Typical day, part 2

Here is the second installment of What I DO All Day:



Then after reading, math, piano, and me nagging everyone to stay on track, it is almost lunch time. Buster disappears. He’s reading the Fellowship of the Ring, and steals every moment possible for it.
Kewpie follows me around, talking. Every time I go into the kitchen, she picks up the large plastic stepstool and sets it down right next to my feet, so that she can see what I am doing. This used to be charming when I had one child. Now it is maddening, since the bouncy seat for Honeybee is also in the kitchen and since when the dishwasher door is open there is exactly 3 square feet of space in which to walk. Remind myself that she is doing her job as toddler. Remember to kiss her and tell her she is a good helper. Turn on radio and ask her to go play. Sigh when she protests that she doesn’t want to go play. She is opening medicine bottles and pouring old milk from one dirty cup to another.
Make lunch. Eat lunch, while listening to Buster or Sweetums read the saint for the day.
After lunch debate the efficacy of homeschooling, get children going on after lunch chores. Sweetums is not yet done eating, so Truckster can’t clear the table. It’s not snowy, so Buster can’t shovel. I make him take out the garbage instead.
Baby is crowing and drooling, dance around, check e-mail. Kids run off. Since they are playing, debate just doing their jobs for them. Call them down, make them do their jobs.
Then comes the video time in which we argue about who gets to pick the video and how none of the videos are any good. I don’t blame them. They are completely in love with any glowing screen and frustrated when they can’t have the exact thing they want appear on it.
Honeybee goes to sleep again, and I sink onto couch, longing for a cup of coffee and a good book. Buster goes upstairs to finish lessons and I pull out meditations. Pray. Consider my sinfulness. Ponder possibilities of putting children in school next year. Deplore messiness of dresser-top and breakfast bar, resolve to clean them today.
After prayer, feel better. Run down and revolve the laundry, deplore messiness of the basement.

A typical day, part one

Sometimes people wonder what I do all day. This is something I often wondered about when I only had one little baby and was considering homeschooling. So I thought it might be helpful for somebody out there to read about what our typical day looks like.

Provisos:

Every semester is different.

Because of the fluid nature of homeschooling and the many things that crop up with so many people under one roof, this day might occur four times in one week and then only once in the next. But it is fairly typical right now.

I will do this in installments, since the narrative is too long for one post.

Please, no one decide against homeschooling, having a large family, or getting married.

A Typical Day

6:30 a.m. Alarm goes off. Superguy wakes up Fifi.
7 a.m. After 45 minutes of nursing baby in bed, I get up with her – she’s too grunty and snorty to sleep with anymore.
Get up and bring Honeybee down. Change enormously yucky diaper and nurse her again.
Braid Fifi’s hair, make her lunch, yell at her for leaving parka at school. Kiss goodbye.
Sit down and nurse baby again, put her in car seat for morning nap.
Say morning offering.
Nuke leftover coffee and eat toast with peanut butter while reading current book.
Try to wake up children.
Get dressed and for once make bed. Feel good for a moment. Yell at children to get up.
Wash hair. Get Kewpie dressed.
Finally children are up, pour cereal and slice bananas, finish loading dishwasher. Take load of laundry down to the laundry room, fold a load, retumble damp stuff.
Noticing myself full of anxiety about the future and state of world for these children when adults, I go upstairs and pray earnestly. Feel better. Can only do so much.
9:05 a.m.
We begin homeschooling routine, starting with a morning offering before our messy family altar. Buster reads a prayer for priests, and Sweetums prays for Jesus to make our hearts like His.
Next, Buster practices the piano. Sweetums lingers over simple addition and subtraction, I give Truckster a reading lesson. Kewpie is wandering around talking.
The morning progresses, with a variety of lessons, phone calls, and requests for snacks, which I deny. Baby wakes up, requiring diaper change and nursing.
Then after reading, math, piano, and me nagging everyone to stay on track, it is almost lunch time. Buster disappears. He’s reading the Fellowship of the Ring, and steals every moment possible for it.
Kewpie follows me around, talking. Every time I go into the kitchen, she picks up the large plastic stepstool and sets it down right next to my feet, so that she can see what I am doing. This used to be charming when I had one child. Now it is maddening, since the bouncy seat for Honeybee is also in the kitchen and since when the dishwasher door is open there is exactly 3 square feet of space in which to walk. Remind myself that she is doing her job as toddler. Remember to kiss her and tell her she is a good helper. Turn on radio and ask her to go play. Sigh when she protests that she doesn’t want to go play. She is opening medicine bottles and pouring old milk from one dirty cup to another.Make lunch. Eat lunch, while listening to Buster or Sweetums read the saint for the day.

Large family cooking, or rather, large-family cooking

Note the hyphen. Only one of us routinely cooks here in our large-family dwelling, and that would be yours truly.

Often I wish that I could find time to write the large-family cookbook, but one that did not require frozen breaded chicken patties (or patties of any kind, really), cream of mushroom/chicken/celery soup, refrigerated puff pastry, or industrial sized bags of frozen mixed vegetables ("vegetable medley").

However, being the mother of a large family, I don't have the time. It will be for some other crunchy Catholic mom to do it. When she's only got four at home and the oldest one does all the laundry, har har har.

Tonight I made Waffles for A Large Family, which is sort of like Music for Flag Day or Symphony for a Dead Princess; it's an undertaking and a very definite thing of its own. I post the recipe now, just as soon as I can waddle into the kitchen and get it, which gives me a chance to toss in those frozen gourmet onion rings that Superguy got me because he's the best ever.

This is the Joy of Cooking recipe, slightly adapted for those of us who refuse to separate eggs unless goaded, multiplied by three.

5 1/4 Cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

9 eggs

6 tablespoons oil

4 1/2 cups milk

Yeah, melted butter would have tasted better. And yes, the eggs being separated would have added delectable lightness and airiness to the batter. But I'm not hauling out the old hand mixer just for Friday night dinner, no thank you very much.

Have I mentioned that we buy eggs four dozen at a time?

By the way, the photo is just for effect. That's not, obviously, what I used for the Waffles for a Large Family. I think this was a photo of a triple batch of Vindaloo. But I can't remember, since the lids are on. Let's just say it was Vindaloo.

A Fun Mommy Baby Day

Today has been a fun day for Mommy AMills and her little Baby IsaMills. We had a very early morning, because we got to drop daddy off at work at 7:30. Mommy felt entitled to wear sweat pants and baby slept the whole way there, and Mommy got to chat with Daddy before he headed into work, which was nice. Then Mommy took Baby to the big bad Commissary, which actually turned out to be not so bad at all, since it wasn't even 8am yet. Baby slept like a champ in the carseat which was jammed into the cart, and Mommy was able to get the few things she needed with no problems! (On the way home, Mommy may or may not have purchased a tasty, yet horrible breakfast sandwich from the local fast-food drive thru, but that only makes Mommy feel bad about her self and a little queasy, so let's not mention it..) Once home, Mommy and Baby started to go for a walk, but found that even in Florida sometimes you really need mittens and a hat, which Mommy was without, so the walk was aborted quickly. That's ok though, because instead we got home and laid down for a morning nap. Mommy and Baby really know how to nap, so they snuggled side by side in bed, wrapped in covers, occasionallly nursing. Baby would stir and mommy would look down at the little sweet bundle snuggled up next to her, and usually just hugging Baby a little closer, or lightly patting or stroking her back would lull baby back into peaceful dreamland. Well, obviously with such a good deal, you like to get your money's worth, so Baby and Mommy took their "nap" until noon. After noon, baby had a change, and graciously only pooped through onto the very edge of her onesie, and so did not need a totally new outfit. After Baby played a little on her blankie on the floor and Mommy had a yummy leftover pork chop, which brutally scorched her mouth since all the knives were in the dishwasher and she basically speared the whole thing and ate bites right off, baby was tired and so Mommy decided that it was dancetime. Mommy scooped up baby, put on the cuban music cd, and Baby and Mommy "busted a moove" with all the best Latin dance styles. Baby was very very snuggly. Now Baby is lying in Mommy's lap and, in a rare mood, is not sleeping but not fussing, and just chilling in Mommy's lap, occasionally smiling up at Mommy, which is a new and delightful skill. In about an hour, Mommy and Baby will go pick up Daddy from work. Dinner may not be made, laundry may not be done, the rug may not be vacuumed, and Mommy may still be in sweats, but it sure has been a fun day!!