04/23/12

I thought I'd document this normal Monday so I can have some ammunition if anyone ever accuses me of "never working a day in my life."  :-)  Also so that someday I can look back and remember something of the whirlwind that is my life right now!
I woke up at 6:45, which was an hour later than I should have, but I was up until 12:45 AM and kept pressing the snooze button.  
After putting on some Pandora music (try the "John Williams" channel-- it's awesome), and getting the boys up and out of bed, we had breakfast and scripture study.  Breakfast was toast and cereal.  We read a chapter from Numbers in the Old Testament.  As I read, I decided to totally scrap the idea of reading the OT straight through with the boys.  There's too much stuff I have to censor, and waaaay too much boring stuff.  I'm just going to focus on stories.  We also read a chapter from the Book of Mormon because the OT is just not cutting it for adequate spiritual nourishment in the mornings.  at least, not the beginning chapters of Numbers.  :-)
Then came chores.  Surprisingly little argument or resistance to chores today.  I'll take it!  Joseph had kitchen clean-up, Brigham had dishwasher duty, and Mosey had vacuuming.
Then came schoolwork.  On the docket today:  history reading from "A History of US," and "Story of the USA." Answering some workbook questions from Story of the USA.  Had some discussions about the bias found in many history books idolizing FDR.  Regular reading from "Thimble Summer."  Read-aloud from "Cheaper by the Dozen."  We're behind by almost a book-- we should be finishing up "Helen Keller."  Oh, well.  Science reading and questions from "Complete Book of the Microscope."  Writing for Brigham and Joseph was finishing up a book jacket they're creating for a book they summarized and reviewed last week.  We were supposed to do dictation, too, but didn't get to it.  Mosey had to write a fun, creative paragraph from the perspective of a migrating animal (we did research last week).  45 minutes of math for Brigham and Joseph, 30 minutes for Mosey.  45 minutes of piano for Brigham and Joseph, 30 for Mosey.  45 minutes of violin for Brigham, 20 minutes of flute for Joseph, and 30 minutes of cello for Mosey.  We were also supposed to do spelling, memorizing, and journal work, but none of that got done today.  Also, Joseph never got to his math, and Mosey never got to his cello...  Not so good today, but that's how it is sometime.  I did get a few loads of laundry folded, and vegetables chopped for dinner while supervising schoolwork and practicing.
Mosey had tae kwon do from 11:50-1:00, during which time I had to just hope that his brothers were staying busy!  I took along one of our history books because I am trying to keep up with the boys' reading as well!
After TKD was lunch outside on the back patio-- tortilla pizzas for the boys while I read aloud.
From 2:00-3:30 we kept plugging away at schoolwork and practicing.
At 3:30 we left for flute and speech.  We went down to UT first to drop off Mosey, then up to Joseph's flute teacher where I dropped him and Brigham off (they're practicing a flute/piano duet which they'll perform tomorrow night), then back to UT for speech.  Mosey and the other little boy in his therapy group performed a little skit in one of the department's end-of-year programs, so we stayed an extra half-hour.  Mosey and I came up with the skit, and it was pretty cute.  The boys were supposed to come wearing crazy costumes.  Mosey went all-out on that and wore shorts over pants, a t-shirt over a sweater, two clip-on ties, his TKD belt, Brigham's top-hat, and sunglasses.  He was quite a sight.  :-)  They did a good job, and then Mosey and I were off to get Brigham and Joseph (but not before getting smoothies for everyone at Burger King).  Brigham and Joseph were waiting for us at the park across the street from flute lessons, and we got on our way just in time for rush-hour traffic heading north on I-35 and 183.  Fun.  But we're listening to "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" right now, which makes the drive go a little faster.
We made it home by 6:30 and I cleared off the kitchen table, loaded and ran the dishwasher, and started dinner while "encouraging" Joseph on with his piano practicing which he was not too keen on.  I felt guilty for the truly pathetic dinners we've had recently and so I made chicken parmesan, pasta, and zucchini and onions.  I'm such a slow cook-- it was not done until 8:00.
8:00-9:00 was dinner and bed time.  We would have had a FHE lesson except that one of my little boys was not acting very well at the dinner table and so spent most of dinner time in his room.  We'll try again later this week.
9:00-10:00 was dinner clean-up, dishes, pick-up-the-house, get ready for school tomorrow.
10:00-11:00 was writing emails, answering emails, checking phone messages, and finalizing things for the pack meeting tomorrow night.  And of course writing this blog post.  :-)
What didn't get done today:  laundry (aside from the clothes that got folded-- I have at least two more loads waiting to be done, and an unknown amount waiting for me upstairs in the boys' rooms...).
It's pretty busy!  :-)  Do-able if I just keep moving and plugging along from one thing to the next.  But not a lot of time to get caught up with extras, and definitely not enough time to get in bed by 11:00. 
Somehow I never got to my bon-bons and soap-opera watching on the couch today!  What?!