Anne's Day in the LIfe with a 15, 14, 13, 12, 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 1 and 1-year old

I'm not going to write about a particular day in our lives . . . I write about our weeks all of the time, and the details are there.  Here is just an outline of how our days can/do/should go.

I get up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 am--depends on the last time Baymax wants to nurse for the night.

Sir Walter Scott also gets up then--to either get ready for work or to take his turn driving the seminary car pool.

Rose Red also gets up then to get ready for seminary.

By 5:30 I'm settled in with a snack and my scriptures for my morning devotional time, Rose Red is out the door to seminary, and Sir Walter Scott is either gone with her, or having his own morning devotional time before going to work.  On a working day, he leaves by 6:10 am.

Until 7 am the house is supposed to be quiet, but sometimes the little boys wake to go potty and have to be put back to bed or I can hear Pixie's shower water running.  Whatever the case, I spend the early morning hours getting spiritually and mentally ready for the day.

At 7 everyone gets up.  The 5-and-ups have to get dressed.  Anyone littler is allowed to play.

Our adoption isn't final, so legally, I'm not allowed to post pictures of the children's faces.

At 7:30 Rose Red gets home, and we have "basket duty"--this means I set a timer for 15 minutes and everyone takes a basket and tidies up as much of the house as possible before the timer goes off.  Bigger kids are partnered with littles.  Rose Red's job at this time is to fold 2 loads of laundry.  I make breakfast.

We eat between 7:45 and 8:15--depends on how many crises arise during basket duty and how smoothly breakfast prep goes.

I read a scripture story aloud during breakfast.

We break for teeth brushing, breakfast clean up, moving a load of laundry, and dressing littles for the day.

We gather together for Morning Meeting somewhere between 8:45 and 9:15.  I prefer 8:45--but I have to be real, and sometimes real is 9:15.

During Morning Meeting we sing hymns, memorize scriptures, have a proper in-depth family scripture study, memorize poems, and do Bedtime Math.

After Morning Meeting, the littles are excused to play while I have school with the oldest 4 girls.  We usually spend an hour or two doing a lesson or two from year 1 of LDS Family School.  We're currently working our way through the literature lessons.

The toddlers interrupt a lot.

The baby gates only work for so long before the babies need to be taken out and loved up.

 So do the preschoolers.

We just do the best we can.

After school with the big girls is done and I've sent them off to do their math and other individual studies, I feed the babies and put them down for naps.  If there's time, I meet with Nature Angel to do some school (3rd grade) with her.

12-ish:  Lunch time.

After lunch has been consumed and cleaned up, and the older girls have drifted back off to their personal studies, I meet with Mister Man for some phonics (Kindergarten), then Ladybug for some preK, then Little Princess for some school (1st grade).

The order doesn't matter.  I just try to meet with each of them one on one for 10-30 minutes each.  During this time the babies wake up, and I feed them; I move some more laundry; I settle disagreements with the boys; I answer school questions for the older girls.

Super Star is working on her cooking skills as one of her individual study areas.

 

I try to have story time with the boys now.  Sometimes it has to be an older sibling instead of me--especially if there are therapy/medical/social work appointments to deal with.

And when Dad is home, that's the best story time of all!

 4 pm:  Suddenly it is time to make dinner.  This is always the crisis hour, when kids are tired and hungry and quarrelsome, when teen girls want to talk their hearts out, when babies just want to be held, and when Mom is just tired.  Sometimes I can send everyone outside for a fresh perspective; sometimes I pull out quiet buckets; sometimes an older sister reads more stories; sometimes we just limp through the best we can.

If it is a working day for Sir Walter Scott, he won't be home until after 8 pm, so we go ahead and have dinner and family prayer without him at about 5 pm.

By 6 pm, either the babies or the little boys are in the bathtub.  Pixie is in charge of this, while Nature Angel and Little Princess clear and wipe the dinner table; Super Star empties and loads the dishwasher; Belle vacuums the dining room carpet and sweeps the kitchen floor; Rose Red takes out the compost and clears and wipes all of the kitchen counters.  I supervise, gather pajamas, nurse Baymax, do the boys' evening skin care (eczema), brush lots and lots of small teeth, administer bedtime meds, read bedtime stories, listen to prayers, and tuck in Little Brother, Brother, Ladybug, and Mister Man.

By 7:30 pm it is just the babies and most of the girls, and we settle in for some read aloud time (see side bar for some of this year's titles).  I alternate which baby is on my lap, or hold both of them, while I read and the girls color, knit, embroider, brush each other's hair, or just curl up under blankets to listen.  Between chapters I tuck in the babies.

Sir Walter Scott gets home after 8, and he showers, eats, and sometimes works his daddy-magic on a recalcitrant baby.

At 9 pm Little Princess and Nature Angel are tucked in, while the older girls are sent off to bed . . . what they really do is talk and try on clothes and read and do each other's hair and try on make up until they finally decide to turn out the lights at some hour that is beyond my personal coping.

After an effort at reconnecting with Sir Walter Scott, I fall into bed.

It's a new day, tomorrow!