This day was the beginning of a new routine for us, in that we haven’t done ‘lessons’ for quite some time (many months) so we’re trying to ease in gently.

Wednesday 31st Jan, 2007

After a full day out in the raging heat yesterday I had a good night’s sleep and was looking forward to being home for most of the day. I awoke at 5.30am and lay in bed having a quiet time, saying good morning to the Lord and pondering the activities for the day. I got out of bed at 5.45 and put a load in the washing machine and then went on to prepare lunches and breakfasts for my three who are out for the day. I woke dh and we had breakfast together and spent the next hour and a half preparing clothes and food and pottering around until I saw dh off for work at 6.45 to which I then sat and watched the news on Sunrise until 7.15 when the girls woke up. After our morning greetings, one showered while the other started on her breakfast as I pottered around doing odd jobs and chores.

At 7.30am I decided that it was about time the boys got up so I went in for a snuggle. While they dragged themselves from bed, I went to make tomorrow’s espresso and be with the children over their breakfast. Then, I organised the boys starting on their chores (John vacuums the floors and ‘Master C’ does the kitchen) and went and showered, did some cleaning of my bathroom and waved goodbye to Bek who went off to school. I spoke to my Dad who informed me of local (Broken Hill type local) news. I speak to my Dad daily.

At 9am, the four of us piled into the car to take ‘Miss A’ to work but we stopped off first at the library so she could pick up a book. (She works part time at a coffee house) We arrived home after some great discussions in the car) and the boys finished their chores while I prepared our Bible study. From 10.15am until 11.30am we did Bible study and spelling and then went into the lounge room for two chapters of our current read-aloud book, Farmer Boy. Well, don’t all good books bring about some great discussions? They do in our house! John made me a cup of tea and the boys had their ice water. As we have two copies of Farmer Boy, ‘Master C’ sat and followed along with a separate copy (which is great for reading skills) and John and I snuggled as we discussed the difference between the words ’till’ and ‘until’. We also bantered and verbalised our own thoughts as we discussed how Almanzo would rather be working at home on the farm rather than be at school. 😉 The best discussion came about from reading how Father gave Almanzo a half-dollar and Almanzo had to choose between succumbing to peer pressure (to buy lemonade) or the possibility of building his own wealth by buying a pig, raising it (and its future piglets) and then selling them for profit. We discussed the application and possibilities of this for our own life. The boys would love to have some chooks and also would love to plant some vegetables but sadly, it is impossible at this house so we then discussed where we’d like to move next and what qualities we’d like to have in our next house.

Then we pondered what to do next… so we put on a Moody Science video and viewed a segment on Spiders, which somehow led on to a discussion about evolution and Christian Evolutionists (people who believe that God used the process of evolution to create the world) and how this was a popular teaching and train of thought in the early 1900’s, especially prevalent amongst natural historians and naturalists, as evident by literature of that time. Whew! 1pm and the boys ambled into the kitchen to prepare their lunch while I hung some washing on the line and put a new load in the machine and fold clothes while talking to them as they ate.

I took about 15 min to type this up, while the boys hunted outside, in our teensy weensy yard, for spiders. Then they came inside for a few quite minutes in their room (this is their own choice and I love the fact that they know how to take some quiet time for themselves.) I ate lunch while watching the last few minutes of Oprah and I took a few phone calls. I pottered around a bit, waiting for ‘Miss A’ to call in her lunch break and chat but she doesn’t: they must be busy at the shop.  I miss hearing from her. After doing the lunch dishes, we lounged on the sofa and read ‘Drought‘ by Trish Oktober and then ‘Miss R’ came home from school at 2.45pm and I sat with John to lead him back into the ways of doing Math with Math-U-See. Meanwhile ‘Master C’ had been having some free time to play and then he sat down to so his maths lesson. I sat with the boys today and did most of their work with them as it is the first time in a loonngg time since we have done any book work.

Free time! When John comes home, we always sit together and share our day over a cuppa so I run around and try to do a quick house tidy before he arrived home.

Oh, time to go and get ‘Miss A’ . John and I head out to have a few minutes to ourselves while we drive to get her. We waited for awhile as she is a tad late. Then, on the way home we returned the dvd from the previous night. While we’ve been gone the children have had some free time, although that is Screen Free Time for the boys. The table has been set and we eat our tea. Over tea, John asks some probing questions as we have discussed our learnings and discoveries for the day. He confirms and expands on our discussion regarding making money work for us and what instant gratification means. Everyone else shares about their day and it is a wonderful time of coming together, even if the meal is only pies, pasties and quiche from ‘Miss A’ ‘s workplace!

After tea was Praise ‘n’ Wash Up! Various tasks have standard requirements and each child knows what they are, and what is expected of them so we all set about this. ‘Miss A’ takes ‘Master C’ into the booknook and he tells her all about our Bible reading. Then, they come back in and complete their jobs.

They had some more free time as well as a few chores like feeding the dog. 14yodd (who attends school) had homework and the others couldn’t help but snicker. I glared at them but they can’t help themselves.  (It’s all good fun really)

Everyone then was free to pursue their own free time. I sat and spent a few minutes on the computer. Then it was bedtime for the boys, of which they don’t agree but such is life eh! ‘Miss R’ must have been tired as she decided to head to bed early while ‘Miss A’ and I stayed up to watch Prison Break. We both struggled to keep awake during the show and we headed straight off to bed at about 10.30pm.

In and around the day, we had many enlightening conversations where we shared together, laughed together, learnt together and just hung out together. We prayed together and played together and vegged out together. We even managed to do some daily disciplines (like chores, lessons and things like that) so all in all, it was a great day!