Mommy Brain

5:45 Up and shower.

6:15 Sit on the couch with Josiah while I read and eat my breakfast.

7:00 Jonathan gets up. “I’m starving, Mom!”

7:15 Wake Natalie and Noah. We pray, then the kids eat breakfast while I read from Egermeier’s Bible Story Book and Favorite Poems Old and New.

8:00 Natalie hits the shower. The boys had their showers last night, so they lay around, play some Pokemon, and start to get rowdy.

8:30 Chore time! Noah dusts, Natalie vacuums, Jonathan takes the garbage out. The boys head downstairs to clean up, while Mom does the dishes, sweeps and mops the kitchen, and mops the dining room. Josiah swings back and forth between helping and getting in the way.

9:15 Spanish

10:00 Science. Eagles are the topic today. We learned what raptors, aeries, and talons are. Instead of coloring the pages that go with our lesson, the kids like to turn them upside down and trace the pages through the back. Hey, whatever keeps them listening!

11:00 Short break – I hop online to check e-mail and blog comments.

11:15 – 12:15 Jonathan and Noah start on handwriting while I give Natalie her dictation. Jonathan finishes handwriting and starts playing Pokemon. “Quietly, Jonathan!” I give Noah his spelling test and dictation and finish up Natalie’s dictation all at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking! I sit down at the table with Noah and go over his grammar and math for the day. Then I sit down with Jonathan and listen to him read and then go over his math lesson for the day. Somehow in between all this, I go over Natalie’s map pages with her.

12:15 – Lunch while watching the rest of the PBS video based on David Macaulay’s Pyramid.

12:45 – Putting on shoes and brushing teeth and grabbing school books and library books.

1:00 – Out the door to the library and post office.

1:30 – 2:20 Natalie’s dentist appointment. I attempt to read Persuasion, but instead end up skimming through an Outdoor Life with Jonathan. Noah finishes his math and grammar laying on the floor of the waiting room. Josiah plays with legos from the dentist’s drawers. The dentist says Nan has a grown-up tooth erupting where there definitely is not enough room. He doesn’t want to do anything until we consult with the ortho, so I make an appointment for next Wednesday when the ortho is up from Spokane.

2:30 – 3:00 Errands: bank, payment for our new stove, and pick up the kids vitamins/fluoride tablets at Safeway. Noah reads to Josiah from his latest Pokemon book while we drive around.

3:00 – Ahhh. A short break. The kids are outside riding bikes, so I hop online for a little while.

3:30 – Time to get the chicken casserole ready to go in the oven. Mom and Dad stop by and so they visit with me while I fix the casserole and do the lunch and dinner prep dishes.

4:45 – Kevin’s home – time for dinner. We visit about our day while we eat and then (try to) watch a little Northern Exposure but the kids are in and out grabbing bike helmets and finding shoes.

5:30 Go over Natalie’s math lesson with her, since we didn’t have time earlier.

6:00 Head downstairs to the piano to get worship ready for ladies’ Bible study on Wednesday morning.

6:20 On the computer to type up the song sheet for study. Read my Bloglines.

6:45 Call the kids in.

7:00 Snacks in hand, it’s storytime. Read two picture books and a chapter of Swallows and Amazons. Done by 7:35, so I tell them they can watch 20 minutes of Curious George and hop back on the computer – which leads us to…

Now, 7:51 pm. I’m about ready to have the kids hit the bathroom and head to bed. Natalie will read until 9, but they will all be quietly (hopefully) tucked away in their rooms and Kevin and I can have some conversation and TV time.

Whew! No wonder I’m so tired when evening comes.

And in case our day sounds too idyllic and calm, here’s what I skipped:

Josiah and Jonathan wrestling while waiting in line in the post office, ending with Josiah – for some unknown reason – laying on the floor and licking Jonathan’s shoe. I’m not kidding.

Jonathan whining in the dentist office: “How much longer?” and then arguing when I told him – for the third time – that “No, you cannot have another computer turn when we get back home!”

Natalie coming in to inform me that the 10-year-old neighbor girl (yes, that neighbor girl) is going to get her belly button pierced. Big surprise.

Three out of the four complaining and whining about dinner: “Do I have to eat that?” as if I had cooked stewed cow’s intestines.

Me losing my temper at least three or four times.

But still, it was a pretty good day.

(My apologies to anyone who is completely bored by “A day in the life of…” posts. Of course, those people probably clicked off a long time ago. )