Scenes from Saturday
It's just a normal Saturday around here... cleaning the house, running errands, playing outside. Sometimes what people are most interested in is just what a normal day looks like around here. I'll stop by the computer every so often to update on whats been going on.
11:30
Everyone has been doing their Saturday jobs and they are nearly almost done. That is except for A., whom J. is picking up from a sleepover. She still has all of hers to do. I've been working on cleaning up my bedroom, which is sadly neglected. My newest brainstorm is about the growing piles of ironing which I haven't been able to keep up with. The pile is making me unhappy and feeling as though I can't allow myself to do anything else because it is sitting there. I have actually been praying about what to do about the ironing.
I'm thinking that for this season in life, I need to readjust my priorities. I just am not able to only put away ironed clothes. I've decided we are going to try to move to an 'iron on demand' model. Things will get put away wrinkled (picture me breathing deeply here) and will get ironed the night before as needed. It will take a little practice to get into the habit, but it's worth it to not stare at the enormous pile. It will probably force me to take the time to teach the older children to iron as well.
11:40
Ironing project interrupted by a very sad L. who had been playing with pine needles outside. Both she and G. do NOT like to have sticky hands, and poor L. had very sticky hands covered with pine needles. My tip of the day... non-stick cooking spray takes off the sap. Spray it on, rub it in, wash well with soap and water. L. had so much sap on her hands that it took a couple of applications.
12:45
A. is back and P. is off at a play date. Lunch was leftover spaghetti and most people have eaten. Little girls are sitting at the table waiting to be cleaned up and entertaining themselves by pouring their water on the table and splashing in it. I have hung up all the wrinkled clothes and am enjoying the clear surface. It meant I could actually find the napkins and tablecloth which were in the pile and ironed those and put them away.
I am realizing that Halloween is about a week away and have done nothing about costumes for G. and L. (We do Halloween... dressing up in non-scary costumes and accumulating candy... but we emphasize the family togetherness aspect of it.) Usually I make costumes (or reuse the ones I have already made), but I don't have a pair in the size the girls are. I must be getting old because I'm actually considering purchasing costumes for the girls.
1:25
Little girls are heading upstairs for a nap with J. and K. is happily playing with Duplo (now that he has been left in peace with the removal of the little girls). I have had lunch and made an unsuccessful attempt at the Sudoku puzzle. (I can complete them 75% of the time.) J. has also cleaned up the kitchen from lunch and loaded a dishwasher. A. is doing her Saturday jobs and the other boys are off playing. I need to start a load of laundry and then work on cleaning of a table that upon inspection made me realize that most of the stuff on it was mine. There is a pot of chick peas soaking on the stove because I have an article due about cooking with legumes and I need to do some experimenting. I am optimistically hoping that I can also do some major cleaning in my bedroom this afternoon. We'll see...
1:45
Having got off the telephone, am now going to start the things on my list. But first, need to find some boys and remind them to check their daily job list. A. has started making bread.
3:30
Time to have some tea. K. continues to build amazing buildings with the Duplo.
The boys were raking leaves outside and now B., A., TM, and D. are all playing soccer outside.
It's nice enough that we can have the doors open. I got the laundry put in, which catches me up in the first time for forever and have spent a good chunk of time wandering around the house returning things to the correct spot. I pick something up, take it to where it belongs, find five more things that need to be returned, put them away, and so on and so on.
4:00
My tea is gone and I'm done catching-up on other people's blogs. A. has taken her six loaves of bread out of the oven. (B. was tired of making bread, so has taught A. to do it so he can pass the job along.)
The soccer players have all come back in the house, telling me they are having half time and rooting around for drinks and food. I am now going to get up and start the chick peas cooking and vacuum my bedroom so that I can stand to walk across it barefoot again. Normally at this time I would start to be thinking about dinner, but J. and I are going out and I have frozen pizza for the children. Nothing to think about... or do... right now. It's a welcome break and means that I can keep working around the house.
5:00
My room is much cleaner. It still could stand a good dusting, but there are no longer herds of feral dust bunnies roaming around it. A. is starving and has requested they eat early, so she is downstairs getting the pizza. I am going to put away my cleaning supplies and head off to pick up P. J. has had a couple of hours to work on a paper that is due next weekend.
6:45
Everyone has eaten and J. and I are getting ready to go. We are going to his sister's house for dinner, along with his other sister. We have an annual tradition of having a grown-up dinner together to celebrate his mother's birthday. Everyone has their church clothes laid out so we are set for the morning. J. picked-out a movie for everyone to watch before bed. (It helps with the transition of J. and me leaving.)
This has been a remarkably calm and productive day here in the big ugly house. I may have to do this again on a day when I am fighting frustration or having everything interrupted or when a child (or two) is having a particularly difficult day and requires much of my attention. Otherwise you may get a skewed view of what our life really looks like.
______________________________
And a completely self-serving reminder to go check out my article on saving money on your meat budget. My editor expressed a hope that it would do really well in the number of times viewed, which makes me correspondingly a bit nervous about it. One likes to keep her editor happy.
11:30
Everyone has been doing their Saturday jobs and they are nearly almost done. That is except for A., whom J. is picking up from a sleepover. She still has all of hers to do. I've been working on cleaning up my bedroom, which is sadly neglected. My newest brainstorm is about the growing piles of ironing which I haven't been able to keep up with. The pile is making me unhappy and feeling as though I can't allow myself to do anything else because it is sitting there. I have actually been praying about what to do about the ironing.
I'm thinking that for this season in life, I need to readjust my priorities. I just am not able to only put away ironed clothes. I've decided we are going to try to move to an 'iron on demand' model. Things will get put away wrinkled (picture me breathing deeply here) and will get ironed the night before as needed. It will take a little practice to get into the habit, but it's worth it to not stare at the enormous pile. It will probably force me to take the time to teach the older children to iron as well.
11:40
Ironing project interrupted by a very sad L. who had been playing with pine needles outside. Both she and G. do NOT like to have sticky hands, and poor L. had very sticky hands covered with pine needles. My tip of the day... non-stick cooking spray takes off the sap. Spray it on, rub it in, wash well with soap and water. L. had so much sap on her hands that it took a couple of applications.
12:45
A. is back and P. is off at a play date. Lunch was leftover spaghetti and most people have eaten. Little girls are sitting at the table waiting to be cleaned up and entertaining themselves by pouring their water on the table and splashing in it. I have hung up all the wrinkled clothes and am enjoying the clear surface. It meant I could actually find the napkins and tablecloth which were in the pile and ironed those and put them away.
I am realizing that Halloween is about a week away and have done nothing about costumes for G. and L. (We do Halloween... dressing up in non-scary costumes and accumulating candy... but we emphasize the family togetherness aspect of it.) Usually I make costumes (or reuse the ones I have already made), but I don't have a pair in the size the girls are. I must be getting old because I'm actually considering purchasing costumes for the girls.
1:25
Little girls are heading upstairs for a nap with J. and K. is happily playing with Duplo (now that he has been left in peace with the removal of the little girls). I have had lunch and made an unsuccessful attempt at the Sudoku puzzle. (I can complete them 75% of the time.) J. has also cleaned up the kitchen from lunch and loaded a dishwasher. A. is doing her Saturday jobs and the other boys are off playing. I need to start a load of laundry and then work on cleaning of a table that upon inspection made me realize that most of the stuff on it was mine. There is a pot of chick peas soaking on the stove because I have an article due about cooking with legumes and I need to do some experimenting. I am optimistically hoping that I can also do some major cleaning in my bedroom this afternoon. We'll see...
1:45
Having got off the telephone, am now going to start the things on my list. But first, need to find some boys and remind them to check their daily job list. A. has started making bread.
3:30
Time to have some tea. K. continues to build amazing buildings with the Duplo.
The boys were raking leaves outside and now B., A., TM, and D. are all playing soccer outside.
It's nice enough that we can have the doors open. I got the laundry put in, which catches me up in the first time for forever and have spent a good chunk of time wandering around the house returning things to the correct spot. I pick something up, take it to where it belongs, find five more things that need to be returned, put them away, and so on and so on.
4:00
My tea is gone and I'm done catching-up on other people's blogs. A. has taken her six loaves of bread out of the oven. (B. was tired of making bread, so has taught A. to do it so he can pass the job along.)
The soccer players have all come back in the house, telling me they are having half time and rooting around for drinks and food. I am now going to get up and start the chick peas cooking and vacuum my bedroom so that I can stand to walk across it barefoot again. Normally at this time I would start to be thinking about dinner, but J. and I are going out and I have frozen pizza for the children. Nothing to think about... or do... right now. It's a welcome break and means that I can keep working around the house.
5:00
My room is much cleaner. It still could stand a good dusting, but there are no longer herds of feral dust bunnies roaming around it. A. is starving and has requested they eat early, so she is downstairs getting the pizza. I am going to put away my cleaning supplies and head off to pick up P. J. has had a couple of hours to work on a paper that is due next weekend.
6:45
Everyone has eaten and J. and I are getting ready to go. We are going to his sister's house for dinner, along with his other sister. We have an annual tradition of having a grown-up dinner together to celebrate his mother's birthday. Everyone has their church clothes laid out so we are set for the morning. J. picked-out a movie for everyone to watch before bed. (It helps with the transition of J. and me leaving.)
This has been a remarkably calm and productive day here in the big ugly house. I may have to do this again on a day when I am fighting frustration or having everything interrupted or when a child (or two) is having a particularly difficult day and requires much of my attention. Otherwise you may get a skewed view of what our life really looks like.
______________________________
And a completely self-serving reminder to go check out my article on saving money on your meat budget. My editor expressed a hope that it would do really well in the number of times viewed, which makes me correspondingly a bit nervous about it. One likes to keep her editor happy.
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