Hello, and happy Tuesday! Monday marked the beginning of 2018's Week In the Life project. It's been awhile since I've posted one of these projects. Last year, in an effort to simplify my process I opted not to blog and post pictures as I went. Well, that would have been just fine had I actually finished the project back in 2017. However...I'll give you 3 guesses as to what is sitting on my desk right now. You got it, last years Week In the Life. My goal was to get it done before starting on 2018's, but I didn't quite make it. However, I did learn that while it's a little more work up front those blog posts are invaluable when trying to go back to put the album together. It's just a completely different perspective writing about our days in real time vs. thinking back to what I remember based on the pictures. While I'm happy that I captured something from last year, it feels very fact based, and is lacking a lot of the story behind the pictures. So, with that said, this year I will go back to taking the time each day to go through pictures and write about the day in real time. Meaning, you'll be bombarded with blog posts for the next week or so, and then I'll probably fall of the face of the Earth until December Daily rolls around ;). Or just maybe I'll create a habit and become a regular blogger! Probably not, but you know....it could happen. So without further ado, here's our Monday.
I was awakened Monday morning with a tapping on my shoulder followed by "Mom, it's too dark in my room". Sylvie woke up and realized we never turned her Scentsy warmer. This is also her night light, so her room was pitch black. After I got her tucked back in bed and the room lit appropriately I went to the bathroom only to discover it was 4:15am....only 15 minutes before my alarm would go off. I opt to go back to bed anyway (just for a minute).
In reality "for just a minute" was me hitting the snooze on my iPhone's alarm clock for a solid 40 minutes. At 5:10 I finally rolled out of bed to get ready for a run. Luke has an appointment this morning so is home later than his usual 5:30, so luckily I'm still able to squeeze a run in, even with the extra snooze time. This time of year is my favorite time to run. I love how there's just a tiny bit of blue light in the sky when I start, and by the time I finish the birds are singing and the sun is rising. There's something I just love about starting my day right alongside nature. As I walked to the door I was so happy to see that the tulips that were planted here survived our re-landscaping last summer. I'm loving the new rock that we put down, but I was a little bummed that all the random pretties that pop up throughout the year would have to go (or so they told me).
Another bonus to this time of year is that it's light enough (an warm enough) to have my post run coffee and prayer time out on the porch. I always love my morning time when the house is still quiet, but starting the day in the fresh air with sunshine and birds singing doesn't get any better.
It's tough to pull myself away, but at 6:40 I head upstairs to wake up the kids. I always wake Beau up first by lifting his shade. He gets super grumpy if I turn on his overhead light, and luckily, now that it's light outside I don't have to! I generally get just enough indication to know he's awake, but it usually doesn't include opening his eyes. Then I move on to Cora's room and lift her shade. She's also reluctant to wake, and I usually have to pull the covers back to get her to stir. She generally does wake up less grumpy than her brother and is usually upright before I leave the room.
After Cora's room, it's across the hall to Sylvie's. Usually she's already up getting a start on her chores, but on the rare occasion where she's still asleep, she's by far the happiest of the 3 upon waking. She's generally smiling with her eyes still squinted shut ready to receive good morning kisses and cuddles. Thankfully, her happy demeanor has remained as she's gotten dressed the last week or so now that she can wear shorts and summer clothes. Meaning we don't have to fight about her wearing the same pair of yoga pants every. single. day. Once Sylvie's up I head in to my bathroom to shower, usually giving Beau another wake up call from the hallway.
By 7:00am we're all downstairs, and daycare kiddos are starting to arrive. So you'll notice that my morning "get ready" routine is all of 15 minutes and consists of shower, put on clothes. Every once in awhile if I have some "extra time" I'll put on some light make up. My hair is sometimes combed, and always wet. As soon as we get downstairs Beau, and Cora will eat breakfast so they're ready to leave for school. Sometimes Sylvie will eat with them and sometimes she just wants to play and eats with the rest of the daycare kids, around 7:30. Today she decides to stay in the kitchen and eat with Beau and Cora.
Cora and I have matching limps this morning. She twisted her ankle in her soccer game last night, and I twisted mine on a run a few weeks ago. It still gets a little aggrevated after a run. I'm hoping that Cora's will improve as the day goes on so she can play in her soccer game tonight. She ices it once she's done eating until she leaves for school.
It's a toss up in the mornings whether Beau will be doing something not school related on the computer upstairs, watching video clips on his iPad, practicing magic card tricks, or trying to master his rubix cube. Today it's baseball highlights on his iPad. It drives me absolutely crazy because he generally has not brushed his teeth, has no socks, and often leaves the house with his homework still on his desk and his bed un-made. At this point it's less about being deliberately defiant (we get plenty of that too, so I'm good at spotting the difference) and more about just being distracted. I try to bite my tongue and give calm, patient (albeit frequent) reminders. We've had plenty a morning shouting match over it, but I fully realize that I'm the exact same way, so the poor kid didn't stand a chance. He's been pushing the time he leaves for school out until the very last minute, and leaves between 7:35 and 7:40. Cora follows him shortly after.
After my kids are off to school it's breakfast for the daycare kids. I also have one that leaves shortly after 8am on the bus for preschool. She and Sylvie have become great friends and love to wait upstairs for the bus together.
My mornings involve a lot of running up and down the stairs. Whether it's running to grab something we need, re-filling my coffee, checking on giggly girls, or sending a kiddo out to the bus. This morning I was so grateful for the fact that we can finally have the doors to our porch wide open. If I had to pick I'd say the porch is probably my favorite room in the house, and having the doors wide open not only makes the kitchen/dining/living area feel so much bigger, but it lets in a ton more light too. Also love having fresh flowers on the table. Cora picked out the tulips to have for her First Communion on Sunday.
By 8:15 the preschool bus has come and gone, and I'm doing my morning run around the house cleaning up coffee, shutting off lights, gathering towels, and starting a load of laundry. Basically cleaning up the mess that the mad rush of a 15 minute get ready routine creates.
This morning I was also way behind on invoicing and balancing our checkbook so I grabbed the computer and took it downstairs to try to get some done while the kids played.
At 8:45 I do the breakfast dishes, and realize I forgot to eat MY breakfast. By now it's too late since we need to get started on our preschool activities so we have enough time to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather! Today's circle time topic is worms. We do our typical calendar and weather routine followed by some math activities using color cubes.
We finish up our preschool time by painting a giant worm template using rubber worms.
At 9:45 we start the process of getting everybody to the bathroom before heading outside. I realize that there's no getting around putting sunscreen on the kids today. It's too warm to get by with having them wear their long sleeved sweatshirts. We head upstairs to the front door, where the kids get their shoes and I apply sunscreen on the front porch. I do have a separate daycare entrance, however if we go through the front door I can take them around to the back yard play equipment while staying outside of Georgia's zone. Which means I can get the yard cleaned up without anyone stepping in a pile of dog poop. Once I give the yard a good once over the kids play throughout the back yard.
Days like this make me really love my job when we can sit outside and soak up the sun.
Today I watched the kids flip the cars onto their sides and turn them into ice cream shops. This is something my very first crew of daycare kids did, 9 years ago. Beau was just shy of 2 and I had a couple others around the same age. Every single group of kids has done the same thing without me ever mentioning it or giving them any ideas. It's like a little unspoken tradition that gets passed down from one group of kids to the next. Every time I see a new group of kids playing it for the first time it makes me smile and think back to the beginning of this daycare adventure.
With preschool buses coming and going we have to keep a pretty close eye on the clock throughout the morning. That means heading inside just before 11:00 for lunch to give Sylvie enough time to eat before the bus picks her up anywhere between 11:30 and 11:50. Today it arrives at 11:45. I do the dishes, read to to the kids, and have them down for nap shortly after 12:30.
Today during nap time I work on more invoicing, prepare a bank deposit, and continue balancing the checkbook. I also do a daily sheet to send home with the daycare kids highlighting our activities and letting parents know what we learned about that day. Once that is done I work on getting some photos uploaded and organized for this week in the life project.
Sylvie gets home around 2:45. At 2:55 we see Cora and Rory walking down the street so we head down to get the kids up from nap. I've been trying to have snacks that are quick and easy for the kids to eat (and for me to clean up) so we can get outside right away on these nice afternoons. We head out just as Colton and Beau are arriving home about 3:30.
Beau has decided the last week or so that he hasn't wanted snack and leaves it sitting on the counter. I check in with Cora and Beau to make sure they have done their homework. Homework has been getting a little lax around here as it tends to do as the weather gets nice and the school year winds down.
I finally found an idea for a Mother's Day project for the daycare kids to make their moms. I put Cora and Rory to work gathering rocks and painting them with a white base coat.
4:00 is when the daycare pick ups generally start. Today Beau's friend Dom from around the corner comes over and the big kids + Sylvie play soccer in the back yard. I call Cora in to practice her animal presentation on the red panda that she has to give on Wednesday. She'd much rather play soccer.
I'm done early tonight, all the kids are gone by 5:10. We have a quick supper of salami/cheese sandwiches and fruit around the island. Beau and Luke leave for baseball practice at 5:30, and pick up Dom on their way.
The girls and I work on finishing up Cora's diorama and have her run through her presentation and slides a couple more times.
We finish with about 10 minutes to spare before we have to leave for Cora's soccer game. The girls kick a ball around in the back yard, while I watch from the porch and enjoy a few minutes of down time.
At 6:30 the girls, Georgia, and I head out for Cora's 7pm soccer game. Cora's ankle was feeling better, but she didn't score any goals (her goal was 2). She did get to play goalie, but didn't see a whole lot of action. The team was feisty tonight with lots of sideline cheering, "lets go Pink Pride, lets go!". Luke, Beau, and Dom join us after baseball practice for the end of the game.
Once everyone is showered and in bed Beau and Cora read on their own while I read a quick book and Bible story to Sylvie. It's 9:00 before we have lights out in their rooms. I get ready for bed as soon as the kids are in bed. I do a little reading, with lights out just before 10pm.
I was awakened Monday morning with a tapping on my shoulder followed by "Mom, it's too dark in my room". Sylvie woke up and realized we never turned her Scentsy warmer. This is also her night light, so her room was pitch black. After I got her tucked back in bed and the room lit appropriately I went to the bathroom only to discover it was 4:15am....only 15 minutes before my alarm would go off. I opt to go back to bed anyway (just for a minute).
In reality "for just a minute" was me hitting the snooze on my iPhone's alarm clock for a solid 40 minutes. At 5:10 I finally rolled out of bed to get ready for a run. Luke has an appointment this morning so is home later than his usual 5:30, so luckily I'm still able to squeeze a run in, even with the extra snooze time. This time of year is my favorite time to run. I love how there's just a tiny bit of blue light in the sky when I start, and by the time I finish the birds are singing and the sun is rising. There's something I just love about starting my day right alongside nature. As I walked to the door I was so happy to see that the tulips that were planted here survived our re-landscaping last summer. I'm loving the new rock that we put down, but I was a little bummed that all the random pretties that pop up throughout the year would have to go (or so they told me).
Cora and I have matching limps this morning. She twisted her ankle in her soccer game last night, and I twisted mine on a run a few weeks ago. It still gets a little aggrevated after a run. I'm hoping that Cora's will improve as the day goes on so she can play in her soccer game tonight. She ices it once she's done eating until she leaves for school.
It's a toss up in the mornings whether Beau will be doing something not school related on the computer upstairs, watching video clips on his iPad, practicing magic card tricks, or trying to master his rubix cube. Today it's baseball highlights on his iPad. It drives me absolutely crazy because he generally has not brushed his teeth, has no socks, and often leaves the house with his homework still on his desk and his bed un-made. At this point it's less about being deliberately defiant (we get plenty of that too, so I'm good at spotting the difference) and more about just being distracted. I try to bite my tongue and give calm, patient (albeit frequent) reminders. We've had plenty a morning shouting match over it, but I fully realize that I'm the exact same way, so the poor kid didn't stand a chance. He's been pushing the time he leaves for school out until the very last minute, and leaves between 7:35 and 7:40. Cora follows him shortly after.
After my kids are off to school it's breakfast for the daycare kids. I also have one that leaves shortly after 8am on the bus for preschool. She and Sylvie have become great friends and love to wait upstairs for the bus together.
My mornings involve a lot of running up and down the stairs. Whether it's running to grab something we need, re-filling my coffee, checking on giggly girls, or sending a kiddo out to the bus. This morning I was so grateful for the fact that we can finally have the doors to our porch wide open. If I had to pick I'd say the porch is probably my favorite room in the house, and having the doors wide open not only makes the kitchen/dining/living area feel so much bigger, but it lets in a ton more light too. Also love having fresh flowers on the table. Cora picked out the tulips to have for her First Communion on Sunday.
By 8:15 the preschool bus has come and gone, and I'm doing my morning run around the house cleaning up coffee, shutting off lights, gathering towels, and starting a load of laundry. Basically cleaning up the mess that the mad rush of a 15 minute get ready routine creates.
This morning I was also way behind on invoicing and balancing our checkbook so I grabbed the computer and took it downstairs to try to get some done while the kids played.
At 8:45 I do the breakfast dishes, and realize I forgot to eat MY breakfast. By now it's too late since we need to get started on our preschool activities so we have enough time to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather! Today's circle time topic is worms. We do our typical calendar and weather routine followed by some math activities using color cubes.
We finish up our preschool time by painting a giant worm template using rubber worms.
At 9:45 we start the process of getting everybody to the bathroom before heading outside. I realize that there's no getting around putting sunscreen on the kids today. It's too warm to get by with having them wear their long sleeved sweatshirts. We head upstairs to the front door, where the kids get their shoes and I apply sunscreen on the front porch. I do have a separate daycare entrance, however if we go through the front door I can take them around to the back yard play equipment while staying outside of Georgia's zone. Which means I can get the yard cleaned up without anyone stepping in a pile of dog poop. Once I give the yard a good once over the kids play throughout the back yard.
Days like this make me really love my job when we can sit outside and soak up the sun.
Today I watched the kids flip the cars onto their sides and turn them into ice cream shops. This is something my very first crew of daycare kids did, 9 years ago. Beau was just shy of 2 and I had a couple others around the same age. Every single group of kids has done the same thing without me ever mentioning it or giving them any ideas. It's like a little unspoken tradition that gets passed down from one group of kids to the next. Every time I see a new group of kids playing it for the first time it makes me smile and think back to the beginning of this daycare adventure.
With preschool buses coming and going we have to keep a pretty close eye on the clock throughout the morning. That means heading inside just before 11:00 for lunch to give Sylvie enough time to eat before the bus picks her up anywhere between 11:30 and 11:50. Today it arrives at 11:45. I do the dishes, read to to the kids, and have them down for nap shortly after 12:30.
Today during nap time I work on more invoicing, prepare a bank deposit, and continue balancing the checkbook. I also do a daily sheet to send home with the daycare kids highlighting our activities and letting parents know what we learned about that day. Once that is done I work on getting some photos uploaded and organized for this week in the life project.
Sylvie gets home around 2:45. At 2:55 we see Cora and Rory walking down the street so we head down to get the kids up from nap. I've been trying to have snacks that are quick and easy for the kids to eat (and for me to clean up) so we can get outside right away on these nice afternoons. We head out just as Colton and Beau are arriving home about 3:30.
Beau has decided the last week or so that he hasn't wanted snack and leaves it sitting on the counter. I check in with Cora and Beau to make sure they have done their homework. Homework has been getting a little lax around here as it tends to do as the weather gets nice and the school year winds down.
I finally found an idea for a Mother's Day project for the daycare kids to make their moms. I put Cora and Rory to work gathering rocks and painting them with a white base coat.
4:00 is when the daycare pick ups generally start. Today Beau's friend Dom from around the corner comes over and the big kids + Sylvie play soccer in the back yard. I call Cora in to practice her animal presentation on the red panda that she has to give on Wednesday. She'd much rather play soccer.
I'm done early tonight, all the kids are gone by 5:10. We have a quick supper of salami/cheese sandwiches and fruit around the island. Beau and Luke leave for baseball practice at 5:30, and pick up Dom on their way.
The girls and I work on finishing up Cora's diorama and have her run through her presentation and slides a couple more times.
We finish with about 10 minutes to spare before we have to leave for Cora's soccer game. The girls kick a ball around in the back yard, while I watch from the porch and enjoy a few minutes of down time.
At 6:30 the girls, Georgia, and I head out for Cora's 7pm soccer game. Cora's ankle was feeling better, but she didn't score any goals (her goal was 2). She did get to play goalie, but didn't see a whole lot of action. The team was feisty tonight with lots of sideline cheering, "lets go Pink Pride, lets go!". Luke, Beau, and Dom join us after baseball practice for the end of the game.
It's 8:15 by the time we get home and the girls still need showers. Sylvie goes first. She's switched over completely now from baths to showers, and is able to take them pretty independently. Generally we stick close to the bathroom so we can hear her yell "is my hair all rinsed out?". Tonight I hang out in her room, pulling long sleeved shirts out of her drawers to make room for summer clothes.
Once everyone is showered and in bed Beau and Cora read on their own while I read a quick book and Bible story to Sylvie. It's 9:00 before we have lights out in their rooms. I get ready for bed as soon as the kids are in bed. I do a little reading, with lights out just before 10pm.
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