If nothing else, writing these Week in My Life post (an Adventuroo inventuroo) has taught me that I’m not, in fact, oversleeping every day. I’m beginning to accept that fact that I just don’t get up before 7:45. So instead of saying “I have to stop oversleeping!” it ought to be “I need to start waking up earlier.” That’s somewhat less negative. (And yes, I did sleep until 7:45 again yesterday. I’m aiming for 7:15 today.)
Yesterday was pretty much like the day before and most of our other days, for that matter: cereal, homeschool, computer time, some TV-watching, etc. These posts haven’t entirely represented our usual life in that I don’t watch all that much baseball, but the Tigers are playing in the ALCS and I’m fond of the Tigers. So there’s been a lot of baseball going on this week.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to decorate the mantel since we moved into our new house in August. So far I haven’t made much progress, but I did make some art today that I think I’m going to put up there. I took a couple of profile pictures of the kids, played around with them in Photoshop and then had them printed at WalMart. I’d like to get some matted frames to put them in, but if I just use frames I already have the project will have costed all of 41 cents.
Rockford had a work dinner to go to last night, so we stopped at Taco Bell on our way home from the store. With the help of a couple of coupons, we spent less than $5 on dinner. After dinner I set the kids up in their sleeping bags and let them watch “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” We usually have movie night on Fridays, but I needed a bit of a break and didn’t really want to put the kids in bed at 6:30pm.
I overslept yet again, which lead to trouble on down the road. The kids climbed into bed with me for some cuddling, though, so that was nice. And the “trouble” wasn’t really all that troubling. It just meant that I buckled when the kids asked to watch a show first thing in the morning, so we ended up eating breakfast, getting dressed and watching “My Little Pony” rather than eating, dressing and started the schoolwork. There are worse things, but I’d still like to start getting up earlier.
After the TV interlude, we got started on schoolwork. Pete usually does one or two worksheets from a preschool workbook and then he heads off to play in his room while Poppy finishes her work. Today he built a “tall, tall tower” and made his cars have a very involved conversation followed by a battle.
Yesterday was the first day she’s had to face a Spelling List, and it was a little tough for her. She doesn’t like to get the “wrong” answer, and today’s lesson asked her to try to spell the words on the list without any assistance. We talked about how the program works – that she’d have games and worksheets throughout the next several days that would teach her how to spell the words – and she finally stopped worrying about it.
We’re currently talking about the circulatory system in science, and yesterday was lab day. Poppy recorded her heart rate after doing several different activities, and then she filled out a chart to show her heart rate after each activity. It was fun, but I think she might be doing push-ups wrong. Her heart rate after push-ups was lower than it was after sitting still for a full minute. Curious.
The afternoon
The boy requested a bean and rice burrito again for lunch today, and it’s hard to say no to a kid asking for beans. Poppy’s been doing a better job trying vegetables at dinnertime, but I can’t imagine a day when she’d ask for beans. She had mac & cheese. Rockford came home for lunch, too, and read half of a chapter of our current chapter book, “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” to Poppy. He would’ve read to Pete, too, but Pete has issues with staying still.
The kids’ bedrooms were the focus areas on my cleaning list yesterday, so we all worked together to finish picking up toys and putting new sheets on the beds before I vacuumed. The kids had their regularly scheduled TV time after Rockford went back to work, and then they went to their rooms for Quiet Time. Pete opted not sleep today, but he did stay in his room, which meant that I got my Quiet Time, too. I took advantage of it by folding laundry, making 1 billion meatballs and Photoshopping someone’s head onto someone else’s body for one of my brother’s co-workers. Apropos of nothing: This is Marsha T. Cat staring down her nemesis, Boo Radley. He lives next door.
The evening
I know: Danger! But I was at a stop light. And the sweet glasses? Rockford bought them for me at a gas station.
The kids and I ran out to the store to pick up a few things, and I saw something there that I should not be seeing in the middle of October: Eggnog. The proprietors clearly aren’t adhering to Nichole’s Laws of Holiday Consumables, which state that the season’s first glass of eggnog can be consumed no earlier than the day after Thanksgiving. And eggnog shouldn’t last from mid-October until late November, so one could surmise that the eggnog they’re currently stocking is meant to be consumed before Thanksgiving. Inconceivable.
Anywho, we had meatball sandwiches for dinner. (The rest of the 1 billion meatballs are in the freezer.) Then it was baths, books and bed for the kids and more baseball and – insert your own enthusiastic vocal intonations here – the return of “Psych” for Rockford and me.
Yesterday was drizzly and gray, which meant that the kids slept in a bit. Which was a good thing, because I slept in, too. It’s a habit I’m trying to break.
Anyway, yesterday was rainy, and it was considerably less active than Monday. After breakfast and some history work, we ventured out for Poppy’s haircut. I forgot to take my camera; I’ll try to remember it on Friday, when Pete gets his trim. (I couldn’t get them in on the same day. Good thing the salon isn’t far away.) After the haircut, we headed home for lunch. Poppy had a peanut butter and honey sandwich, as usual. Pete requested a bean & rice burrito, though, so I pulled a few out of the freezer for the two of us. I made the burritos on Saturday, and the recipe made enough filling for dinner that night and 7 extra burritos for the freezer.
The kids had some computer time after lunch. Poppy did her Teaching Textbooks lesson first and then played some games at Webkinz and on the Sesame Street website. Pete generally sticks to PBS Kids or Disney Jr. They usually get 30 minutes of “free time” on the computer every day, but I gave them extra yesterday since it was raining and we couldn’t go out to play.
While they were having computer time, I crowned myself the Queen of Laundry. A few of Rockford’s work shirts came out of the laundry the other day with big, blue blotches on them. I’m pretty sure it was the Downy I’d been adding. A little Googling suggested rubbing a paste made of vinegar and baking soda on the stain and then rewashing it. And it worked! I was rather proud. And grateful for the internet.
Pete went down for his nap after his computer time, and it was one of the rare days that he actually went to sleep. He must’ve been exhausted, too, because he slept for two hours. While he was napping, Poppy took to her room for her daily Quiet Time. It’s supposed to be an hour long, but it’s usually more like 10 minutes of quiet followed by 5 minutes of “Mommy, Can I Have a Snack and Is My Quiet Time Over Yet?”, etc., until the hour is up. Today, though, I told her she could take pictures of some of her favorite things in her bedroom. That kept her pretty well occupied for awhile.
“When Oscar Was a Little Grouch”
Marsha T. Cat
Poppy’s Little Pony
Custom portrait by Robin Plemmons.
After Rockford got home I went out to fill out the paperwork to cancel my gym membership. I like going to our gym, and the kids love the kid-care area. I haven’t really seen any improvement in my shall we say “fitness” in the 3 years I’ve been a member there, though, and that made it kind of hard for me to justify renewing the contract. (And yes, I know it’s my own fault that I’m not seeing any improvement, but there’s still no reason to pay them on the off chance that I’ll get my act together.)
The rest of the evening was a dinner of crispy garlic chicken, mashed potatoes & green beans with carrots and cranberries (Poppy ate the world’s smallest bite of a carrot!); a trip to Target for paper towels, milk and Count Chocula, which is my favorite thing about Halloween; bedtime for the small people; and baseball-watching for Rockford and me. And also a bowl of ice cream, a.k.a. the perfect end to a rather nice day.
