Diary for Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My friend, Shonda, asked me a few months ago to tell about our typical school day. We were out of school at the time and I promised her I would do a diary one day.

This looked like it was going to be a fairly typical week, so I decided to keep a diary for Tuesday, the 28th.

If you are wondering what we're all working on, you can read about our school plans for Abby, Thomas, Carrie, Anna, and Emily.

5:30 AM - I'm up and reading my Bible and prayer book. Rachel is up, too.

6:00 - Emily and Katie are up now, too, having quiet time. I'm getting dressed now.

7:00 - Anna is making muffins for breakfast. I'm cooking eggs and bacon. We eat soon after and Dad reads the scriptures for today and prays with us. He leaves for work.

8:00 - Right after breakfast, everyone starts getting dressed and doing chores. We check email, too. I fold a load of clothes, clean my bathroom, straighten up my bedroom and the living room and do a general check of the house.

9:00 - Time for school to start! Rachel is practicing fiddle with Abby in my room, Anna leaves to go to Dad's office to help him with a blog they are making for one of our churches, Thomas is practicing competition music on his fiddle in his room, Emily is practicing guitar and piano in her room, Carrie and I are working on grammar and Bible. When Abby finishes practicing, she plays for a few minutes, then she does her daily copywork.

10:00 - Emily is still practicing piano. Carrie is working on spelling alone. Thomas is reading to me, then we do grammar and spelling together. Carrie finishes spelling and starts practicing fiddle.

10:30 - The girls are in charge of music at VBS this weekend, so Emily is working on putting the songs together and planning motions for some of them. Abby and Thomas stop for a some crackers and cheese and I read a chapter from his missionary book to him. Carrie goes to hang out clothes on the line and makes popsicles out of some Kool-Aid lemonade and some sorbet that needs to be eaten up.

11:00 - Emily is working on VBS and biology at the same time. Abby comes to read to me and I read a couple of character stories to her. Thomas is playing for a while.

11:30 - I stop school to cook lunch with Carrie and Rachel. Thomas is practicing music for fiddle lessons on Thursday. Whoops! It's starting to rain and we have clothes on the line. Carrie has to run out and gather them up and into the dryer they go.

12:30 - Lunch. Dad and Anna have come home, but Katie is going out to lunch with someone today. After lunch, Thomas and I clean up the kitchen. Thomas is singing and talking the whole time. I fold a load of clothes.

1:30 - Emily is working on biology. Carrie is doing geography and Anna has started math. I clean up around the living room. Thomas and I look up some vocab words for his Door in the Wall unit study and we go into my bedroom to read aloud. Abby is playing outside on the porch with some cars and little people. Rachel leaves to go to the church to teach a couple of fiddle lessons and practice where it's quiet.

2:30 - Thomas goes to read his Bible, since he slept until 7 this morning and skipped it then. I do Five in a Row and read history to Abby. Anna is reading chemistry now. Emily is working on economics.

3:30 - Tuesday is movie day for the younger kids. We have a Little Women movie from Netflix and they start watching it while I take a short nap.

4:30 - Emily and Anna are working on VBS music for a few minutes. Rachel, Emily, and I pick butterbeans. Anna is practicing fiddle.

5:30 - The movie is finished, so Carrie, Rachel, Emily, and I exercise with a DVD. Supper is every-man-for-himself-whenever-he-wants-it, so some people are eating now. David runs in and leaves again for a meeting. Everyone slowly starts evening chores.

6:30 - Rachel, Emily, Anna, and Thomas go to the church to practice some music with someone. Katie and I shell the butterbeans. Abby takes a bath with my lemon soap and I let her use the lemon body spray, too. Katie fixes supper for Abby and Thomas, who has finished his part and come back home. I'm cleaning up the kitchen for Emily and fixing the beans for the freezer.

8:00 - Everyone is home. Some are on the porch, talking. Some are reading in the living room.

9:00 - Bedtime for almost everyone, including me.