A day in our life

I think it's nice every once in a while to record what our days our like as it might be interesting to look back at this later on down the road. I can't really say that today is a "normal" day because our schedule is rather varied. I usually homeschool the kids on Mondays and Wednesdays as I don't often go out and observe student teachers on those days because of the babysitter's other obligations. Usually the kids are at her house for about nine hours on average each day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are at her house for at least 4.5 hours those days at the very minimum. Most Fridays I visit at least a few student teachers. Here's what we were up to today...

Ian came into my bedroom at 6:30am. If he comes in sometime between 6:45-7:00 then I usually go downstairs with him, but if he comes in earlier than that, I have him climb into bed on Paul's side. I enjoy snuggling with him, and he often goes back to sleep. This morning he fell back asleep. I woke him up a little after 7:00 because my arm was under his

head and I needed to use the bathroom. Nadia and Oliver usually sleep longer than Ian does. When I get them up depends on how soon we need to leave the house that particular day. I checked my email and then did a little math with Ian before calling Nadia and Oliver down to breakfast. I had oatmeal and a banana. The kids all had frosted flakes cereal. Oliver eats his dry with his fingers, and he drinks a glass of milk with it. I read  The Bark of the Bog Owl to them during breakfast. After breakfast I did some math with Nadia before I got my shower and got dressed. The kids also got dressed, fed the guinea pigs, and packed their lunches. I checked Nadia's math, packed my lunch, and packed the bag to take to the babysitter which contained three lunch boxes, piano books, and chapter books for Nadia and Ian to read. Because they have art and gym on Fridays, we do some subjects (such as spelling and science) in four days each week.

We left the house around 8:45. I dropped Nadia and Ian off at the entrance to the Christian school, and while they were in art class,

Oliver played in the indoor play land. I had brought my laptop, and I wrote a letter of recommendation for a student teacher while he played. At 10:00 I paid $60 for all three kids to be in the gym class for the next session. Nadia gave the bag to the babysitter, and I left to go visit two student teachers. On the way to the first student teacher, I made a super quick trip into Aldi's grocery store. I only had time to buy a few things (mostly produce). Then I observed a student teacher for 45 minutes. On my drive to the second school, I made two quick stops. I should add that the vast majority of the time I don't do any shopping when I am out observing student teachers, but I had one hour in between the two visits and it doesn't take a full hour to drive between those two schools. I ran into a large thrift store to see if I could buy some rain boots or snow boots for Nadia as the ones she had are way too small for her growing feet. No dice. So I ran over to the women's shoes and got myself a pair of black flats for $3.99. My one other stop was super quick into a store that only sells bread. I bought 3 packages

of bagels and 3 loaves of bread for $8 total. After my second observation, I got some gasoline or I would have run out of gas on the way home. Last month we spent over $500 on gas. Paul and I drive a lot!

I picked the kids up from the babysitter at 1:30 and drove home. It was really warm out today (went from highs in the 30's earlier in the week to a high in the low 80's today!), and I was wearing dressy clothes so I wanted to change into something more casual and put away the groceries I had purchased earlier. Because it was SO nice out (low humidity, sunny, and warm), I decided to take the kids to the playground for the third time in 2018 (not counting the Easter egg hunts). If I had more time, I would have liked to walk to the playground as I haven't been getting any exercise lately, but we drove to a playground near the grocery store (not the one we typically walk to). I brought my camera and took pictures for the first time this month. We were gone for about one hour when I decided it was time to come home so I could start making

dinner. The kids played outside in our yard some and watched a bit of their current favorite show (Odd Squad) via Amazon Prime while I was making dinner and sweeping the kitchen floor. I read some more of our current chapter book during dinner. I had checked the book out through ILL at Bloomsburg University's library on Tuesday afternoon, and we're already more than half-way through the 200+ page book. I'm hoping to be able to read the trilogy to them before the semester is over if I can get the other two books via ILL in the near future. After reading some of the book, we listened to Philippians chapter four. After dinner the kids played outside with some children in the neighborhood while I cleaned up the dishes. I also helped Nadia clean out the guinea pig cage (one of my least favorite activities). I scanned and emailed a letter of recommendation, changed the toner on the printer, started a load of laundry, and completed two evaluations for the PA department of Education for two of my student teachers while the kids were playing outside. Ian came in first, and so when Paul

came home at 7:00pm Oliver and Nadia were outside playing while I was giving Ian a haircut. After Ian's shower was done, he played the Wii with Paul for about 15 minutes.

After family devotions and prayer, we put Oliver to bed, Ian played a game of Battleship with Paul while Nadia took a bath, and then after Ian went to bed I played two games of Mancala with Nadia. I haven't played many games with the kids lately, but I am trying to fit things like that back into my schedule if at all humanely possible. I've really missed spending time with them (aside from homeschooling). On days when I work for 9+ hours for the university, I usually crawl into bed sometime between 8:00-8:30pm. Last night I went to bed at 8:30, but tonight I'm not going to bed that early, which meant I had time to write this post and edit some of the pictures I took at the playground today. Now it's almost 10pm. I'm going to play Boggle on the iPad for 6 minutes, move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and head to bed. Paul is eating dinner and watching a documentary on TV right now. The kids are only scheduled to go to the babysitter ten more times this semester. The end is in sight!