a day in our life

i have been meaning to do this for a while- to record a day for the boys so that one day, when they are much older, they can look back on what their life was like when they were younger.  last time i tried, i ended up locking my keys and phone in the car at the library and spending most of a morning there waiting for steve to rescue me (and obviously never finishing the recording of our day).  since today was shaping up to be a pretty typical day for us, i figured now was the time... so here it is:

6:00- my alarm goes off.  jonah didn't wake up to eat at 5:45 like he usually does, so i start feeding him, thankful for the opportunity to rest a little longer as i seem to have woken up with a pretty nasty headache. the big boys start trickling in and snuggling up in our (not quite big enough) bed.

6:45- jonah is finished eating, and our bed is too crowded.  so i get up and take gabe and ezra with me.  i assess my headache, take some medicine and start waking up.  shortly after we leave, jonah and titus both wake up and join us as well.

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7:15- i start in on breakfast and coffee, hoping the caffeine will help kick the headache.  gabe and ezra work on a puzzle in their room and titus sits at the table with jonah and entertains him. after we eat, i start unloading the dishwasher (ezra does the kid dishes), and field questions about world war I ("mom, where was world war III? and what about world war IV?" clearly we need to talk more about that...) with the dishes up and the crock pot ready to be filled mid-morning, i leave the boys talking at the table with steve and sneak a quick shower.

8:00- after my shower, i feed jonah (who has been patiently waiting in his seat at the table, watching the chaos around him) and drink a cup of coffee (and realize that my headache is actually going away!  this is a bit of a miracle. after four pregnancies, my headaches have worsened and been harder to banish).  

8:30-the big boys go back to their puzzle and titus hangs out with steve while he gets ready for work.  we say our goodbyes and steve leaves, taking the dogs out for the day as he goes.  titus and i go out to get the mail (colder than i thought!) and all the boys get caught up playing with the disney junk mail that titus has claimed came just for him. i put a load of laundry in and clean up the kitchen.

9:00- the big boys take a few more minutes to get their puzzle done and we put it on top of the fridge to show steve when he gets home. i get jonah and titus dressed (this takes a while... they are really squirmy, busy guys) and jonah spends the morning crawling around looking for things to get into. gabe sits down to get started on his handwriting (but not without his gum, which is a very important part of doing schoolwork around here) and i leaf through the grocery ads to get a jump start on planning for saturday's grocery trip. gabe and i cuddle up on the couch and get some phonics done (twice i have to stop and pull things out of jonah's mouth that shouldn't be there... this is pretty routine) and then it is off to the library!

10:00- i move the wash to the dryer and throw in a load of blankets. i take titus and ezra to the bathroom, we put on jackets (still so cold!) and we load up into the car for the library. i get a call from a friend who is dropping by to pick something up, so the boys read book in the car while i make myself a coffee to go (two cups today!) and gather a few books to return. half an hour after we set out to leave, we are finally pulling out of the driveway (this is pretty typical... it takes time to get four children going in the same direction).

10:30- we listen to memory work songs (for our classical education coop) on our way to the library (i count this as school, so good job us!).  when we get there, the boys all head off to their favorite areas of the children's section, and i take jonah in the stroller with me to look for a few books for school. i really love to browse the children's section of the library!  somehow, an hour goes by super quickly and as the big boys finish playing their games and reading books, i check out the couple of books that i have found for school next week (with titus's help, of course).

12:00- we arrive home to find steve already back. as long as he is not in jacksonville or having an insanely busy day, steve comes home to have lunch with us every day.  it is such a help to me to have him there during one of the most chaotic parts of our day (lunch and getting down for naps), and if ever a boy is having a particularly difficult morning, his presence is usually just the perfect solution to that as well. while i nurse jonah, steve makes lunch for the big boys.  when they finish eating, steve climbs into the attic (per gabe's request) to get down a box of toys (we have our toys split into thirds and rotate them so that there are less out at once... we live in less than 1000 square feet after all, and we do not want to be consumed by plastic playthings) steve then helps me get them each settled for quiet time.  titus goes to the big boy room for a nap (usually in a makeshift bottom bunk fortress) and gabe and ezra play dinosaurs in my room while listening to a book on CD (i believe today's selection was "little town on the prairie".)  today, titus goes down without a fuss and we don't hear another word out of him after i shut the door (this is not always the case... he must have been tired today).

1:00- i (finally!) eat a quiet lunch while simultaneously feeding jonah.  as soon as he is finished eating, jonah nods to sleep in his highchair, which i lean back so that he can take a real nap right there (he sleeps best out in the living room with all of us.  it has to do with all the noise, i think.  and while i hope to have him sleeping in his room by the end of the month, his constant presence with us and the ease with which he sleeps in the midst of the chaos leave me in no hurry to see him away in his own room to nap). i take a few minutes to read on the ipad at the table while i eat lunch and then clear up the table so that gabe and i can get started on math (also i put some music on, since i too have grown accustomed to the noise and it is just a little too quiet).

2:00- i get gabe out of the room to work on some more school.  most often, we work on the more difficult subjects (especially math) while titus is asleep and ezra can play quietly alone or on the computer.  this is just the only time when the house is really quiet enough for any real focused work to be done)  we do one math lesson (plus its accompanying worksheets... some he does on his own some he does orally while marching around the room... whatever it takes to get it finished today). he requests a hot tea and a piece of gum, which i give him to make the work go more smoothly.  i can tell he is really struggling to focus today, so when we finish math, i let him go listen with ezra in my room (i believe that they are listening to "magic tree house" now) i have my own pot of tea ready, so i pour a cup in real china (some days, this is the very thing that gets me through, i believe.  a moment of civility in the midst of the chaos really is so refreshing to my only-woman-in-a-house-full-of-boys self) and light a candle. somewhere during all of this, i chop up potatoes for dinner (having abandoned my sweet potatoes in the crock pot plan when they didn't look all that edible) and titus wakes up asking for his "coffee" (milk with a dash of creamer... my attempt at keeping him away from the real coffee, which he would gladly drink).  i give him some in his "hospital cup" (a cheap sippy cup that he got when he was in the hospital and now cannot live without).  jonah wakes up and quiet time is officially over.

3:00- with everyone up, the big boys and i tackle the new toy box. we get all the new stuff out, and while they play with it, i pack the old things into the now empty bin. then, i remember that i wanted to finish spray painting a mirror that we inherited from steve's grandparents, so i prep it and spray it while jonah is occupied in the exersaucer. when i get back in, i search for batteries for the play table that steve got down for jonah, and when i remember that we have none, i also remember that i need to go to target to get some wipes. i warn the boys that we will be going shortly and get everyone ready.

3:45- we are off to target and make a quick (for us) run in for just a couple of things.  i luck out and find a few winter items on clearance for the boys.  when you have four boys, it doesn't really matter what size they have in stock... we can use them all!  so i grab a few long-sleeved things that we are short on and can use.  on the drive home, we listen to a little more memory work (timeline, to be precise, as titus begged for me to turn it on).

4:45- home and things are a little crazy looking (as they often are this time of day). i throw a chicken in the oven for dinner and put the boys in my room for a "magic school bus" about baking (hoping that it relates somewhat to our science memory work about acids and bases, but knowing that even if it doesn't, i don't really mind them learning about something else).  jonah falls asleep in his car seat (hello evening power nap!) then i pick up a bit so that when steve gets home, at least it doesn't look like the house was bombed (as i do this, i overhear the tv saying something about vinegar and baking soda... so maybe i am not too far off with my guess?).

5:30- i send the boys out back to play until steve gets home.  they happily fight goblins and orcs together while i finish cooking and cleaning up.

6:00- steve gets home and goes outside to jump on the trampoline with the boys before there is no daylight left.  jonah wakes up and i nurse him.  gabe comes in and makes mashed potatoes because i promised he could hours earlier.

6:30- everyone comes in and washes up for dinner.  we sit and eat together and end up talking about world wars I and II (but not III and IV!) again (we just finished reading a great book for kids on WWI since it is our current study in history, so our conversations tend to revolve around that). after dinner, i send titus and ezra to start their bath, steve starts cleaning the kitchen, and gabe stays at the table eating (he is really eating well these days!). as i am overseeing the boys bath, it becomes quickly clear that they are in no shape tonight to spend time in such close quarters, so it's out with them and into pajamas. gabe changes into his pajamas and they all brush their teeth.

7:00- gotta love the time change!  it is only 7, and already it is dark enough to start getting the boys in bed. we clean up the last of the day's messes in their room and move titus's mattress down (he sleeps on a small mattress that, during the day, sits on the top bunk, and at night comes down to the floor... same idea as a trundle but kind of reversed). then, i wrap everyone's fake injuries (yes, this is a real thing.  there are three ace bandages floating around left over from my break which the kids often wear.  they have taken to each wearing one to bed at night, and it seems to keep them out of other mischief, so i just go with it).  ezra picks out some washi tape (bicycles tonight) and i wrap up his thumb (we are currently trying to get him to stop sucking it) and then the other two as well (since no one is happy to be left out of anything around here). we decide on whose turn it is to sleep with bread pillow (exactly what it sounds like, actually... a pillow shaped like a loaf of bread that my sister brought back from south korea.  it is so much a favorite around here that we have to rotate it nightly to keep the peace). everyone tucked into their beds, i turn out the light and by the light of the hallway, i lay in titus's bed with him and read two chapters of "the return of the indian" while the boys get sleepy.

8:00- i leave the still awake but significantly more sleepy boys with kisses and hugs and all tucked in and join steve and exersaucer-bound jonah in the living room.  we watch the most recent episode of "how i met your mother" with coffee in hand (three today!  holy moly, that is a little out of control for me!) and i fold two loads of the kids laundry that have been hiding in the baby's room for a couple of days.  during this time, both ezra and gabe fall asleep (neither of them naps during the day, so they sleep more easily at night now) but titus comes out a few times to ask one of us to lay with him. jonah makes it clear that he is tired, so we change him into pajamas and steve holds his hand while he falls asleep in the high chair, thus buying me enough time to get a few things done before bed.

9:00- laundry folded and three boys asleep, steve lays with titus until he too is out. i will probably fold another two loads of laundry (the ones hiding in my room), make a game plan for tomorrow and head to bed soon as well.