I wake the kids at 6:30. Georgia always comes upstairs with me to help. First is Beau. The 5 foot teddy bear he begged for and got for Christmas has made a reappearance in his bed. He slept with that thing for months after he got it. It was recently moved to the chair in the corner of his room. He doesn't want to shower since he has practice tonight and will have to shower after that. Fine.
Sylvie wants to stay in her jammies instead of getting dressed. Fine (there's no school for her today anyway).
Cora's daydreaming and doesn't want to be talked to, she does, however, get up without argument and does what she needs to do (typical).
It's cereal for breakfast this morning. There are a few blueberry cheerios left, which is a treat. All 3 want seconds. Beau and Sylvie pour first, and don't leave any for Cora. I discuss (ok, lecture) on kindness/thoughtfulness. Sylvie feels bad and offers to share...Beau does not. We're out of English muffins and bananas, so I stray from my normal breakfast and have 2 pieces of peanut butter toast with my coffee.
By 7:45 Beau and Cora are off to school, and the daycare kids are settled in to breakfast. I still have a couple kiddos who work on finishing up their rock painting for our Mother's Day project.
After breakfast we always do a bit of free play in our different learning stations. While the kids play I start a load of laundry, bring the computer down to input our meals into the food program software, and write a quick thank you for a daycare appreciation gift.
Sylvie asks if she and her daycare friend can go play babies in her room. When they come back I ask her if they cleaned up. Their response:
Daycare friend: "yep, clean as a chicken!"
Sylvie: "what?!...chickens are crazy and not clean."
These are the typical daily conversations I hear in my line of work. I'm still not sure if her room is clean....
At 9 I have all the kids clean up so we can do our preschool activities. Sylvie helps by sweeping up the breakfast the one year old threw on the floor. I'm really going to miss having her around to help when she goes to kindergarten next year!
The sun is shining, so we're all eager to get outside. I bring out the Mother's Day rocks and get the wires attached. I let them play outside until 11:20 since there are no preschool buses to be on time for.
I recently added an outdoor kitchen set for the kids to play in. We tucked it under one of the pine trees next to the sand box. I figured the grass won't grow there anyway, so they can't do too much damage. They're enjoying playing with the sand, pine needles, pine cones, and dirt. I'm always looking for new ways to keep them entertained outside.
When we come inside I help the kiddos attach the beads on to their gifts, so I can finish with the photos at nap.
At noon we have lunch, followed by clean up and stories. The kids are all down for nap (including Sylvie) by 12:50.
Today my nap time is all Mother's Day projects. I edit, print and cut the photos and attach a poem to the back. Before I know it nap time is over and I realize I didn't have time to get any of my record keeping or photo work done.
3:00 and the kids are up. It's still beautiful and sunny outside, but rain is moving in so I'm in a rush to get outside. While the kids are eating snack I get an email notification from Beau (it's still weird for me to get emails from my 10 year old). It's our town's city wide garage sale weekend and one of the sales on his walk home from the bus stop has a mini-donut stand in the yard. He just happened to have cash in his backpack and wanted to stop. I said yes, but not before he lost wireless. He and his daycare buddy were overjoyed when they got home and I gave them permission to go back and get them. Well, get them they did. Not the typical bag of mini donuts, oh no, not Beau. He bought a giant $10 bucket of mini donuts. He was prepared, and went right in to explaining how it was the best deal when he got home. He did share with the other kids (and me of course). PS...if you ever want your kids to willingly share their sweets and treats with you just act like you're on the fence about letting them having any. I like to let Beau think he's the smart one. He's figured out that if he comes in to the room with candy for him AND mom I'll usually let him eat it.
Once we're all outside I help get my school aged kids going on finishing and wrapping their Mother's Day projects since they won't be here during the day tomorrow.
By 5pm I only have 2 daycare kids left playing basketball in the driveway. Luke and Beau go in to eat tacos so they're ready to leave for baseball at 5:30. I sit on the front step and work on making a meal plan and grocery list. My remaining kiddos leave around 5:15. Luke and Beau leave, and the girls and I eat. This is a good depiction of how I feel our meals have been lately. Everyone fend for themselves, barely sitting down at the table. It's lucky if we make it there at all. The majority of our meals have been standing around the kitchen island before we run out the door. I defiantly need to shift my meal planning to be more grab and go friendly for the summer.
After supper Cora turns on the Disney Channel and they watch Jessie while I finish up the grocery list. By 6 I'm ready and head to our local grocery store with the girls. As we're getting in the car Cora grabs her booster seat out of the garage. She's on the borderline of not needing a booster anymore. Over the weekend I told her she should really still be using one, and honestly explained the injuries that a booster seat could prevent. She was quiet on the way to the store and grumpy by the time we got there saying she felt like a baby. In true Cora fashion it lasted through the produce section and then she was back to normal.
Once we're home the girls help me put groceries away. Their job is to carry down the daycare food down to the daycare kitchen and put it away. Even though it is just after 7 I have them go get jammies on and brush teeth once they're done.
They're both showing tell tale signs of being tired and needing to get to bed early. Meaning that every little thing causes frustration and tears. I tell them both they need to read in their own beds while I fold a load of laundry.
When I'm finished I find Sylvie just sitting on her bed, zoned out with her books for me to read laying next to her.
When I get into Cora's room I find that she is not reading. Seriously, so typical. Generally I tell her to get in bed and read and I will find her rearranging her treasures, hanging pictures on the wall, basically anything BUT reading. However, tonight she has a notebook in hand and is writing a story about dragons. As a little girl always writing...stories, lists, journaling, just writing (maybe not much has changed). So although she wasn't doing exactly what she was supposed to, it brought a smile to my face.
At 7:30 it's lights out for the girls and the boys are getting home from practice. I bring the laptop to bed and work on some photos and journaling while Beau showers. When he's done he sits in our room and talks about baseball and school. After a little while he goes to bed and reads until 8:30. He usually saves his reading homework (at least 20 min/day) for bedtime, which I'm ok with because, unlike his sister, he actually reads. He always gets up and to go to the bathroom and comes in to our room (where I'm usually reading) to tell us goodnight one more time. Tonight I work on the computer until 9:45 and then read until about 10:30. I tend to stay up later when I know I'm not running the next day. A quick check of the forecast still says rain chances 100%.
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