A Week in the Life of... Me: Monday

I do like to be up before the kids... but at somewhere around 7, they woke up... and I just wasn't out of bed yet. I brought them back into bed with me where I nursed and Tornado looked at books while My Beloved slept in a bit. This started me off running behind.

Once we were out of bed, I cooked up the steel cut oats I had soaked Sunday night while making My Beloved an omelet per his request. The kids played nearby.

Once my Beloved was gone to work, it was our turn to eat (oatmeal takes longer to cook). Sweet Pea finished her breakfast first (something has been bothering her lately and she gets extra fussy during meals), so we changed and dressed her while Tornado finished up. When Tornado was done (around 9am), I cleaned him up and we headed to the potty to remove the night time diaper, go potty and get him dressed for the day (complete with underwear).

By 9:15ish, I set the kids down to play in the living room and I sat down to some unplanned computer time. I hadn't been here long when My Beloved called with news that a dear friend's husband had died early that morning. I took some time to cry and pray and hug my babies before trying to call and tell her I love her. That phone call could fill a post in itself, but I'll leave it be.

Now is was time to clean up the kitchen some. Sweet Pea and I put away the night dishes while Tornado played some more. Next (at about 10 am) was potty time again. I settled Sweet Pea in her bed for nap time and Tornado on the big potty for potty time.

From there (running about an hour behind my dream for the day and completely missing a couple items on my dream list) Tornado headed to the kitchen to do dishes together. Basically, Tornado plays with a couple small cups in the water while I wash dishes and reach around him to put them in the dish drainer. He loves it and I know right where he is. It works well for us. As he gets older and more able, he will get more responsibilities during dish time... rinsing and putting dishes in the drainer for me.

Next I rinsed the beans again and filled the bowl up to soak with hot water for the rest of the morning. Then it was off to "corner time". Tornado wasn't having the best attitude. We put him in the corner when he has a bad attitude or fusses and whines when we ask him to do something. It's been pretty effective. We were there for a good bit of time too. Long enough for him to have an accident and therefore need potty time in the middle. While I waited for him to stop crying and fussing (the prerequisite for getting out of the corner), I straightened our room and then sat to read my book (Christy) for a few minutes. I've taken to doing that while he's in the corner. I have to be right there making sure he stays in the corner, and the only corner in our home is in our bedroom... so I get to read. It makes the otherwise painful time a bit nicer.

Once he finally got out of the corner, I dried and put away the dishes and then we headed to the living room for Circle. Our circle time schedule follows the same order each day with occasional variations. Just after we settled on the floor I heard Sweet Pea awake (an hour early), so I grabbed her to join us. We then resumed...We sing the Days of the Week song (someday I'll get our calendar set laminated and then we will do that too), pray for our missionary of the day, Daddy, and someone else in our family (or occasionally friends as yesterday we prayed for that lady whose husband died.) We then practice our previous memory verse/s and work on the new one we are learning (John 3:16-18). Then it's time for fun songs, followed by the hymn we are learning. We've been doing "It is Well with My Soul for a while now... I need to either add a verse (I'm leaning in this direction) or start a new hymn since he knows it very well and even sings it on his own sometimes. Then we head to the kitchen table to do his Bible Story Sticker/Activity book. I'll highlight this someday.

Potty time for Tornado and nursing for Sweet Pea was next... then lunch prep. While the kids ate their lunches, I worked on dinner prep. I browned the ground beef for the chili and ground the wheat berries into flour for the corn bread.

After lunch Tornado went potty again and then I put him down for his nap at 12:30. It was a bit early, but since Sweet Pea woke from her morning nap so early, I started the afternoon routine early too.

My Beloved called to say he was on his way home for lunch while I was adding all the spices and beans and tomatoes and such to the dutch oven for the chili. I then made sandwiches for us for lunch (really good ones by the way... totally hit the spot for me!) Sweet Pea played nearby while we ate, occasionally coming by to beg bits of food from Mommy.

Once My Beloved was back to work, I spent the next half and hour or so policing nap time, hoping to get Tornado to sleep so I could put Sweet Pea down (they don't do well being put down at the same time). I eventually gave up and decided to try it... putting Sweet Pea down before Tornado was asleep. I then had to police that too. I grabbed my book and leaned into the corner there where the door was closed so I could correct the children as they needed. Finally they were quiet enough to head to my computer work.

I spent the next hour working on several business things that I was behind on and the next couple hours after that trying to organize and figure out our garden plan. This is a priority as we are behind schedule on this as well. (Of course I got up to stir the chili several times in here too.)

At 5 I looked at the clock and was surprised to see what time it was... especially since the kids were still sleeping. I jumped up and worked on mixing the ingredients for the corn bread, dry in one bowl and wet in the other since I didn't know exactly when My Beloved would be ready for dinner.

Once things were mixed, I got the kids up, and My Beloved was home shortly thereafter (5:15ish) and Sweet Pea nursed. A friend of ours came 20 or so minutes later to help us cut some wood for our raise garden beds. Of course Tornado wanted to watch... and couldn't unless Mommy was with him, so we all took breaks and watched the excitement.

Finally we sat down to dinner at 7. My Beloved headed out to work on the digging up of our garden area (it's not level and needs to be for our purposes) after dinner and I worked on cleaning up the kids and getting them ready for bed... nursing, potty time, jammies and songs. Daddy came to the back door (caked in mud) for prayer time and then I tucked them in around 8.

I cleaned up the kitchen and did dishes while My Beloved graciously offered to run to CVS for Sweet Pea diapers (we had one more). Around 9 we sat down on the couch together... My Beloved, me, and 4 loads of unfolded laundry. We folded and watched a program online. When we finished, we watched another program and headed to bed.

Wow... sounds like a longer day than it felt like. :) I'll try to have pictures of today.

Labels: As it happens..., In the Kitchen, Keeping My Home

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:13 AM