I was browsing at Kim’s Relaxed Homeskool site and to my surprise came across a post I contributed to her “day in the life” collection some nine months ago. I’d forgotten all about it. It was a hoot to re-read it and remember what was filling our days last March. In that spirit of delightful reminiscence, I’d like to call for my readers to share your own Day in the Life essays in the comments section. In about a year I’ll remind you that they’re there, and you’ll have the fun of rediscovering your own forgotten family moments.

The pre-dawn hush when I’m the only one awake around here has given way to the noisy bustle of Sunday morning, so I’ll have to write my own new typical-day piece later. For now, here’s what our days were like a while back.

Got up early (too early) with the 15month old, watched a Signing Time dvd with him because I was cold and wanted to stay under a blanket. Also, it’s endlessly thrilling to me that he can hear—and dance to!—these videos thanks to these marvelous inventions called hearing aids.

Around 7, the 3 girls trooped downstairs one by one. The 4yo was first, and she wanted to play Rummikub. She carefully filled (and I mean filled) our trays with tiles, then said, “That was fun! Let’s play another game!” I hadn’t realized we’d started the first one.
But it was time to wake up daddy, so I left the baby with the 9yo and went upstairs. Back down to do an exercise video while the 9yo practiced piano.

Then chores & breakfast. We always read poetry with breakfast, or else a story about the saint of the day. This time it was poems about birds, because it was our Project Feederwatch counting day and we were in a bird mood.

Next: morning prayers, then a chapter of our current read-aloud (one of them), Ginger Pye. Then outside to putter around at garden cleanup.

Too chilly to stay long. Back inside, the 9yo copied out a passage from Mossflower (a la Bravewriter) while the 6yo practiced piano and I read to the 4yo. She is loving the Berenstain Bears’ Big Book of Nature. Also the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book (which we never read at bedtime.)

The kids got busy with Sculpey clay while I tidied up for the baby’s occupational therapist, who arrived at 10:30. Good session; he’s making progress, slowly.

OT days screw up the kids’ snacktime, so we eat lunch early. Read some Children’s Homer during lunch while shoveling peaches & rice into the baby’s mouth.

Hubby came upstairs from basement office to do naptime. He reads to the 6yo and 4yo while I put the baby down for his nap and eat my lunch. The 9yo settled in to watch a History Channel show about gasoline while working on her latest crocheted creation, a hairband. Ah, quiet time…for an hour. I caught up on email, paid a bill.

History of gasoline show ended. 9yo gets out the graphing calculator her great-uncle gave her and asks if we can “figure out how to do more stuff.” On this day, this translates to determining the slope of the line formed by graphing coordinate values for Celcius and Fahrenheit, computing the slope of this line, and using this information to figure out the Celcius equivalent for any degrees-Fahrenheit level, and vice versa. My head was spinning by the end of this adventure, but the 9yo was right in saying it was pretty cool. Thanks for the calculator, Uncle John.

2pm. 6yo came down from her quiet time. Baby & 4yo still napping. We chatted for a while over a snack. Then she asked to “go to that website with the Greek words.” She is learning numbers right now. While she tinkered with Greek, 9yo returned to her crocheting (this time while listening to a Redwall book on tape). I threw some chicken in the crock pot.

2:30. I’m on a deadline; it’s crunch time, so I started work a little early. Scott and I traded places. The little ones woke up and soon they all headed outside. I tried not to watch them from the office window for too long. Wrote until dinnertime. The chicken was good.

7pm. Scott gets an hour to listen to music several nights a week. Kids went upstairs to do their chores. I straightened up the house, worked with the baby on his therapy stuff, listened to accounts of the kids’ afternoons.

8pm. Kids’ bedtime. Scott read to the girls while I put the baby down. Then I went in for prayers.

8:30. Quiet. Scott & I scattered for a half hour of email & stuff. At 9 we reunited to watch West Wing. Decided to tape Law & Order. Headed up to read in bed. He’s reading yet another biography of yet another composer. I’m reading My Antonia and Mossflower (at 9yo’s urgent request) on alternate nights. Last night was a My Antonia night. Breathtaking prose. I’m three-quarters of the way through the book and told Scott I was going to stay up half the night finishing it. This morning he told me I fell asleep before 11. Well, there’s always tonight.

Posted by: Melissa Wiley at March 17, 2005 04:58 PM