I love reading "day in the life" blog posts. I love getting a peek into someone else's day. I often find a new way of tackling some problem I've been having, something fun to do with my kids, or just an idea that may improve our homeschool or family life. So...I decided to participate in Simple Homeschool's "Day in the Life" link up. So today I share with you what a recent Monday looked like in our house.

Morning:

I wake a few minutes before 7:00 am. My husband works from home, and he is already in the office working. I scramble to get my teeth brushed and contacts in before the kids are up. I recently started working out most mornings but that didn't happen today. 

At 7:00, A (age 5)  and L (age 3) cheerfully come find me in the bathroom. They are always rather chipper first thing in the morning. I am usually not so much.

I grab some coffee and put some biscuits in the oven. L realizes I'm putting biscuits in the oven and is upset that I didn't call him to help. So sorry...next time. A and L color and do stencils. It's actually quite peaceful this morning. C wakes up, so I nurse her until the timer goes off for the biscuits.

C plays in the kitchen cabinet making a complete mess of the plastics as I get everybody's breakfast ready. I take Dad his, and everyone else comes to the table. While eating breakfast, I read our Bible story for the day and a picture book. Today's book is One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday this week. I notice C start to throw biscuit on the floor along with her sippy cup. Time to take her out of the high chair. Everyone helps clear the table, and we are off to get dressed and brush hair and teeth. 

C gets busy playing in the girls' room with A and L, so I sneak off to finish getting dressed myself. When I come back to check on everybody, I find that they have taken ALL of the books off the shelves and stacked them precariously into a tall tower that C is about to knock over. I. Am. Not. Happy. I tell them to make smaller stacks so they don't hurt anybody and I'll come back in a minute to put them back on the shelf myself. I return to discover the books are now ALL OVER the floor.  The room is a disaster. The time it takes me to return them to the shelves is how much time they lose from screen time later.  

A little after 9:00, I nurse C again, put her down for a nap, and we start school. We meet in the mudroom to say the pledge, review the calendar, and listen to L sing the months of the year song. 

Then moving to the couch, we pray. Since we are reviewing the F sound this week, we read a little book from our Baby Einstein Alphabet book box and brainstorm some F words. We do this mostly for L, and he has come a long way with his letters and sounds this year. Then we read My Book House and practice our memory work. A is memorizing "My Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson while L is working on "I'm Glad" by Anonymous. Then we read the next chapter of How To Train Your Dragon. L builds with Legos while I read, and A plays with the tub of ocean animals as she listens. 

From there, we move to the kitchen table to do our Ivy Kids activity. The current book is Dog's Colorful Day, and the activities focus a lot on colors, numbers, and counting. We had a lot of fun creating story problems for each other about Dog's spots. Also while at the table, we read Monet's Magical Garden for our author study about Claude Monet. 

Mid morning: 

It's time for snack and I read Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Jan Brett. We have already created our picture for the story for the fairy tale book A is making, but I want to review the story before A dictates her retelling to me later this week. 

That concludes morning time. Dad pops out of the office to refill his water and give hugs and kisses to everyone. It's a treat that we're able to see him throughout the day. I put in a load of laundry, and the kids head out to the back porch to play in their "play gardens." A and L really love pretending. They've got dinosaurs, Sophia, Minimus, and of course My Little Ponies in the garden. A wanders in to ask for small rocks to make a path to the castle and then popcicle sticks for a fence. At some point, L tires of that and comes in to play Legos.

Late Morning:

C has been awake and playing in her crib, but she now wants OUT. I feed her a snack and read to her. She giggles as I read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear to her. She smiles at all of the animal sounds in Mommies Say Shhh! which is one of her faves. 

If the kids want screen time, which they always do, they stop playing at 11:30 and they clean up all of their messes. Today that has moved back to 11:45 because of the book mess from earlier this morning. Screen time is usually pretty motivating, and they clean up in no time. A announces that I can "inspect" the house when they are finished. Everything looks good, so they can watch a show or play their tablets. They choose tablets. L sits in our room on our bed, and A goes off to her room and snuggles up in her bed. 

When your bed or a comfy chair just isn't quite cozy enough...

Lunch:

Sometimes Dad gets to join us for lunch and sometimes I take lunch back to the office for him. But today, he's on calls and skips lunch altogether. The kids take a screen break for a lunch of leftover roasted sausage, potatoes, and peppers, and we listen to Stories Podcast. The kids choose to hear "Arthur the Ugly Duckling." After lunch, A and L can continue screen time until 1:00. As we clear the table, C is not happy until I sit down on the floor with her to play. We read another book, Snuggle Puppy. It's very sing-song-y, and C dances and bobs her head...so cute! :)

Rest Time:

We have rest time at 1:00 everyday. I nurse C and put her down in her crib, so A is in our room listening to an audiobook and sometimes plays with Legos or colors. She's listening to Mr. Popper's Penguins currently...over and over. L also gets to listen to an audiobook in his room. He is currently listening to The Mouse and Motorcycle...everyday. Sometimes he falls asleep and sometimes looks at books and plays cars. But...they do NOT come out of their rooms until 3:00. 

Today I have a dermatologist appointment. I'm fortunate that my hubs works from home. If I need to run an errand during this time, I can.  I usually take C with me if I need to leave so she doesn't interrupt his work, but not today. Since the doctor's office is only a few minutes away, I'm back home quickly. I peruse Instagram (priorities!), clean up the kitchen, and then work on my grocery list.  

Afternoon:

At 3:00 (on the dot), the kids come out of their rooms for snack. A finishes up school at this time. We do a phonics lesson from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She does a handwriting page in Writing Our Catholic Faith. She saves math for last because that's her favorite. She does a page out of her ABeka book.  In the meantime, C has woken up from her nap, has a snack, and happily plays with L in the living room. It puts a smile on my face when he is so sweet with her. He can really make her laugh. When A is all finished, she and L rush outside to play in their "play gardens" again and on the playscape.

I sit on the floor with the iPad to print some items I want to use to teach them about Lent while C plays around me. 

About 4:20, the kids come inside to play. It gets rowdy quickly, but they are pretending to be tigers and it is making C laugh. Until...laughing turns into crying. Back outside they go!

Around 4:45, we head down to check the mail. A and L ride their scooters and C enjoys being outside. We get back and hang around out front until Dad joins us about 5:00. Soon after, I come in to make dinner. We usually eat around 6:15ish. 

Evening:

It's clean up the table and around the house and get into jammies. L "reads" us Hello, Ninja. He is just so so funny! A "reads" us Mouse Was Mad. I nurse C. We say prayers together as a family, and it's time to get tucked in for bed about 8:00. 

This is a fairly typical day for us and it was a somewhat peaceful day, but what you did not see reflected in this post is how many times (on any given day) I remind the kids to stop yelling/talking so loud/screaming/shouting/etc. and how many times a day the kids holler at each other about something or aggravate one another on purpose and how many times I have to repeat myself or deal with general disagreements (or a fussy baby). 

Regardless of how our day goes though, I remind myself how blessed I am to be home with these amazing little people each and every day.