Jotham's Journey, Prudence and the Millers, 1 Peter, The King's Daughter
Our Curriculum:
Horizons Math Grade 4 and K,The Reading Lesson, Sequential Spelling, Lifepac Language Arts 4, Apologia Astronomy, Veritas Press New Testament/Greeks/Romans
Prima Latina, Contenders for the Faith and various Winters Promise books, Live Mocha Spanish, Plants Grown Up
I have not been able to get into a new routine since Peter got back, so I've been floundering, which is why you haven't heard from me much lately. But it has made me even more aware of how much I need a routine.
A routine is completely different than a schedule. I CANNOT do schedules, you know the do task 1 from 8 to 8:15, do task 2 from 8:15-8:30 stuff. But I can not live without a routine.
For me my normal routine looks like this:
~Wake up
~On a good wife day (which I admit are so rare as I am not an early morning person)-make Peter breakfast and see him off to work
~More likely get woken up a couple hours later by one of my children, and try and squeeze in some quiet time for prayer and reading God's Word
~Feed my children and start cleaning up
Peter gets home for lunch at 11 and this is perfect for me as I work so much better with a deadline! This means I must have breakfast made, eaten and cleaned up, laundry in the washer, the vacuuming done, the house clean enough for company (he loves surprising me with hungry friends he brings home to share lunch with), and lunch made by 11am. I also try to figure out what is for dinner and get as much prep work as possible done in this time.
After lunch I clean up from the meal and we do school work. Which again is very random. Some days it may just be cuddling on the couch while I read a novel out loud (we love Historical fiction, other days it may be math worksheets, spelling etc, and yet on other days it may be a field trip or fun project.
This time block is when we read books, play board games, go to the park, work in the garden, play outside etc. as well.
Daddy gets home about 4ish on a "normal" day, so then all school work stops. I start dinner, the children play...
If you didn't notice I didn't leave any room for errands away from the home. One of the reasons I am successful in homemaking is that I am home all the time. I admit at first this was not easy. When we moved here from CA I was used to having my own car and spending time with friends, out running errands etc. When we moved here we went down to one car and I had no choice but to be home. It was hard the first few months, but now 4 years later I DREAD days when I have the car and need to run errands. When I do need to run them I do them all at once, grocery shopping , doctors appointments etc all in a row and we usually just skip school that day and leave after lunch.
We rarely do "playdates". Its not that I have anything against them necessarily, its just that if I am away for a day my entire weeks gets thrown out of whack and it isn't worth it for me. I truly love being in my home now, and I can find tons to do here, and my goal is to cultivate that love for home in my children as well.
I totally agree about needing a deadline!! I just wish mine included thoughts about hubby being a deadline. It's probably a good thing he doesn't bring coworkers home here! (Hmm, maybe he would if the house looked nicer?? Ugh.)
And as far as "going out" of the house, it itsn't like there is that much shopping type stuff to do here anyway. Once we moved here from a bigger city, our discretionary spending went way down! I also love being at home, and it isn't like there isn't anything to do here - Always plenty to do!!
