A Random Tuesday

The morning insomnia that has been visiting me lately woke me at five o'clock, but at least I could lay in bed till six when the kids awoke. I took them downstairs for my morning chores and breakfast around seven. Then John got to watch his morning television allotment, during which time I cleaned the kitchen and got some time on the computer. Chris was gone at client meetings today, so not at home interacting with us like normal. Then we trekked upstairs to make beds, do upstairs chores, and get dressed for the day. The kids played for a while in John's room before we went downstairs for morning snack time at 9:30. (We're trying a new food program with John, so meal times are highly regimented now.)

The price I pay for two children (so far) who know how to use utensils and feed themselves at a young age is a lot of mess. If I were smarter, I'd take off Mary's dress ahead of time. I'm not saving myself any work by leaving her dress on, as I simply have to take off the ruined dress after the meal!

Note Mary's bowl: I learned that when I'm not around, Chris has been giving her a regular bowl (because he didn't know that she was likely to throw it) and she has not been throwing it to the ground. So I've begun giving her her own bowl too.

After snack time, I started washing laundry (doing three loads today) and helping John do some artwork and play with Play-doh. Meanwhile Mary spends this kind of time running around, finding forgotten step stools which she drags and uses to climb furniture, trying to do John's activities, and--for the last three days while she is cutting a tooth I see poking through--nursing several times per hour all day long.

We ate lunch at 11:30, then I cleaned the kitchen and got the kids down for a simultaneous nap (hurray!) around 12:30. I'm always torn when they're napping together to use the time to rest myself (as Mary still wakes me up overnight every two hours or so) or to get some precious people-free time. As it was, I laid with them for half an hour to rest, then went downstairs for some time on the computer researching homeschooling methods and more endless straightening of the house.

After the kids woke up, I suggested we go in the back yard. John packed his backpack with a small teddy bear and an old tube of Chapstick he found, plus he donned his magnifying glass around his neck because you never know what you might find to look at.

John found these things, so we discussed what bark is, then played a matching game to find the tree from which the bark fell.

Then John practiced his photography, taking some nature photos and these two of Mama and Mary.

Mama trying to read a book on childrearing while the kids play

The Lenten rose are blooming.

We've recently had quite a few trees cut down, so I took photos of some, but not all, of the stumps. This should really open up some sunlight in the back yard and reduce water being sucked up, so maybe more of our grass and plants can survive.

I spotted from 50 feet away where I was reading on the bench that the kids were playing joyfully in a mud puddle.

You know you're a second-time mom when you don't mind the baby playing in the mud puddle because she's not eating the mud anyway and at least she's occupied.

After we went inside, we washed hands, ate 2:30 snack, then I gave the kids a bath and clean clothing!

John's clothing were muddy, so he got to change into a new outfit which he chose all by himself: Yes, those are waterproof swim shoes and swim trunks beneath his train overalls. (Here John is watching a few videos of Schoolhouse Rock: Chris found two that are on the subject of Boston and the founding of our country, so now John keeps talking about "the country we are going to visit next week.")

John got to watch his afternoon allotment of television and Mary got to nap on my back in the Ergo while I cooked dinner, which I served at 5:30. Afterwards I normally clean the kitchen while Chris plays with the kids, but tonight after dinner John began crying and asking me to do "school time" with him. Chris gave me the treat of cleaning the kitchen, so I sat with John and told him stories which he selected from the children's Bible. Right now he is absolutely fascinated with Bible stories and wants to know them all and repeat them all back to us. (If you're lucky, he'll tell you about the "bananas from heaven.") This is how I get so many of the tough life questions: one of them tonight was, "What is purity?"

Then we prayed an abbreviated family Rosary (we've been trying to pray five decades as a family nightly, but it's still hit and miss as we adopt this habit and sometimes we shorten it to one decade). We raced upstairs for the nightly "pajama contest" (who can get in his pajamas first?), a bit of playtime, bedtime prayers, and John in bed at 8:00. Normally I put Mary down simultaneously, but tonight was an exception. So now it is 9:00 p.m. and I'm about to put my baby to sleep, and I'm sure I won't be awake much longer!

And tomorrow is another day in our little family. Praise God for typical, healthy, uneventful days!