First Day of School 2017-18

A few times per year, I enjoy writing A Day in the Life blog post, and the first day of our seventh year homeschooling (whoa!) was one of them. This is what we call a "soft start" to school. With CCE beginning this week, we might as well call it the start of school since I have to start doing something. But this is a far cry from our full schedule when each child is doing about 8 times as many subjects as they did today! But with a two-week-old in the house, we're going to have to be attending The School of Life for quite a while.

5:30 a.m. I finish second overnight pumping, go back to sleep.

6:30 a.m. The alarm goes off, bottle feed baby, get him back to sleep, get dressed.

6:50 a.m. Make coffee by myself, empty dishwasher, fill dishwasher.

7:00 a.m. I bottle feed baby, make rounds of waking up other five kids, John holds baby for me, I dress two little boys, brush the girls' hair.

7:50 a.m. Everyone downstairs, orient three kids to new catechism reading, set them to their prayer time. One child is particularly prickly about disliking the new catechism and "takes revenge" on me by reading eight chapters instead of the one assigned. That kid really showed me.

Catechism--check.

Thomas is locked in his high chair coloring, David is in his swing sleeping, and Joseph is "helping me make" frozen waffles--in his innocence he thinks putting the frozen discs in the toaster is a big deal. I start a load of laundry.

8:00 a.m. Breakfast

8:30 a.m. We go outside for first-day-of-school pictures, then ride bikes on the driveway for 20 minutes. Physical Education--check.

8:50 a.m. Kids clean kitchen--wiping table, sweeping floor, loading dirty dishes.

9:00 a.m. Five kids watch Mr. Wizard (Science--check!) while Mama bottle feeds David and then pumps (#1 of the daytime shift).

10:00 a.m. Mama bribes 2-year-old with popcorn to sit quietly. Other kids continue watching Mr. Wizard. Mama makes one business phone call: I cannot possibly leave the house to take healthy 2-week-old to a well-baby check, so am pushing that forward two more weeks.

Friend drops by unexpectedly with two more meals, already frozen, for a busy day.

Make second business phone call, try to get David back in for re-do of frenectomy, which has scarred over too fast and re-tethered his tongue.

10:15 a.m. Assign John to babysit Thomas in the play room. Send Margaret and Joseph to play outdoors with brand new bubble wands a friend had delivered to occupy my kids postpartum. Work one-on-one with Mary to write her first presentation for CCE on Friday. David in swing.

Focus on Margaret: Help her pick her new literature book. After she read the Great Illustrated Classics (simplified version) of Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" in just a few days, I've challenged her to read the original. She accepts. I leave her to read enthusiastically. Literature--check.

David now in my sling, falls asleep. John folds a first load of laundry of the day.

Focus on John: Teach him how to install a CD program on a computer. He installs Teaching Textbooks 5. (Computer lesson--check.) I leave him to do one math lesson. (Math--check.)

Focus on Thomas . . . who has been neglected and is splashing in the toilet and later is caught drinking water from a vase of flowers. That's better than the reverse.

Margaret starts her Keyboarding Without Tears lesson (computer lesson--check). Thomas and Joseph watch her.

11:15 a.m. Set up lunch plans. I assign Mary and John to make the meal.

11:30 a.m. Pumping (#2). This is the worst time in the schedule to leave the kids alone. Yeah, they didn't really follow directions, BUT I came down to a little chaos and all the kids eating food, and that's a win. Thomas: jelly on bread and applesauce; Joseph: two apples with lots of PB, and a glass of milk; Margaret: a PBJ sandwich and a fried egg; Mary: a PBJ sandwich; John: macaroni and cheese, and a glass of milk. Everyone got fed--check.

12--something. Tucked Thomas into crib for nap time. Chris put Joseph into Quiet Time on my behalf. His order of the day was listening to an hour-long Bible story on CD while building Duplos. I folded a second load of laundry. I assigned John and Mary to do their 45-minute piano practice and I went and lay down for half an hour. Margaret played outside.

1:30 p.m. I left David napping, and came downstairs and did half an hour of planning and calendar work with Chris. With six kids and a traveling husband, there are so many schedules to manage!

2:15 p.m. Pumped (#3). Joseph is done with Quiet Time, Thomas is woken up, and those two with Margaret watch an EWTN program, while Chris takes John with him to Mary's violin lesson.

The downstairs is now a total 'tip' and Mama is starting to feel stress rise after an otherwise good day.

2:30 p.m. A friend drops off a meal to me for tonight . . . thank God for the body of Christ!

I serve snack of tea, granola bars, grapes, and string cheese to the younger set of kids. David wakes, I bottle feed him.

3:30 p.m. Time for Margaret's piano practice. Joseph plays outdoors, and Thomas dresses up as a robot, while David naps in my sling.

4:00 p.m. Bottle-feed David. Joseph and Thomas watch Mr. Rogers on TV, John and Mary are assigned to pick up the Bonus Room (where I hesitate ever to visit these last two weeks, lest my blood pressure rise at the mess!). I pick up the messy den.

4:30 p.m. I tried to heat up the dinner brought to us by a friend . . . the first night postpartum I would have heated up a meal delivered instead of Chris doing it. With all the needs of the children, I couldn't even manage that, and Chris had to come take over. I am feeling pathetic . . . God's going to have to work with what little material I can offer this family and magnify it mightily.

5:00 p.m. Family dinner, then John and Mary cleaned the kitchen.

6:00 p.m. Pumped (#4) while Chris watched 5/6 kids.

6:45 p.m. With David asleep, I had hands free to give a bath to Thomas and Joseph while Chris prayed Rosary with the older three. I read a chapter to the little boys, and tucked in tykes.

8:00 p.m. And that's a wrap, folks! I consider it a really good day when my parenting hat is mostly off at 8:00 because all the children are tucked in their beds, either asleep or reading. Speaking of reading, I'm pleased with the children's new literature choices, and they seem to be excited themselves.

• Joseph (4) is having me read aloud to him Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1933).
• Margaret (6) is reading the original Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894).
• Mary (8) is reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868).
• John (10) is reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1870).

I have another hour or so to be awake, another three pumping sessions overnight, lots of diapers to change and bottles to give to Baby David. It's a blessed life: blessed and messy with growth!