September 19, 2006: A Day in the Life

I have journals for all three of my children, each started before they were born. When Jesse was little, of course, I wrote in his journal frequently. Laurel and Duncan have been good to get an entry once or twice a year. But some of my favorite entries are just the slice-of-life scenes--the "this is how our day went" reports. So in the spirit of that, here is a day at SmallWorld:

7-7:30 a.m.: Randy and the kids wake and eat a light breakfast before going to swim practice.
7:30-8 a.m.: I exercise; Duncan awakes and sprawls on the couch while I finish.
8 a.m.-9 a.m.: Duncan watches TV and plays while I eat, check email, blog, and shower.
9-9:45 a.m.: Duncan and I read a “T” sound book, do Lesson 18 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (in which Duncan reads “That rat is sad”), read from Ergermeier’s Children’s Bible, do several pages in the Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia, and complete a “favorite color” (“Go Vols” anaranjado) collage for Spanish class.
9:45-10 a.m.: Randy and the kids arrive back from swimming. Randy goes to work and the kids dry off and eat more breakfast.
10 -11:30 a.m.: We do Bible (Micah 6 and memory verses), Story of the World (Vol 3, Chapter 12), and read a chapter from The Dark Frigate (which we all agree is, so far, rather tedious—especially after reading A Murder for Her Majesty).
11:30-12:30: Lunch break, during which time the kids do various things while I check my email, blog, work for 15 minutes on a project for Stratton Publishing, and have a great conversation with a mom from Knoxville who wants to get out of Girl Scouts and into American Heritage Girls. She is excited about the possibility of starting a troop in Knoxville and is going to come visit us at our next meeting.
12:45 p.m. (whoops—we took an extra 15 minutes for lunch!): I check my email one more time and am delighted to find out, thanks to Dr. H., that today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Now if only we were further into our book The Dark Frigate, when the main character gets kidnapped by pirates!
12:45-2:30: Jesse and Laurel work independently while Duncan and I work on his plants file folder. I then read The Hundred Dresses to Duncan and Laurel while Duncan plays with play-dough and Laurel plays with a potato. (She has a special affinity for potatoes.) After a couple of chapters, we decide to decorate the file folders with potato-turned-stamps (what better to do with a partially mutilated potato?). Laurel cuts the potato into slices and carves a shape into each slice. We discover that most of our paint is dried up, but we manage to squeeze out enough to decorate their folders. After this, Duncan and I do math and Laurel works independently. School’s out at 2:30 today.
2:30-3: Jesse digs a couple of holes for me so I can plant mums. I also weed and spread soil conditioner. Duncan plays outside. Laurel meanders here and there. Jesse uses some computer time.
3-3:30 p.m.: We snack, do random chores, and get ready to go to Jesse’s science class.
3:30-5:45 p.m.: We take Jesse to his Physical Science class. Duncan stays there with his buddies (and their moms) while Laurel and I go to the mall. Laurel buys 3 pairs of earrings with her birthday money. We go back and visit with our friends until class is over.
5:45-6:15 p.m.: Randy arrived home early and fixed some fabulous fried rice, which he has ready for us just as we get home. We are getting better and better each week at working out this Tuesday schedule. This week, with Randy coming home early and fixing dinner, is the best day yet!
6:15: Jesse and I leave for violin lessons. I get to sit all by myself in the car for 30 minutes and read while he’s at lessons.
7:15: We return home. Laurel and Duncan have showered while we were gone, so bedtime preparations are well underway.
7:45: Duncan heads to bed. Randy is reading Peter Pan to him.
8-8:30 p.m.: Laurel and I read another Christy book, and all our bedtime duties are done. The rest of the evening we’ll do our nightly ritual of folding a couple of baskets of clothes and then just relax, basking in a free evening.