I've often been asked how things work with x amount of kids and how I handle just the day to day life with them. I know did A Day in the Life of Me in 2009 and I thought I`d write out a new one :)
Papa gets up around 7am to head out to work. I normally get him to wake me if I'm not already up with Baby G. She is still quite sporadic with her sleep habits, we're working on it ;), so sometimes I'm up at 6:30 or even 6am. If she's not already nursing I sneak out of bed and get started with my day. Coffee with Papa before work is one thing I'm striving for. Cow chores done before the kids get up is another. IF I still have time and she's still asleep or back to sleep, a shower makes my day a bit easier :) and breakfast started helps make the morning smoother. I also often start the days load of laundry if we're doing laundry that day. *Note on the shower.. IF Baby G and J3 are napping at the same time I will often let the older kids play in the living room and hop in the shower. When Baby G was smaller this was VERY uncommon so I'd lock J3 in his high chair, place it in the living room and put a short movie on for the kids while Baby G slept and I showered! It can be done.. you just have to line everything up perfectly! OR sometimes I just wait for a time when Papa is home and he watches them while I shower.
Our kids get up at 9:30, and often I wake them up!, I go into their room and "Rise and shine" them, grab J3 out of his playpen and we get started on our morning! J3 needs a clean bum, everyone else takes turns in the bathroom and comes to me for their morning chore. J, L and E often set the table or even make breakfast if we're just having something simple like baked oatmeal muffins, or banana muffins like we did this morning. They can also do cereal and J often cracks the eggs for scrambled eggs or whatever we decide to make. They often empty the dishwasher or take dry clothes out of the entrance where they've been drying over night. Sometimes we've been lazy the night before and we clean off the table and reload the dishwasher and wipe the table :) Now J3 is changed, dressed and ready for breakfast. I send him off to go play or read books and get started on breakfast. We normally eat around 10am. Sometimes, if Papa is home for the day or if we all sleep in, we don't eat breakfast until 11am.
After breakfast we finish cleaning up the kitchen and get the house ready for the rest of the day. Today we cleaned house! The girls got the clean, dry laundry and put it in the living room, folded it and put it, as much as they could, away. The boys got dressed and went out to do chicken and calf chores, and filled up my back porch with firewood. When the girls were done the laundry they got dressed and did odd jobs for me. I cleaned the kitchen: reload the dishwasher, wash big dishes, cleanup, put away, wipe down. I also swept the floors as they really needed it. J3 finished his breakfast and went to read books on the couch. He loves to help with laundry but he just shoves it in any space that is open and that makes finding anything VERY HARD!! Or he climbs on Papa's big chair, throws all the laundry off and LAUGHS!! :) So the couch it is. The boys brought in the eggs and L put them in a carton to be washed later and came in to help the girls finish the laundry. They finished up the laundry and started making beds. L brought me the floor vacuum and plugged it in for me. I vacuumed the living room and he put it away again. L prefers this as he doesn't like vacuuming so it works well. J was done his firewood by then and came in to use the shop vac to vacuum up my sweeping piles and the black rug that goes between the trailer and the addition.
Baby G woke up right about then and I nursed her and checked my fb :) on my ipad2! As I got her ready for the day; bum change, clothing check, I tickled her and got her to laugh several times. Her smiles are amazing!! She went into her chair on the couch with a chew toy and then into her exersauser when she got tired of the chair. Girls and L were done beds and laundry so they got to go play. J put the shop vac away and morning chores were DONE!! We don't do the same cleaning every morning. We do get something house done everyday but some days it's bathrooms, floors, chair/table/cub wipe downs, bedrooms, or whatever needs doing. The kitchen and animal chores get done every morning. All this doesn't take long. Today we were done at 11am, after a quick breakfast of banana muffins.
Now when we are schooling this is when we do school. Today we were getting company so the kids played until they got here at 10 to 12. When we do school J3 and R go play in the living room while J, L and E are at the table doing PACE work. Normally we do school til lunch at 1, 1:30. Lately this is when I kick them all outside to play! Baby G often naps at about 11:30 or noon so we all head outside to play in the mud or whatever. This is Baby G's short nap, and she missed it this morning!, and so she's up to eat again at about 1. She loves to play on the floor in the living room while we are all eating lunch at the table. Sometimes she's nursing while the kids eat and I eat later.
Lunch is leftovers, sandwiches, mac and cheese, snack picnic lunch outside or in the living room. As it gets nicer outside we're doing more eating outside in the sunshine and by summer time we'll probably eat half of our lunches outside.
After Lunch J3 and R normally nap on the couches in the living room. Actually R only naps about 2 or 3 times a week and lately E has been napping too. She's been fighting ear aches and needs a bit more rest. J and L either go play outside, like today, or read or draw quietly in the kitchen. If we have extra school projects to do this is when we do them. We turn music on in the living room for the sleepers and it masks a LOT of other noise. Baby G naps again at 2 as well... her longer nap of the day. She sometimes sleeps almost 3 hours. The dishwasher often gets unloaded after lunch and the mornings dishes loaded up. I don't normally run it again during nap time but if we've made cookies or yogurt or muffins, or gotten a bunch of jars I will run it again if it's full. Sometimes I get a kid free break in the afternoon while they all sleep or nap.Today I'm blogging. Often I read or fb or finish one of my own projects. Today I also have beans cooking on my wood stove and 3 extra little boys sleeping in the kids room :) This is also when I chat on the phone or make school and life lists/plans. I can't leave the house as J3 will almost always sit up, half asleep, and I need to be there to lay him back down so he'll sleep for the full two hours. He normally isn't super awake he just sits up! So I lay him back down and he'll finish napping. I also will not leave him alone in the house, free, while no one else is in it, or awake anyway! I really do need to start making him sleep in his own playpen at naps so I can head outside more.
After naps we often do a few more chores. Eggs that need washing get washed. Laundry if it wasn't dry that morning gets folded and put away. The dishwasher always needs either emptying or filling. Meat gets taken out for supper if we haven't done it yet. Supper plans get made and started. On Wednesdays the kids all hit the shower. J3 and Baby G have bathes in the milk sink. Wednesdays and Saturdays are shower/bath days. Wednesdays we eat early at about 4 or 4:30 in prep for AWANA at 5:45pm. Only two more AWANA nights left!!
Papa is getting home around 5:30 these last few days which is really nice. I did manage to make supper the first night but last night we ended up cooking together. We have been eating supper around 6 or 7 and it seems to be working. When Papa gets home it's pretty much a free for all of wrestling, hugging, screaming, talking, running and general chaos. He and I often sit down together at some point in the evening and chat about our days. He also does animal chores in the evenings.. often with small helpers.
After supper Papa takes down the Message Bible and reads us a chapter or two before opening up our family Thank You Book. We go around the table until everyone has said one thing they are thankful for and Papa writes them in the book. Then the older kids clean off the table and stack dishes in the sink and put food in the fridge while J3 and R finish eating and Baby G nurses yet again :) She is 5 months old today and will soon start solids which will be much more fun to blog about :) Baby G is often up for several hours every evening which is wonderful as she sleeps better at night then. She sits in her chair, or lays on the floor in a safe spot, or walks around on my hip or snuggles with Papa, or plays in the exersauser. Soon we'll get out the jolly jumper and add that to her activities. :)
By 8:30 we are heading into bedtime mode. PJ's are found and climbed into. Toys are cleaned up. The table is wiped and I load the dishwasher, yes again!, it's not uncommon for me to do 3 loads a day in the dishwasher!! , bathroom trips are taken, diapers changed. Sometimes I have the kids lay on the floor and I ask them questions.. all sorts. Best and worst parts of their day, favorite colors, math adding and subtracting, letter sounds, school songs, anything I can think of. Other times they do jumping jacks, sit ups and push ups, running in spot or seeing how long they can go without moving, talking or whatever we want. (J can go a long time without moving if he can talk. L can go a long time without talking if he can move!! E has trouble doing either, though not moving is a bit easier!) Sometimes if we have time we have a movie night and a popcorn snack.
Then it's bedtime. Stories are read, hugs and kisses given, prayers said and little bodies tucked into beds. Their room fan is turned on and I love you's are said. Then Papa and I sit on the couch and read or talk for 5 minutes then one of us goes back into the bedroom and lay J3 down yet again. Every. Single. Night. He sits up and starts chatting or singing and we go in and lay him back down. Now the kids are in bed for the night. Baby G is often in bed soon after and Papa and I often watch a episode of our current TV show on Netflix, or a movie if we feel we have enough sleep, or sometimes we watch a bit of a preaching CD, read books or finish up projects or chores. One thing, I have to admit, we do every night after the kids are in bed is just stop for a minute and enjoy the silence. We love the noise of our 6 children, but we also know how to appreciate the silence!
