A Well Rounded Day

There are so many things I want to write about. I have 4 future blog posts in my mind if I EVER find the time to write them. But I wanted to write a little bit about this day. It was a good day. It was a very well rounded day.

I got up at 6:30 and was very blessed to be able to get 30 minutes of quiet time. That's really good in this house!!! Usually someone will find me in the office long before that! We did breakfast and some school. All the kids worked diligently (this is a HUGE win for the day and super rare) and as a result, we got quite a bit done today. Plus, in the middle of the school morning I was able to make a 3 minute, uninterupted phone call to my friend. That's a HUGE win too! It left me with a smile on my face :-)

We ate lunch early and 2 elders from our church came over for our yearly visit. It was SUCH a good visit. Very encouraging! I am thankful for the time these men give to build up the members of the congregation. After the visit I was able to spend time with Eric and his catechism. I like to be involved in their catechism instruction. I'm not one to send them off to their room to go learn their stuff. No, I like to sit with them and help them through it. As a result, I've had some great discussions with my kids!

After catechism I sat down and did some piano with Lindsay. Her teacher told me last week that she thinks Lindsay is ready to participate in a recital in November. WHAT??!! The girl has only had 6 lessons! But it's nice to see her hard work paying off--and that girl certainly tries hard!

Since the day was absolutely beautiful, and I felt we had totally wasted the awesome weather, I decided to take the kids on a walk around the farm. Behind the barns there's a really nice trail that goes through the bush. I took all 5 kids with me. Seth held my hand the whole time. What a sweetheart! Courtney held my hand most of the time too. Eric told me that Paul and him had made a trail in the bush. Did I want to see it? Sure! So I went bush whacking with the kids. That was a blast! It was quite a long trail and we had to stomp down a lot of 'spikes' as the kids termed it. We ended up coming out of the bush at the end of the driveway.

During a supper of chili, toast and garlic bread, we discovered that Courtney had shoved an orange crayon and 7 puzzle pieces in the toaster slot. Unfortunately, this discovery was made AFTER the toaster started smoking and smelling like melted wax crayon. Perhaps more surprisingly, I didn't even flinch. This seemed like a typical Courtney stunt.

After supper I sat down to do some LA with Lindsay and some Social with Paul. Paul was learning about the different ways we communicate. Seth was sitting at the table and kept repeating the word 'Communicate...communicate...that means talking to someone, mom.' It was super cute. By then it was 7:30. Time was getting away from me. I closed the school books and took Paul and Seth to my room where I read them a story about Frog and Toad. Then I read a story from 'More Little Visits With God." Seth was getting cranky so off to bed they went. I told Seth while he was in bed that tomorrow he could help his dad in the barn again. That brightened him up. I told him he was a real man and that I would make him eggs for breakfast.

I headed back up the stairs and settled on my bed with Eric and Lindsay. This is our time to do Social Studies. Currently we are learning about the Incas. Today we learned about the High Inca. A High Inca's son went through a series of tests to ensure he could follow in his father's footsteps. So we pretended that Eric was the son of the High Inca. At first Eric liked this because it meant he was a warrior who fought and passed tests of great strength. But once we learned about what happens at graduation, Eric wasn't interested any longer. Besides having his ears pierced and stretched over time (until his lobes touched his shoulders) the graduate received sandles and a new girdle for his loins. Also his head was endowed with flowers and evergreen leaves. Really...I can just SEE Eric's expression during THAT kind of a ceremony.....

The kids went to bed at 8:30 (too late really) and I sat down to figure out how we were faring with our school year. I wanted to find out how far behind we still were. Turns out, if we work hard the school year can be completed by May 31. This gives us a 2 week break at Christmas as well. But, the schedule will be intense, and we'll have to stick to it. Positively, it is a 4 day schedule which gives us some room during the week for extra barn work, visits, field trips and the like.

Anyways, like I said, it was a good day. I felt like work got accomplished and I was able to have fun with the kids too. I wasn't overly taxed with obligations.  It felt like a normal day should feel.