Day 4: Our Crazy Life!!

Well, Bubba made oatmeal for breakfast! How's that for getting up on time! ;-) He is usually my earliest riser, I don't know how in the world he does it since he is usually the last to go to sleep. I can hear him singing from his room or he will scare me as I walk to the bathroom, calling out "luv ya Mom!" waaayy after he should have been asleep. Funny, I remember doing this same thing to my Mom when I was kid. Guess he might be related to me, but me and mornings don't get along, so he must have gotten that from Dad!! Baby J liked the oatmeal, he proceeded to smear it all over his face in the process of eating, sometimes I wonder just how much the guy gets in his stomach! He stays fat so he must be getting something! ;-)

Today is Piano Day, forget Thursday, getting to piano on time with enough practice to play the music well, is usually the main focus of the day. So today we start our schedule with our chores and breakfast a little late but still make it to "school" on time. Today I added some worksheets for Kaykay and Nanae during math, they enjoyed that since they had some coloring included in the work. Some quick speed drills with our flashcards for Bubba and Sis to go along with their work and we were ready for our first hour of reading. Today is the day we also "get" to go to the library. So usually the kids are on that last book and want to finish it before we go so they can check out all new ones, being the softy that I am, we had some free reading time first today. I was a little (ok, a lot) upset though, when it came time to collect the library books for the book bag and several kids have misplaced a book or two this time. OOOOooo! I turn a few different shades of mad and decide to call Dad! We decide a two book limit is in order until they can be a little more careful. So we move through the morning reading, writing, practicing the piano, and finally make it to lunch.

Most of the time lunch for us is left overs or some kind of soup, sometimes sandwiches. I found some small bread loaves on sale at the store the other day and I though I would toast the kids a treat and make open turkey sandwiches. I thought it would be nice to mix together a "special" sauce I like, (thanks Michelle!) and mix together some mayo, dijon mustard and honey. Very good, or so I thought. I spread the sauce on the bun halves and top with turkey and cheese and serve them warm from the oven. During clean up afterwards I hear Bubba say that he was eating his 3rd partial sandwich. WHAT!! Who didn't like it!?! I guess some of the little kids didn't appreciate me messing with their mayo!! I have to admit spending time on the computer writing yesterday's post was why I wasn't present to watch and prevent the total disregard of "eat your own lunch" rule. I let starvation be the natural punishment (as if that could happen on fruit and chips) and make a mental note for future references! ;-)

Wildman spent some time with his linking chains practicing his sequencing, hand eye coordination and counting, while I initialed practice time sheets and put the piano books in order. He was a little distracted today but very happily chanted " 12, 14, 16.....11, 22!! Cute son, cute.

Suddenly the clock strikes and the mad dash for today begins, we now have 30 min to get out the door. Town clothes on, check. Piano bag, library bag, diaper bag all packed, check. Hair brushed, check. Shoes on, check. COATS!!! We are on our way!! We take a little detour on the way to piano lessons each week, just a little stop at Sonic for a gulp of soda! As a reward for being my kids I get them a Rt. 44 Cherry Vanilla Root Beer, with EZ ice of course! Who needs more ice when you can have more soda! A Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper for the piano teacher, a Ocean Water for her babysitter and a Coke for me! This is the best reason to come to town today! Michael is cutting off my soda intake thinking it might help me loose the extra baby fat I keep complaining about, he is a fixer you see. I try to tell him that my Coke is helping my mental health but I lack the research to prove it. Although I do have quite a file built up in hands on experiment documentation ;-).

The poor piano teacher, we bomb her house each week for lessons, she is such a sweet lady!! The four older kids all decide who's turn it is to go first and off he or she goes to the piano room. Wild Man, Miss Priss and Baby J all head over to the end of the living room with all the toys to play with the piano teacher's son J-kid, while the older ones and I grab our readers and start our lessons on the other side of the room on the comfy couch. We are there a little over a hour and a half so this gives me a great chance to go over spelling and reading lessons in our McGuffey Readers. So in between chatting with the young lady who comes to help babysit J-kid and his twin baby brothers, I am rotating kids through piano and reading lessons. Usually listening to 3 kids spell different words at the same time is enough to make me wish I had a Rt. 44 too instead of a medium!

Once the lessons are over, the toys picked and the couches fluffed, we then jump in our big red van and head for the library. There is a little cloud over the visit today since they can't all check out the normal pile of books, but I try to encourage them to do better next time and being the softy I am grabbed a family movie along with the usual educational ones I usually get. As everyone goes to their sections and picks out books, Baby J (who is content to sit in his stroller most days) and I direct traffic from our favorite table in the main isle. Today, Michael calls and lets me know he is heading over to a friend's house to pick up the bouncy horse for Wild Man's Christmas. I suddenly feel the need to be with "Adult Friends" and quickly come up with a plan for him to invite these friends to our house for dinner. He says he'll ask when he gets there and let me know. Of course I can't help but get excited anyway and I whisked the kids out (thankfully they had all their books) and drove over to the grocery store. Fast delicious menus and quick cleaning strategies are running through my head as I grab frozen tortellini (which I have been craving for days and this is my best excuse to make the purchase!!), french bread and salad toppings to round out the rest of the ingredients I have at home. I'm almost to the van when Michael called back and then hands his phone over to Mrs. Friend. It turns out she needed an excuse to order Papa Murphy's Pizza (BIG YUM!!) and offered to share it with us if we all head to her house instead. I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings of course, so we headed that way and helped them with their pizza! :-) We all won! My kids love playing with the Friend's kids and everyone was happy! Thanks so much for the fellowship, Mr. and Mrs. Friend!!

And as it usually happens, I started talking about picking up toys and clearing out about 8:00 but when we finally tore ourselves out the door with a promise to have them over soon, it was much later than that. Tired but very happy, a quickie stop at the gas station and we were on our way home to bed. :-) God is good!