Just a Normal Day

Jonathan in the cleaned out tree house.

 Today was one of those normal sort of days where nothing unusual happened but it just left me feeling blessed and contented. I thought just for fun I would share my day with you.

  We woke up to sunshine and a silly robin banging into our bedroom window (he has been doing it for several days now- ever since it snowed last Thursday). I am not sure what the robin thinks he is doing but he is quite persistent. The sunshine was very lovely especially after several gray rainy/snowy days in a row.

  Starting the morning with prayer and Bible reading is always an important start for my day. Right now I am reading from the book of Jeremiah.

  I had some pie crust in the fridge (that I had mixed up at an earlier date but didn't use all of it) that needed to be used up so I made an apple pie for breakfast. I also made a pumpkin pie but it didn't get done in time (we ate it this evening for snack). Pie always makes for a good start for a day. Ken doesn't have to get to work super early so we eat breakfast as a family. I really enjoy that he is able to eat with us.

  After breakfast we were able to get our Bible reading done (Colossians 2 today), a couple of letters out to the mailbox, a grammar lesson done and things fairly well tidied up before my music students arrived at 9:30 am. There are 3 brothers (who are also homeschooled) that come together and so while one has his 1/2 hour lesson the others get to play with my kids. The kids love this arrangement. It does cut our school day short as we don't really get to the books very much until 11 am but we have made it work out.

  After my piano students left we hit the books. Jonathan has had a hard time with Math this year as he started doing Algebra 1/2 (Saxon) and he just doesn't care for all the equations. Lately I have been having to spend a lot of one on one time with him to help him through but we are almost there! We only have 4 lessons left and we will be done for the year. Exciting! Next year I am going to try something different with him for Math before we go on to full fledged Algebra. I don't think he is quite ready for it and so I think we will do a more practical math and let him get through adolescence a little before we tackle Algebra again. Megan has been needing a little more help lately too so I have Megan on one side of me and Jonathan on the other while we work at the table. The other two are able to work pretty  much on their own.

  We got the book work done by 12:30 and then we had a lunch of leftovers.
  After lunch we enjoyed one of our favorite times which is reading aloud together. The kids clean up the lunch table and dishes (I do my own before I start reading) while I read. Currently I am reading the book of Judges from the Bible, "The Story of the World" (2nd book), "Be Your Own Doctor", "A Shepherd's View of Psalm 23" and then today we started a true story about some Pioneers in the Florida Everglades. With the first 4 books the kids will narrate back to me after I read (the each take turns doing a different book) to make sure that they were listening and learning. After that we had our rest time (reading and a short nap for me) on our beds.

  We had to be up by 3 for more music students. I teach two sisters in the afternoon.

  In the afternoon the kids generally have quite a bit of free time (the also do more chores and practice piano and things like that).  It was a pretty sunshiny day and so the 3 youngest all headed outdoors. The boys having been really in the cowboy mood so they had fun working to rig up a play horse of sorts to ride. It didn't work quite like they hoped but they had fun with it.

  The boys also voluntarily cleaned out our old tree-house (that is now a ground shed because it fell down a couple of years ago) which had become the catch all for outside "junk". They were eager to show off all that they had been working on when I went out to see what they were up too. I do love my boys!

   Mara and I had fun doing some more sewing together. We have been altering an old dress of mine for her to wear for our pioneer day. It feels very fitting to let down hems and take in seams on a dress to be used for her pioneer dress. They were always remaking old dresses. We didn't turn this one inside out though! We also worked at getting the quilt top done.

  I made Meatloaf, Green Beans and Mushroom sauce and Mashed Potatoes for supper. It was an all American sort of meal and I really enjoyed it.

 After supper Megan went out to care for the chickens and she was out there so long I decided I had better go check on her as we do have a rooster that is a bit mean. She wasn't really having trouble though - just having fun watching them and biding her time to go in at just the right time when the rooster wouldn't bother her. She looked so sweet and cute in her hat and coat. I do love my girls too!

   In the evening Ken worked more on the designing of the house we are hoping to build. He has figured out some pretty cool ways to design and make pictures of the house on the computer. It is fun to see what he comes up with. I love my husband pretty well too!

  I started this yesterday (Tuesday) and am now finishing it up today. It has been a busy day with 6 music lessons, a showing (and henceforth a trip to town- we ate lunch at Ken's office and hit a couple of second hand stores), lots of getting ready for our pioneer day tomorrow, church tonight and wishing my Mom a happy birthday. It was a good day too.

 Good night!