Every day is ordinary. And yet, every day has the potential to be magical. It’s all in how we choose to look at it.
(For example: Look at this magical picture of my daughter as she found she could reflect the sparkles from her outfit onto the wall)
Here’s a peek at our ordinary day today. There were moments of wonder and moments of woe, but in and through it all was the hope that I am engaged in a great and noble work as a mother, and with my Savior’s grace, my efforts will be accepted and magnified.
I hope as you read these snippets from my day you will find some laughter and humor in the typical, unexpected, messy, crazy, hilarious, and sweet life of a mother. I’m sure you will be able to relate…
(P.S. For the purposes of this post, I will be calling my 4 children by nicknames. My 10-year old son is Bear. My 9-year old son is Bug. My 6-year old daughter is Princess. My 20-month old is Caboose).
6:52 I woke up–52 minutes late to be exact. Patrick was sweet enough to turn my lamp on since I always wake up better with light. I read an email about keeping promises to ourselves (the blue light from my phone wakes me up). Then I prayed. Oh how I need this time every morning with my Father–to give Him my worries, and ask for His grace, help, and protection. I read a few verses from the Book of Mormon and marked with my green crayon the promises I found. Today’s promise was in 1 Nephi. If we hold fast to the iron rod, which is the word of God, we will be led to the fountain of living waters and the tree of life…which represents the love of God. I am holding fast to this promise today and immersing myself in God’s word in bits and pieces so I can feel His love constantly. Oh how I need it!! Lastly, I listed 3 things I am grateful for in my planner and wrote a few notes of personal revelation there as well.
7:30 Showered, and began to get ready for the day. The kiddos were up and doing their morning chores of feeding pets and making their breakfast.
7:45 Family prayer with Patrick before he left for work. Then I finished my makeup and the kids and I all decided between bagels, toast, yogurt, and bananas for breakfast.
8:30ish I blow-dried my hair while the kids finished up eating and *attempted to* do their breakfast jobs. (After doing my hair, I walked out to the kitchen feeling a bit frustrated at the state of the kitchen, but I tried to look for and compliment the good. I found that Princess had swept the floor, Bear had unloaded nearly all the dishes from the dishwasher, and Bug was nowhere to be found–his job of clearing the counter had not even been touched…it’s a typical occurrence, so he he is now trying to earn back his screen time by being a better listener.)
8:53 Helped Bug put everything away on the counter, then we began our scripture study. The children watched Mormon Messages and scripture stories and I read a few pages from the Teachings of Joseph Smith.
9:15 The littles started Math (while I took 5 minutes to read a gardening article…I’m so excited to start planting things this year!!) Changed a messy diaper. I helped the three oldest with their Math questions (mixed numbers, logic/reasoning problems, and odd numbers) while untangling my Princess’s locket and keeping Caboose happy. (I loved the moment when he brought me an Elephant & Piggie book and starting snorting like a pig. I didn’t even know he knew the sound a pig makes! We all laughed.) After Princess was done with Math, she practiced her piano in the room right next to the homeschool room and then turned on the songs that are pre-recorded on the piano and she and Caboose played while I still helped the older boys with Math.
10:00 Put Caboose down for a nap, asked Princess to take the diaper sack out to the garbage. She got muddy while doing so, tracked mud on the rug. I carried her upstairs and she washed her feet and hands in the tub. I then finished helping the older boys with their Math, gave Bug a timed test for his multiplication facts and practiced flash cards with him.
10:15 The littles had a “recess” break of exercising/dancing to gonoodle.com and I updated this post here with the morning’s happenings.
10:30 Rang the bell for the kids to come upstairs and start Language Arts. The boys ran and wrestled all the way and I had to remind them not to push and shove. Bug couldn’t find his whiteboard, marker, and eraser anywhere since it wasn’t put away in the right place yesterday. When they were finally found, Bear started his Language Arts (it’s self-directed), and I helped Bug with dictation and timed reading tests while practicing sight words with Princess and then listening to her read her Bob books.
10:45 Princess worked on sight word worksheets and I helped Bug with his geography (compass roses and maps). Then Princess read beginning books to me, Bug completed his neighborhood map, and Bear worked on the rest of Language Arts and then practiced his piano and did keyboarding.
11:00 Bug was upset because his imaginary town assignment had specific instructions, so I told him if he did the assignment, then he could create another imaginary town however he’d like. He was okay with that. I helped Princess with a timed reading, matching rhymes, and another book (and helped Bug with his imaginary town).
11:30 Helped Bear with his sentence dictation and read his shared reader with him and checked his answers from his Language Arts lesson. Bug and Princess did their handwriting and practiced their piano. (Bug also did a fair amount of messing around by pinning a long chain of safety pins and tickets he’s earned to his handwriting book. When I reminded him for the 5th time to do his assignment and stop pinning things he told me he was trying to create an invention to hold his handwriting book in place on his desk…valid point and yet…sigh.)
12:05 Read a storybook to the littles
12:15 Changed another messy diaper, Bear took it out to the garbage and brought the garbage can back from the street. Then we started on lunch–butter noodles for Princess, peanut butter & jam sandwiches for Bug and Caboose, and French toast and scrambled eggs for oldest son (who is learning to make them himself), and a chicken rice bowl leftover from dinner last night for me. Also little tangerines and cheese sticks. Highlights of lunch: Patrick calling me on his lunch break, Princess telling me she loves me, snicker doodles for dessert, watching out the window as our cat Yoda caught a mouse. Lowlights: Caboose being a hungry little monster and flailing himself angrily during the prayer. Hearing the kids argue and whine. Cleaning up the kitchen in the aftermath of lunch (+ breakfast messes).
1:15 Story time on the couch…Picture books for Princess and Caboose, and “The Singing Tree” for Bear and Bug.
2:00 I put Caboose down for a nap and while I painted watercolors with Princess (we painted wreaths today), Bear and Bug read “Squanto” together and then cleaned their zones.
2:40 For “Wonder Wednesday,” Bug asked to watch how cars are made. So we found a few YouTube videos. He says he wants to build cars when he grows up.
3:00 Bear asked me to teach him how to iron his shirt. So we heated up the iron and ironed together.
3:10 Screen time for the littles and some time for me to update this post. Also started a load of laundry.
3:15 Checked my email, listened to an audio to improve my writing (Creating a word trap)
3:30 Worked on writing my Book
4:00 Children enjoyed some playtime by themselves and Bear did extra chores to earn extra screen time.
4:10 Repairman comes to inspect our shower door–will come back next week to fix it.
4:30 Princess came up to me and gave me the biggest, sweetest hug and told me how much she loves me. Put away my laptop and writing supplies and headed to the kitchen to make our dinner while I listened to old music (Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole on Pandora.)
5:00 Changed yet another messy diaper. A huge thunderstorm/rainstorm was happening and so the kids all had to run outside and rescue their muddy shoes that were blowing away and the tipped-over garbage can.
5:15 Caboose woke up and the kids enjoyed another snicker doodle for their afternoon snack.
5:30 A neighbor came and picked up a chair and lamp that we are donating for a fundraiser for one of our neighbors.
5:50 We sat down as a family and enjoyed egg drop soup, frog eye salad, and fortune cookies.
The End
By writing out the details of our day, my intent was not to show you a perfect day or even suggest that we ever have a perfect day, because no one does. Today was a pretty good day for us. Pretty average and pretty ordinary. But I kind of like them that way. Some days are much harder than today and others are easier. But, I hope as you read about my day, you will be inspired to try out recording the details of one of your ordinary days. Because amidst the messy and mundane, there is also the marvelous and majestic. I would love for you to share with me all about one of your ordinary days in the comments below or if you’re reading this in an email, just hit “reply” and share with me there. I can’t wait to hear from you!!
Sincerely,
Jamie
