Monday, January 27, 2014

Two wrongs may not make a right...

...but sometimes they can lead to one.

Tonight Dale was cleaning up the supper dishes and, in true 10-year-old fashion, carried Brooklyn's plate to the next room. He wanted to know if he could eat her leftovers. 

And, in true 10-year-old fashion, he dropped the plate, food side down.

Fortunately for the carpet, most of the food landed on Brooklyn's blanket. This, however, was more of an unfortunate development for the hour before bedtime. Said blanket should have been safe in its bed, not the playroom floor.

THE blanket, the ONE that we MUST have for sleeping, was now dirty. :-/

We proceeded with our bedtime routine as usual. When I tucked Brooklyn into bed I gave her a sweet, soft little blanket printed with pastel cupcakes. When she balked, I talked to her like a big girl and reminded her the other blanket was dirty. (She had seen and noticed it herself.)

The age 4 and up crowd sat together in the next room and finished our bedtime prayers, but we could all hear Brooklyn crying in her bed for her blanket.

As soon as the last 'Amen' was said and the boys all scattered for last minute hugs and potty stops, I looked up to see Dale with a wet soapy paper towel and a certain gingham and flower print purple blanket, scrubbing away.

A little spot cleaning and he presented his sister with THE blanket she needed. 

I love that boy. He's alright, you know.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Back to School

Today marked our second day back into school full-swing since the Christmas break, and, if I'm being honest, since the move! We've definitely had full school days since moving, but we are into something now we can settle in to and get lots done for weeks to come, hopefully.

After over two weeks of no routine or structure, yesterday was ah-MAZ-ing! Then today was a harder day, maybe from adding the 5th kid into the mix? (Alan was gone most of Monday for a scheduled checkup.) At any rate, we stuck with the plan the whole way through both days.

Our day is sectioned into half hour blocks. We try to keep things moving by the clock, but don't sweat it if we get off. It happens. The important thing is to keep marching through the list of things to get done!

I wake Dale up at 6:30 for him to shower and do his "Morning Jobs". He begins his first round of school work after that. Alan is up at 7 for his shower and Morning Jobs while I make breakfast. Daddy gets home from his bus route between 7:30-7:45 and we all have breakfast together before he goes to class at 8.

After breakfast, Dale and Alan have personal Bible reading/devotion time and study their Awanas lessons. Tyler washes the breakfast plates or bowls. I dress Daniel and Brooklyn and then finish the breakfast dishes while Tyler dresses.

We all work together on some cleaning up, particularly the playroom, then have Bible time all together. We are going book by book. We started in Genesis in August and began Joshua yesterday. 

Dale then goes off to notebook that day's Bible story and Alan joins Tyler and Brooklyn and me for preschool time. While I stand by the belief that preschool isn't "necessary" I also believe it is fun and does have a lot of good. A consistent preschool time has been missing in our days since we moved, so I'm really happy to get back to it! We are using Hubbard's Cupboard, a favorite from both Dale and Alan's preschool days.

That brings us up to 10:00am. Are you bored silly yet? I'll spare you the rest for now.  We are all happier being back into a routine and having productive days again. Even so, I may have to make room in the schedule tomorrow for some outside time. It will be the first time in 2 days we've gotten above freezing! Brr! And, construction has begun on the new playground almost outside our back door, so we have to walk over and check that out!