Life With Four

So what is life like? Well, I wake-up around 6:30 or 7:00 to feed the baby. I stumble out of my bedroom sometime after that ready for breakfast. Thankfully, while Daddy was home we taught the girls to wake-up and shower on their own. I know many school-aged children already have this skill down, but ours did not. There's really no need when you homeschool. Blaine already wakes and dresses with the roosters. Someone unloads the dishwasher. We start school. I dress the baby and eventually put her back to bed. Try to get a few things done. Usually this means washing a load of laundry, checking email, picking up the house. The kids start school. Oh, wait, where are the kids? There they are. Maybe a little nap. Feed the baby. Oh, wait, where is the baby? Just kidding. There she is.

Lunch time. Spelling and maybe another nap or maybe a few errands. Sometimes I run errands in the morning if I'm really hot to trot. I have found I cannot wait for everyone else to get my stuff done. I must strike while the iron is hot.

Send the kids outside if it's sunny. Find a game to play if it is not. We have just now added reading/history. Of course my kids have been reading every day. I am talking about ME reading read-alouds to them. Now, you may think the older girls are too old for this, but I think it is something we will enjoy forever. Somehow I find the time to check whatever work they have gotten done and encourage them to finish the rest and make corrections. Sometimes Elizabeth will go for a bike ride with friends and the girls have gymnastics/dance/youth group three out five days of the week.

I have no idea what else we do in the afternoon. All I know is the baby eats every three hours and by God's grace I keep the house going! Whew. Now it's time for dinner and Daddy to come home. Yeah!!!

I certainly never could foresee that four children would be in my life. I am still astounded that I have done this so many times. I feel sort of like a circus clown keeping the circus alive. But a little at a time I'm feeling we are getting more used to things, settling in, and accepting that this is the way things were always meant to be...