud which the children do their quiet activities, the four oldest start on handwriting, and continue on with Explode the Code or Wordly Wise. I begin to question myself regarding asking the youngest two to play quietly with Duplos nearby. Is that possible? I will give them credit, they seemed to try very hard to make their car noises less loudly than normal.
10:15am - The washing machine dings that it is finished. Our dryer decided to stop working yesterday, so I planned to run load of wet laundry to my mom's house every hour or two for drying (my mom lives around the corner). I flip through a couple of pages and decide to finish the chapter we are on.
10:25am - I am still reading our Historical read aloud and have discovered that what I thought was the end of the chapter was really just a break in the page with a picture, the end of the chapter is twenty pages away. I decide to stop reading as the olders have run out of quiet work and the youngers have ceased trying to be quiet. Time for a laundry run.
10:30am - I remember my car is in the shop and it is 40F and windy. So, I throw on my coat and tell the kids I will be right back, I am walking to my mom's to borrow her car to shuttle my clothes back and forth to her dryer. No one wanted to go, so I started up the street with my head buried in my coat walking fast. I turn at the sound of shrieking children to find the two littlest boys running up the street after me with no shoes or jackets on, apparently they are planning to join me after all... so we go back to the house to get them shoes and jackets and head out again. Wet load out and in a basket by the door while another load of laundry goes in.
10:45am - Finally make it to my mom's house and go to get the clothes out of the dryer that I threw in last night (after discovering my dryer had broken). Still wet. An audible groan escaped me as I remembered to be thankful in all circumstances. I decided to be thankful that they weren't as wet as when they went in. I reset the dryer and grabbed the keys to my mom's car to drive home.
10:50am - Car won't start.
10:50.30am - Car won't start. Say a silent prayer. Mind spinning as I consider having to carry a wet load of laundry up a block and a half and back seven more times today if this car doesn't start.
10:51am - Car won't start. I realize that the car sounds like it is going to start, and all the lights and radio come on, so I know the battery is fine. Then I remember that my mom left money for gas before she went on her trip, so I look at the gas gauge and see it is empty. Combined with the steep incline of my mom's driveway, I conclude that the gas probably can't get to the intake. Say another prayer because I decide to do something a little crazy.
10:51.30am - Car still not starting. I decided to back the car out of the driveway in hopes that on more level ground the fuel will reach the intake and start. I have no reason to believe anything major is wrong and I am hopeful enough to try it, though the idea of blocking the street if I am wrong crosses my mind and I choose to ignore it.
10:52am - I discover that the car drives differently when there is no power, I am suddenly concerned that stopping the car or turning the car to avoid hitting the car parked across the street is not going to happen easily without power steering and braking.
10:52.30am - Another prayer is said as the key is turned in the ignition while the car is stopped 2/3 of the way into the street. The car starts, I can now breathe again. I drive home.
10:53am - Return home. Text my neighbor who says I can use her drier since my mom's seems to be drying at a slower rate than my clothes seems to be washing.
11:00am - I check in with each of the older four and make sure they are on task. The younger boys settle in to playing and I run up the street to put the load a load of wet clothes into my friend's dryer. Short visit, they are also doing school, so I rush back out.
11:15am - Back home. Ground coffee beans, make french press, check school progress, calculate when the next load will be done washing. I text a friend quizzing her on Tapestry of Grace and she says she will call in a minute.
11:30am - Twins come with big smiles and their phonics books. One goes to read a chapter of the Amish readers we use. The other sits down and goes through her lesson with me. Switch. I am kind of distracted as I am thinking my phone will ring any minute. I ask Hannah to prep lunch (baked potatoes).
11:50am - My phone rings as we are driving out of the neighborhood, my long awaited phone call. We start chatting about large families and schooling and co-ops and curriculum and schedules.
11:55am - I pull into the gas station and break all the rules by continuing to talk on the phone while I pump gas.
12:05pm - Back to my mom's. Laundry is dry this time so I get it out and put in the new, wet load. Back in the car with clean, dry laundry and back home.
12:10pm - Still talking to my friend about co-ops, looking up prices on the internet. Calculating the costs of Classical Conversations for next year versus Tapestry of Grace and the ToG co-op. Stressing a little. A lot. My friend playing basketball in Turkey sends a text which vibrates loudly in my ear, so I answer on the iPad near by while I continue talking to my friend. At some point, our collective 15 children find where we have been hiding and need us, so we say our goodbyes.
12:30pm - My neighbor texts that her dryer has beeped and my laundry is dry. Yea! Our baked potatoes are done too, so I say I will be up in a few minutes and attend to the final lunch preparations.
12:45pm - Lunch. I try to ask for the children to eat quietly for a while before talking to one another which only seem to result in sparking a rather lengthy discussion about how long they should eat before talking, all the while not eating so the topic could be discussed. I am mentally checked out because I am busy trying to remember where the laundry is supposed to go. The repair folks call and schedule for my dryer to be looked at on Thursday.
1:00pm - The washer buzzes. I am done eating so I get up to make another laundry run to my neighbor's house. The youngest flings himself from the table to join me, covered in baked potato remnants. I make mention of his messiness and start to suggest he wash his hands when he quickly rubs his hands up and down his pants and declares himself clean. Sounds good to me. I request that the last load of the day be started as I head out the door.
1:15pm - Short visit with my friend as I gather my laundry and put in a new load of laundry to dry. We make reference to needing to have a coffee together once the kids finish school, I figure a good time will be about the time the new load is finished drying. Back home.
1:30pm - I realize that the children appeared to be working diligently today on their school work but I have no idea what they have done. I call to check on my car, the auto shop hasn't looked at it yet. I start crunching numbers on our co-op choices for next year... freak out again as the totals for CC begin to equal a large car payment. While Tapestry of Grace has intimidated me for several years, I begin to reflect on the fact that my two close friends with similarly aged children both use ToG, while my close friends with 3 of fewer kids use Classical Conversations... then, my ToG friend texts to tell me their may be a mid-semester opening at their co-op, I could possibly try it out for a 9-week term before next year, very enticing.
2:00pm - Where has the day gone?!?!? It is time to go to the farm. We don't have time to stay and work, but I need to return something to my friend and talk about changing the schedule a little. The washer buzzes, last load washed... I wrangle the kids out of the house, stop by my mom's to get the load from the dryer, and put a new load in... head to the farm and start to think of calling to cancel but then remember I need to return that thing.
2:45pm - My friend is surprised to see us, probably because no one is dressed for farm work in 50F weather, so we just go inside for a little visit. I don't think the kids have ever been in his home except to use the bathroom (we usually work the gardens, feed the stock, milk the cow, chase the chickens, etc.), so they were having a great time as he told them stories about his artifacts from all over the world. We work out a new schedule for coming to help at the farm.
3:30pm - Leaving the farm I realize we were gone long enough that the laundry at my mom's should be dry and my neighbor texted that my load finished at her house. I get excited at the thought that all my laundry will be done. I stop first at my mom's house only to discover that the load isn't fully dry, so I start the dryer again and head to my friend's. I gather my laundry and start to invite them for coffee when I realize that her husband is already home, coffee will have to wait until tomorrow.
3:45pm - Kids settle back in and are finishing up school work, I chat with the auto repair shop and learn my car will be ready tomorrow. I catch a glimpse of my couch loaded down with five baskets of unfolded laundry and call the children in to fold clothes while I read aloud from our Literature read aloud, Little Town on the Prairie.
4:40pm - I am still reading, the kids still folding. Micah has fallen asleep on the floor. Elliott is texting me that he will be home late. We work out a way for me to leave for my meeting. I go back to reading to the kids.
These nights are rare, but they happen... I left for errands before a meeting I had and Elliott came home a few minutes later. We didn't get to visit or catch up until I got home at 10pm. I also didn't get dinner until then. And then I sat down to reflect on my day. I should go grade school work, but I don't really want to. I will do it in the morning.
How was your Monday?
Wow, what a Monday! I am impressed by your dedication to laundry. :)
ReplyDeleteI did TOG for three years.
I have GOT to watch an episode of Drive Thru History! I keep forgetting.
Thank you for linking up!