Family Yearbook- (Catching up #3)

The one thing that life has taught me is that things change.

A Typical Day For Our Family ~~~~~

A typical day in for our family usually starts early before daylight. On a week day, I'm usually the first one up ,because my hubby can't wake up to an alarm clock. He is a very deep sleeper. I'm a very light sleeper (I told you we are opposites). He can sleep through pretty much anything. I wake up to everything.

So around 4:45, I start the process of trying to get him up. I usually spend the next 15 minutes begging him, shaking him, aggravating him, etc to get up. Most of the time, he is up by 5 am because I've made sleeping impossible for him(I have to do what I can to get him up).

I usually get up too, to make sure he has everything he needs for the day. Sometimes I stay up and sometimes I go back to bed and sleep another hour.

My clock usually goes off around 6:00-6:30 am. I usually spend that time waking up and praying with God about the day ahead. Starting my day off with prayer has helped my days to go so much better. Just try it for yourself. I really enjoy this quiet time of the day. I enjoy being able to talk to God with no interruptions. If I know that my day ahead is going to hold things that are going be tough to accomplish, I take this time to seek God's will for my day. So this is one of my favorite times of the day.

I am always up by 7 am. I usually wake up before my clock goes off. I get up and normally start my day with a shower. Then I spend the next two hours getting ready for my day. I fix breakfast, check emails, maybe post in my blog, prepare for our school day (we homeschool), check my calendar for any appointments, wake up my children, and plan what gets done and when it will be done.

My children are usually doing their school work by 9 am. Three are now online schooling. So that just leaves the youngest. He too is somewhat an online learner, but he also does book work along with computer time. He still requires a good bit of my time and patience. The other three are all self learners. However, sometimes they need my help, but this is becoming more rare as they've grown.

Every day here consists of house work, school work, taking care of kids, chores, family time, hobbies, as well as ups and downs.

By 3pm, they are all usually done with schooling. They then start their chores...yes my kids have chores. After that, they pretty much do the things they love to do.

Jacob and Jon love the great outdoors and spend almost every evening outside. Jon spends a good bit of time at one of the neighbor's houses. He loves to help them out. If anyone needs him, he is always ready... I love this about him.

Jacob has friends that get off the bus here at least a couple of times a week. He will play for hours with them. He loves building huts, playing football, basketball, or just hanging out (as he calls it). He is all boy. He is your typical 7 year old "busy" little boy.

The girls are a lot like their mom, they love being on the web...sometimes to much. They all have their own sites that they work on. They also enjoy walking, reading,or watching movies in the evening. They also spend a good bit of their free time together or with friends. My kids, especially my girls, are all very close to each other. They pretty much do everything together as a team.

We usually all work together to prepare dinner. I did all the cooking for the first 16 years of our marriage. But, these last two years, the kids and hubby have joined in. So we all work together as a family. We seldom get to eat before 6pm, but we've been working hard on that this year and we have been eating earlier than we use to.

Bedtime has changed for us over the years. I'm early to bed most nights ,but my hubby is usually late to bed (I told you we are opposites).

In the early years, I put the kids to bed by 8 pm so that Hubby and I could have a couple of hours without kids around.

However, now I'm usually the first to bed. I go to bed to study and read ,before I go to sleep. Jacob usually joins me after a while for his story time. We are reading through his Children's Illustrated Bible right now. The teens and Hubby are usually in bed around 10 pm.

However, if they are watching a movie or reading they may go to bed a little later.

The one thing I've learned is that things change constantly. As quick as I find something that works, something comes along that changes up our plans and we start the process all over again..