Full Schedule

This is our first FULL week of school, appointments and extra-curricular activities. My lofty goal is to give a run-down of each day, every day...we'll see what happens!

Monday: My day started with a 7 o'clock dentist appointment. For ME. On a Monday. My blood pressure was higher than normal, which I don't want to hear as my blood pressure was higher than normal last week too. The day only went downhill from there!
The kids took full advantage of dad as sitter and were still in their p.j.'s, enjoying computer time (which they usually earn after chores, with a timer set to monitor that they don't become zombies and never before their school hours are over!), and not a lick of school work in sight. Within an hour (after cleaning up the 'treat' bkfst of dad's french toast...love the toast, hate the sticky spots all over the table!) I had the troops upstairs for study. It was a bit of a battle to get everyone focused and set up (still getting used to the new file system), and it seemed once we were back in rhythm, our stomach clocks went off! So, after lunch, clean up, scheduling a 'me' appt for the blood pressure thing and getting toddlers down for naps, we set back to work on school. Sadly, this went on until 4p.m.! Once all work was turned in and school totes put away, the kids played in the humid heat with the neighbors while I set out to see what would grace our menu on our dad's-not-home-for-dinner-school-night. Usually, we have something the kids love but isn't substantial enough for daddy-o. (Noodles with a creamy, butter, basil sauce won...with salad for mom!) I started the water boiling, added the pasta, set the timer (we live and die by it here) and noticed a cooler dad forgot to take out was in the music room. I figured I'd help him and take it around to the back door to dump it/dry it/put it away. Not so simple. Instead, it caught on a Chinese jump rope (is that still politically correct?) started to tip over and my-now-paranoid-about-my-feet-even-in-shoes-self leaped out of the way, only to spill the remaining water in said cooler all over the floor. Sadly, this spread under the piano, over open music books and into our shoe pile, but I managed to catch it before it dripped over a step onto carpet, or under the organ. Whew! So now I'm scrambling for towels, yelling for help from the children (2 swiftly came to my rescue) and cautioning the toddlers running circles in the house not to run in the puddles while leaving one of the 2 helpers to guard said puddles (never trust a toddler!). The minute we have the newly washed/folded/put away beach towels laid out, (no small feat considering it involved moving a piano), I call to guilt my husband for his neglected chore, and instead had to cut the guilting short as the toddler I babysit sees that her mom has arrived, exactly as the timer for the pasta goes off. OY!
Babysat toddler is off for home after I have to explain that a dog did NOT pee on our carpet, the neighbor dog does that in his house, but he only tries to get into our home to do so and made such an attempt today. Her mom looks at me with a look of perplexed amusement and I wonder for a paranoid moment if my contract will be renewed in October! In any case, one toddler is way easier than two, wet music is set outside to dry and dinner is presented to famished children at a decent hour. So then mom sets upstairs while the kids play downstairs, hoping to grade papers, only to be distracted by a hungry, squeaking guinea PIG and finding not only an empty food bowl, but an empty food bag. (This is the down side to having kids in charge of pet care.) Off to the pet store we go! At the pet store, we love and cuddle adoptable kitties, coo at every other make & model of critter and have the no-we-aren't-adopting-any-other-living-creature discussion that always makes the trips to the pet store more laborious than it has to be! Once we're home, the g.p. is fed and cage cleaned for good measure, the kiddos loving their own critter and secretly wishing it would die so they could replace it for a new and improved model they saw tonight! Just kidding...sort of. (I do wonder sometimes...)
The bedtime routine begins, and a half hour later, dad is home and gets story duty while mom cleans up the neglected after dinner mess. (yes, I left dirty dishes on the table while running to the pet store before it closed - GASP!) It is always during this last cleaning that mom feels OVERWHELMED, and the reality of our hectic life sets in. I usually scrub the run down/mundane/how am I making a difference? feeling away with the soapy dishwater, and remind myself of the days highlights. Like David writing his name almost perfect and for the first time without complaint. Like Grace remembering a joke & reciting it perfectly later in the day, after breezing through her studies without a single tear! Like Natalie having her 'aha' moment with a violin piece she's been struggling with, and Ella getting excited in planning a 'city of the future' for a contest and wowing me with her ingenuity. I remember a snippet from my Bible study on Sunday when the verse "and the darkness has not overcome it" was read and reiterated, and I remember how happy my children are, how blessed my marriage is and how fruitful my life is. I remember I have sisters in this homeschooling journey who have had days exactly like mine, (and some even worse!), and that my days are always easier when I acknowledge that I am only human, and need His guidance and mercy, every single day...and I have comfort, peace, and a glass of wine!

So that's my Monday. Until tomorrow...