Last year when I did this project I was really focused on telling stories. Looking at each of the pictures and telling the story that you can't see. My goal was to capture the behind the scenes story of our daily life. I ended up with a LOT of content, but looking back on it now, I love all the little details that I ended up with. My focus this year is observation. More on taking notice of who we are right now and observing how we move through our days. Having just moved to a new house and neighborhood everything is new to us right now. Routines are still developing and we're still figuring out the rhythm of our new surroundings. I don't have as many stories about the way things usually are, or the schedule of our days because we're still figuring it out! In some ways I love the newness of everything, and in others I'm desperately searching for those routines that keep me moving forward and ensure things are getting done.
Day 1 felt a little bit like an after thought. I found myself constantly thinking oh yeah, take a picture. In the end I think I got enough to capture the story of the day, but I'm hoping to be more intentional as the week goes on.
My alarm went off at 4:30, but I stayed in bed until the very last minute I could. Luke leaves for work at 5:30am so I know if I am not up and getting ready by 5 a run will not happen. My running routine and early waking is one thing that I'm really struggling with since our move. I'm not a morning person so in order to get up before dawn on a daily basis I rely solely on habit. Throw in a move and a week long vacation and that habit gets pretty disrupted. I'm hoping the warmer and brighter mornings will help me in this area.
I miss being able to see the sun rise as I spend a half hour reading my morning devotionals and drinking coffee, but I'm so happy we have another large window in the living room. I have to be much more disciplined in this house making sure that I don't extend my quiet time much past 6. Now that our bedrooms and bathrooms are on a separate level from daycare I have to make sure I'm ready and have time to get the kids ready before daycare begins to arrive at 7. This means that Sylvie now has to be woke up with Beau and Cora so I can get her dressed and do her hair. I love that all our bedrooms are upstairs and having a separate bathroom is AMAZING, but it has been a change that has taken some getting used to.
I also absolutely love that we have a window in our bathroom! Being able to have natural light, fresh air, and hear the birds sing while I get ready is always something I longed for in the other house.
My kids aren't late sleepers so it's rare that I have to wake them up. Beau and Cora are usually up and dressed by the time I'm out of the shower and long before their alarms are set to go off at 6:30. Sylvie will often sleep longer, but usually wakes up when she hears me throw in the mornings first load of laundry. It's rare that we have a morning where someone isn't grumpy as we all get our chores done. This morning it was Cora, who didn't want to have her hair done. She's my quiet pouter in contrast to Beau the defiant arguer, and Sylvie who whines, cries and clings to my leg. Of the 3 Cora gets over it the most quickly and is the easiest for me to keep my blood pressure in check. Mostly because she just needs to be left alone.
See....Cora 10 minutes later.
Beau was amazingly cooperative this morning. Not even an argument when I asked him to go in and cut his fingernails. He's been cutting his own fingernails since he was about 3 (typical of Beau). Oh the fits he would throw when it was time to cut his nails! So as soon as he started demanding that he do it we gladly let him.
Sylvie and I sported matching hairstyles today. While hers varies mine is almost exclusively the messy "mom" bun (wet) complete with sunglasses on my head and big gold earrings of some sort.
Our house faces south so I love opening up the big door and letting in the morning sunshine. I took an extra minute to enjoy it this morning since the weather is calling for a rainy week.
The kids have been eating oatmeal for breakfast the past few weeks. Typically with a little bit of butter and drizzle of honey. I spent a few days teaching them how to make it themselves in the microwave. For us it is important that the kids have breakfasts available that they can make themselves. With daycare kids arriving at the same time as they are making and eating breakfast I'm not always available to make something for them. I used to feel guilty that I wasn't whipping them up pancakes and eggs and serving them at the table but in reality they prefer to do it themselves. There have been many an argument and often tears over who gets to take the bowl out of the microwave, drizzles the honey or sprinkles cinnamon on the toast.
Sylvie and I eat breakfast with the daycare kids around 8. Sometimes her whining is more than I can handle and she'll snack on some dry cereal to tie her over. Giant mugs of coffee for me.
I notice the dishes are clean as I start cleaning up the kids' breakfast dishes. I begin unloading and realize that even after nearly 10 years our colorful dish selection still makes me smile.
Beau helps in making sure their breakfast dishes get cleaned up and put away. He does better than Cora in this area who tends to forget her dishes on the counter and if she does remember seems to think anywhere in the vicinity of the sink is equivalent to in the dishwasher.
As is typical Cora asks me to look at her teeth and asks "are they like half grown in?".
In an attempt to combat Sylvie's whining, crying, and listening behavior (especially in the mornings) we started a sticker chart. I picked up a few of those "mystery bags" that have a mystery Care Bear figure in them, and when she gets 5 stickers she gets to open the bag. She's working toward her second one and the 5 stickers tend to take are about 2 weeks to earn. This morning she gets one from yesterday and Cora helps her put it on.
Now that we live so close to the school Beau and Cora get to walk in the mornings. This means that their time at home is a lot longer than it used to be. At our old house they would have to leave for the bus stop at 7am, and now they don't even need to get their shoes on until 7:45. I love having them home for a longer time. Our mornings are much less rushed, and we have time to recover from grumpy mornings before they head out the door (decreasing my all day mom guilt a TON). It also means that the 45 minutes before daycare breakfast where I used to catch up on food program paperwork, bills, and bank work as the kids had free play is now gone. It's one of those routines that I'm struggling to find where it fits.
As I walk through our current preschool room I sigh as I see the kids' art books sprawled all over the shelf. I stop and "squirrel" (as Beau would say I'm famous for) to put them in a basket and then make name tags for each so they can see whose is whose without digging through them all.
By the time we are done with circle time and our preschool activities this morning the rain has already begun, so it's indoor playtime today. See those curtains? Yeah....one of the to do list items I mentioned in the last post.
All lined up for story time before nap.
Today's nap time consisted of a quick PIYO session. I haven't done it for a long time, but when I took a minute to look through past week in the life albums I was reminded of how much better I feel when I take the time to do it. I also potted the flowers I got over the weekend and hung them on the back porch, prepped a grab and go pre soccer supper, and folded lots and lots of laundry. Gotta love catching up on laundry from the weekend.
The big kids got home from school just before 3. I have been getting their snack ready first so they can eat and get started on homework while I get the littles up from nap (and today rush to finish folding all that laundry). Cora and Rory tell me that they are done with homework for Kindergarten and since I don't see any in Cora's folder they get busy with their go to indoor activity.....art.
More rain and indoor play this afternoon. "Please sit on the furniture", "no running" and "indoor voices" are phrases that I say repeatedly on days like this. At one point when I tell them "no running in the house" Sylvie says "can we run gently?" "no running is for outside". She immediately begins whining and says "but then I won't get big muscles and I'll get little like the babies!".
We get word around 5 that Cora's 5:45 soccer game is cancelled tonight. I alternate between being ecstatic over the unexpected FREE night and frustration that my supper prep was wasted.
yogurt.....a favorite dessert around here.
On the plus side we had supper on the table, eaten and cleaned up all before 6pm. Freeing up enough time for me to get a meal plan and grocery list put together and head to the grocery store. As I'm working on my list Luke and I see that it is "new name day" tomorrow in kindergarten. Luke says "Cora, tomorrow is new name day at school, what do you want your new name to be?" She hollers in from the other room without hesitation "Cupcake". Um ok then, that's that.
After some silly dancing in the living room the girls ask if it is bath night. Which actually means "can we get our jammies on". I tell them they can, which also means I get to head to the grocery store solo.
Lots of bananas that will be gone within days and an eggplant. I stand there wondering if I've had eggplant before, and wonder how to cook it. Then as I'm standing in the checkout I realize I think I have had eggplant and didn't enjoy it. We'll see.
What? I couldn't decide between the two. It is rare that I come home from running errands without some sort of candy that will then get hidden in a compartment of the yukon for me to sneak out and enjoy over the next couple days. That is if I don't eat them all on the way home. There's a reason that on BOTH Beau and Cora's kindergarten Mother's Day projects where it says Your mom's favorite thing to do is........"eat candy". Seriously what are the odds they would answer exactly the same 2 years apart? I may definitely have a problem with sugar.
The kids are watching TV when I get home from the store. The girls on one TV and Beau on another. We are left with plenty of time for stories once the groceries get put away. Beau generally opts to read in his room while I read to the girls, but tonight he joined us with his book of jokes. Which we was appropriate since we were all full of giggles over silly stories (say Dora! seriously...corny enough on TV but when the book tries to talk to you as you're reading I just can't keep a straight face).
After the usual stalling the kids are in their beds around 8:15, where I find Cora spinning a top on her windowsill as she waits for me to tuck her in. I get ready for bed shortly after when I hear a soft tapping on the bathroom door. It's Sylvie "my nose tuffy" meaning she wants Vicks. She's up again at 1AM needing to go potty and asks for more Vicks.
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