A day in pictures.....mostly

This is pretty much a typical day...although all our days can be different. I don't adhere to a schedule, but I do try to follow some sort of routine. For example I try to get some laundry started in the morning. Depending on what time we get up I will try to exercise before we eat breakfast. After breakfast will be a clean up and if it's really nice out the kids get outside before we tackle school. This day did not end well, we got some very bad news. I contemplated if I should post this as it seems surreal that all of this shows such a normal day, but then it ended with the abnormal. But this blog is here to document the story of our life and so I decided to put it all here as it happened. At least to the best of my memory as the pictures were taken on Wednesday and it is now Sunday.

I try (note the word 'try') to start my day with reading the Bible, praying, or in this case reading another book. This is the Wise Women book by Erin Theile. I have been highlighting her words in orange that I want to remember, and I highlight any scriptures that I want to remember in blue.


Jed was hungry first thing in the morning. He wanted noodles of all things. Thankfully they heat up quick. He is a messy eater. And he usually doesn't eat on the couch, but sometimes he does like today.


I got my shoes on and got to exercising. I started back with T-Tap this past week. I am on day four of the bootcamp. In another few days I go to every other day for a month, then to once every two days in between for another month. After that maintenance is two to three times a week.


Right before I started Moira asked to jump on the trampoline. She did that for a while, and then Saoirse joined her when she woke up. At this point Isabella and Flannery were still sleeping.


Jed decided to play with the train set and then he hopped on the computer while I was exercising.


After I was done I found Moira reading in the living room.


Jonah had spent his time playing with puzzles and the toy food (as seen below). Here you can also catch a glimpse of Saoirse's feet as she was getting hungry.


The mess that Jonah left behind. He was playing with this right behind me. He does pretty well with keeping his distance from me while I am exercising, but I do have to stop from time to time as he tries to squeeze past me.


After exercising I started some laundry. Laundry is never ending. I also did not bother to take pictures of when I rebooted the laundry throughout the day. I think I did three loads today.


I pulled out all of our ingredients for pancakes. Lately Flannery has been making them. Today she was still sleepy eyed and so I got some other help.....


My breakfast helpers. The boys love helping to pour things in and stir things up. Jonah made sure to have at least five spoons to help with the stirring.


Isabella likes to do most of her school in her room. But for some reason prefers to do math out with the rest of us. While I was making breakfast she was doing her math. She has only a few lessons left in her book and was determined to finish it that day. She wasn't able to finish it, but got close.


Breakfast time. See, Jed does eat at the table. However I think he, Jonah and I were the only ones! The girls were in various chairs/couches reading as they ate.


Moira went out to feed the animals. Isabella soon went out to feed the dogs. I started cleaning up the kitchen. I had the other girls start to get ready to go out as we had to go Jed's speech therapy soon. After I cleaned the kitchen I took a shower and then got the boys dressed. The girls at that point all went out on the trampoline. I didn't bring my camera with me to speech and the store as I my camera bag had not come in yet, and didn't want it to get banged up.


But I resumed picture taking as soon as we got home! Here is the scene from when we pulled in.



Another tired out boy.


Isabella was helping bring in groceries and asked for me to take her picture.


The chickens were hoping that we bought them something. Sorry girls, not today. Although the boys had a few crumbs left from our snack that I threw to them.


Our groceries from our weekly grocery run. We usually shop on Friday or Saturday. But I wanted it to get done earlier in the week as we had a busy weekend ahead of us.


Isabella helping to put the groceries away.


Flannery wanted to get her schooling out of the way and dug into her math when we got home. I was whipping up some lunch at this point. The boys were playing, the other girls were having some free time.


After lunch, it was time to unload the dishwasher. Jonah loves to help unload! Here he is putting the silverware away. The front of our drawer fell off so he can now just reach in without pulling out the drawer.


After lunch Moira jumped on the schooling wagon. Here she is doing her vocabulary. After I took this picture I helped her with her math. I had the girls clean their assigned rooms. So far having them each have a room that they have to clean up is working much better than when they all work on the rooms together. I then did our 'school together'. This is when I do our read alouds. I first read from the Bible. I am following the 'read through the Bible in a year' plan that is in the back of our Bible. However we are not following it day for day, as there are days when we don't get to it (like on Saturdays and Sundays), but I have the plan printed out and taped up on our computer desk to cross off each days worth of reading. We are also currently reading, "Just in Case- How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens". Not your usual read aloud I'm sure, but I try to share with them the things I am learning. This is a book I wanted to get to and just didn't seem able, so I made it a part of our school reading. And then we read a chapter from "Caddie Woodlawn". A book about a young girl in the Pioneer days.



There was some more free time. I checked emails and blogs, the girls played outside. After I checked my computer stuff I took the boys outside. When we came in it was getting late. I started to put dinner on (black beans and rice). While that was cooking I did math and reading with Saoirse. Here she is with her math lesson.



Jonah couldn't resist jumping in and doing math as well :-) He basically tried to drive Saoirse crazy by trying to 'knock' over her shapes. So I spent some time building him things to knock down so that Saoirse could finish her math. After her lesson, Saoirse continued to play with the blocks as did Jonah. Jed joined in as well. I really wanted to get a picture of Jed's creations, but I was tending to dinner. Jed was really loving the patterns that he could create.

I don't have any other pictures of our day and here is why. We ate dinner and cleaned up afterward. It was late and I went to put Jonah to bed. When I came out the girls were sitting in the family room ready for Jeremiah to start family worship. Jed happened to be playing on the computer. Jeremiah was on the phone with his mom. His step dad had been in the hospital for a few days as he was very sick. I was hoping that maybe he just got a really bad case of what we all had (the horrid tummy bug), but I knew that was not the case when I saw how upset Jeremiah was. It turns out he has cancer. Its a very aggressive kind and they have caught it late in the game. He does not have much time left by doctors estimates. They have started chemo and are hoping it will give him a few months to settle things. Please pray for his readying for the eternal. The biggest prayer request from Jeremiah's mom is that he would not be in pain. Jeremiah went down to see him the following day. We are hoping that we will have at least one more visit together as a family. The girls spent the rest of the evening making cards for their grandpa for Jeremiah to take with him on his visit. Then they went off to bed and we put Jed to bed. I stayed up for a bit more, I can't remember what I was did.

That was our day. We have had a busy few days (a visit with cousins!, more speech, a haircut for Isa, a trip to the movies for the whole family, soccer, the park, and church). I'll have some more pictures to share from our visit and the park.