A day in the life....

It's been so long since I did a "Day in the Life" photojournal, I really cherish the ones I have done, and a friend reminded me of them, and thus a new one was born. This is a fairly typical day for us right now.


Upon getting up, the kids are allowed to watch a show. Lately they've been working through Backyardigans on Netflix. Jude doesn't usually hang with them for very long, just long enough to dump out his basket of toys and start the day off with a good mess.

While they are watching I toss ingredients in the breadmaker so we can have sandwiches for lunch. For some reason my loaves haven't been rising the last few times, so I bought some new yeast, and it does the trick (despite my "old" yeast not being very old - maybe 2 months old, and in the fridge).

Jude is eager to get into the shower to share it with me. Like both my other children, he LOVES showers, and when he saw me go into the bathroom and heard the water he came crawling in.




I come out to find that Elyas is working on reading a Mercy Watson book. He can't read them yet, though he will sound out some of the words, he mostly makes up the story based on the pictures. I am informed that breakfast is expected now.

I usually make something for breakfast - eggs or some kind of hot cereal, but I was feeling lazy this morning and tired of oatmeal, so we all had cold cereal and the big kids both had yogurt as well. Jude chowed down on the Os he did not toss on the floor.

When his tray was empty he got annoyed at waiting until I was done eating to be taken out of his high chair. The service in this place! Sheesh, what kind of mom doesn't want to accept that she is just going to have to eat her cereal soggy!?!
The kids all start playing while I sweep the floor and start up some laundry... the two never-ending duties that make up the bulk of my life, it seems!

Jude is being fussy, so we have a sitdown. What he really wanted was to wash those Os down with some milk. After all, we all had milk with our cereal (well, coconut milk, but a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat). This was the only time I took a picture of nursing, but just imagine it happened at roughly 2 hour intervals throughout the day.
The big kids are playing in the den and Jude offers up some loving after his milk. Nothing like slobbery baby kisses.

And some morning bird-watching, there is a feeder right outside this window.

It seems Leila and Elyas are playing some kind of game in which Star Wars figurines are controlling cars from Cars by using the force.

Leila wants a picture of her new dress (I got this shirt at the Salvation Army's bag sale, but it was too short on Leila, so I made it into a dress with a matching headband with rosette). Elyas wants in on it too. they are getting rambunctious, so instead of sitting down to do some home schooling work, I put on music. A little Harry Belafonte to dance to.
Leila checks out the twirl factor on her dress. Jude loves the music. It may be the first time I have played Calypso for him.






Jude is getting tired after a good session of dancing, so I take him up to put him down for his nap. They are so sweet when they're sleeping! While he naps, we have some lunch and talk poetry.


Elyas makes his oyster crackers into some kind of dinosaur that is made of chocolate and gummies. This boy inherited both my parent's sweet teeth (Dad's chocolate, Mom's gummy).

Not only are Leila and Elyas hungry, but so are Jesse and James of Team Rocket.

After lunch Leila works on a poem about Spring. I was trying to teach her how to write a poem where each line starts with the letter of the word your poem is about, but she didn't quite get the concept.

While she writes (and Elyas draws a picture of a sun and Jupiter, that he tore into pieces before I could get a pic of it...) I tackle the laundry that is now dry and ready to be folded.

Leila's poem (translation
Spring by Leila
Snow is gone
and Spring is here
all the thegs (things) that I like to do
ar right here.
The end
(drawing of riding her bike, swinging, and just being outside).

I have to wake Jude to take the kids to the homeschool assistance program, Leila has a discovery day about balance and motion. When we get there, I tell her to hop out of the car and run in. She won't go. Absolutely refuses. So, back home we go. She says she was too nervous and it'd been a long time since she was at the HSAP, and she felt too nervous to go in. Ah well.

We get home and I get them set up with a snack after Leila practices her violin.She was quite mad at me for taking her picture!

meanwhile, Jude finds trouble, trying to get into my computer cords.
So, we have a snack and watch an episode of The Last Airbender.
He is really too cute for words.


After our show we decide to run down to the rec center to see if they still have any of their low-cost helmets ($10, and they do still have some). then we come home to do some biking in the driveway.

I was cutting some of the honeysuckle WAY back, hence the giant pile of woody debris. We'll be hauling it to the composting/wood chipping area of the dump sometime soon... I hope. Anyway, there's Elyas, working on his gliding.
And Leila glides down our driveway. After 20 minutes or so she found her balance, and wanted her pedals back on, and then she actually rode her bike for the first time!

Elyas however has lost interest in biking and has moved on to pinecones and swordplay, it appears.


I whip up a quick soup for dinner. It's a hit with everyone. Pasta Fazool... yummy.

How can you go wrong with beans and peas (Jude's favorites).

After dinner we have a little music time and then it's off to bed for little people (and Ali, LOL). I sit down to work at my computer, but there's not much work tonight so I actually have time to get this uploaded, yay!