Day in the Life: Fall 2012

Here is the Fall Edition!

Once again I have been inspired by Laura over at Navigating the Mothership!

Monday

October, 2012

0735: Noah gets up to take a shower.   Lincoln climbs in our bed to claim Noah's now empty spot.  It is our morning routine- a few minutes just hanging out with my "early risers".  We hear Everyn thumping around in her crib, and Noah brings her in to be nursed.  She and Linc are happy to see each other.

Within a few minutes I hear Deacon and Roman turn their "Ramona Quimby" audio book on downstairs.  They don't come up, and I know they are sorting Pokemon cards or playing legos.  

A sleepy Berean wanders in soon to see what is going on.

0800: I set the baby down for play time, the other kids wander off.  I check email, facebook and schedule a couple of well child checkups online.  Ever and I head downstairs.  I haul the kitchen garbage out- Noah has already brought the can to the curb.  As I start hunting around for the camera and battery charger I answer Deacon's numerous questions about the habits of earthworms and whether or not you can ever drown an earthworm.  I finally find the camera battery, it seems that Noah had already placed it on the charger and it is ready to go.  

The boys start on their art projects, they have been really into sketching lately.

 0845: Breakfast is in process.  Lincoln and Berean like to try their hand at making their own toast.  Roman eats cereal.  Ever eats a banana and some baby food.  Deacon and I also eat toast.  I have four pieces of toast (with butter, peanut butter and sugar- we are out of jelly!) and some hot chocolate.

 I run upstairs to get the hamper from our room so that I can start on the laundry.  The hamper is no longer in our room.  Noah has taken it down for me and has already started a load of laundry. What a guy!

 The boys are dressing, brushing teeth and starting on their schoolwork for the day.  I take turns helping them with the stuff they need me for.  They do their math independently, and then they also have silent reading and math facts on their DS's that they do on their own.  I am still feeding the baby.  Lincoln comes up to tell me that he is wearing two shirts, a pair of pants and a pair of shorts.  This way he will be ready, no matter the weather.  Berean makes up a song about going potty.  The lyrics are something like, "I go wee wee and woo woo".

 1000: the boys continue their schoolwork and are already begging for a snack.  I hold them off.  I put Ever down for her nap, and deal with Berean who is throwing a fit over her clothes.

Somewhere in there I talk to my mom about borrowing one of their cars for the night.  It is a long and complicated situation, and not very interesting.  School work continues.

1145: The kids have a prelunch snack.  The baby wants attention and I give her a bowl of cheerios on the floor.  She immediately dumps them out and they fly everywhere.  I knew that was going to happen, but I also knew it would give me enough time to get lunch ready.

 Berean makes a bigger mess of the cheerios, but does get the plates out of the dishwasher so that she can set the table.

 The boys take a break from schoolwork to have a Pokemon battle.

 Since I am busy cleaning up the kitchen and making lunch, Berean thinks it is a fine time to start twirling the broom over her head (narrowly missing the baby's head) and unplugging the telephone.

 Somewhere in the morning I managed to take a shower.  I forget where I fit that in.
I took a picture of the peanut butter while I was putting it away.  Roman balanced his latest Lego ship on top.  The peanut butter is a very important staple of our diet.

 I will spare you the pictures of the french toast (complete with peanut butter and syrup) that I served the kids for lunch.  Everyn loved it, Roman didn't.  In fact, Roman threw a fit over the lack of a likeable lunch and the fact that I told them that I was bringing them to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon.  There was a few minutes of chaos while he lost it and Berean also chose that time to scream about something.

I called Noah to see what he thought I should do about the pumpkin patch.  Taking 5 kids to the pumpkin patch all by myself is one thing, taking 5 kids anywhere when one of them doesn't want to go is quite another.

In the end I decided to go.  I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the kitchen and we finished up the boy's schoolwork.

1400: we leave for the pumpkin patch.  Roman is still upset, he thinks he is going to have to do a lot of walking, and he doesn't care much for walking.

1425: We arrive at the Farm.  I had gotten a Crowd Cut deal, and it turned out to be a really good deal for our family.  There were very few people around, and the kids all had a great time.  The first thing we did was stand in the pirate ship and watch a pumpkin get shot out of a cannon.

 The boys love photo op booths.

 We took a wagon out to the pumpkin patch.  I made the mistake of dressing Everyn in a warm (but blue!) sweatshirt.  She was assumed to be a boy for the remainder of the day.

 Roman was quite pleased about the presence of the wagon.  As he told me, "I like to ride".  Berean was quite impressed with the patch.  One of her recent library books was all about Dora the Explorer in a pumpkin patch.  Bre walked around picking up pumpkins and commentating about their sizes.

 In the end we chose not to get any pumpkins from the actual patch.  It seemed easier to pick up ones at the exit- I had little desire (and no hands!) to try to manage 4 pumpkins.

 And the kids were surprisingly ok with that decision.

 I love it when I can get photos of them together!

 There was a big slide with a lot of steps to climb.  I think Berean went down that slide about 20 times.  She was crazy- hair flying everywhere with a frenzied expression on her face.  It was fun, I guess.

 I liked the "How Tall This Fall sign".  Good idea.

 I finally drug Berean away from the slide and the boys started chasing each other all over the dirt track on the large trikes.  As near as I can figure, when they saw the trikes and  a couple of buildings that they could play in,  their imaginations went wild and they soon were in character with an exciting storyline.

There was a Criminal HQ and lots of chase scenes, that's all I know.

 Berean couldn't quite make her trike go.

 Next we went to look at the petting zoo.  I had no quarters for food, and Roman apologized very nicely and eloquently to the poor goats. Berean actually enjoyed herself.  Maybe her fear of animals is lessening?  This donkey was braying loudly and looked quite scary as he did it.  I don't know what made him so angry.

 We looked around a little more and then I let them each pick out a pumpkin.  They wanted ones that they could carry, so my total pumpkin bill (at 35 cents a pound) was only $7.25.

 1630 we drove home and arrived around 1700.  I had been intending to make Wild Rice Soup, but it was really too late to start if we wanted to eat before 8pm.  I called Noah and  asked him to pick up Papa Murphy's Pizza.    The girls stayed sleeping as I brought them in from the van.  The boys cleaned up the family room, completed their jobs and started their "screen time".

Since I was off the hook for supper I wrote up a list for Noah for the weekly Tuesday shopping trip and tried looking at some recipe/menu plans.  I got distracted by the allure of emeals and looked into the details of that plan.  I may sign up, and it may be soon.  I also packed up the boys swimming bag for the next day.

Noah arrives home around 6 and we throw the pizza in.  He gave me a package. I had been looking at this book online, and must have left the page up.  He ordered it for me.  We talked about emeals and menu planning.  It is a lot of work to homeschool the kids all day, then do all the cleaning/other stuff and then come up with suppers.  Next to the book is Fels-napha laundry soap.  Time to grate some more up for laundry detergent. sigh.

 Everyn is always very excited to see Noah.

 After this the pictures stop.  We ate supper and then loaded everyone up in the van to drop Noah's car off at the mechanics.  Next we swung by my parent's to pick up the vehicle we were borrowing.  When we finally got home everyone was read to and pj'd.  Noah took over the bedtime routine so that I could lay down.

2030-2200  I slept.
2200: Noah woke me up and I got dressed for work.  No time to do my Monday night pushups (we usually do pushups together on Monday nights- we use a deck of playing cards and keep flipping and pushing until we are through the deck).  Also, although I have kept up with the laundry all day, I have not put it away.  Oh well.

2225: I leave for work.  Noah stays home and does pushups.
2300: my night begins!