(Linking up to the Simplehomeschool day in a life series today…)

6am

My alarm goes off. A combination of engrossing book and both girls (5 and about to be 3) crawling into bed with me at different points of the night means that I am still tired. This will mean an early night tonight. For the last week I have osculated between reading a bit too much and then having to go to bed pretty much once the children have fallen asleep. Luckily hb is in a similar position so we’re not annoying each other in that regard.

6.35am

I finally get up from between dozing daughters. No one complains. This is a good day (apart from the tiredness.) I say hi to my son (fellow early bird who is 7) then go pull on workout clothes and leave the house for my morning walk. Usually I listen to podcasts, but today I am in the mood for some Andrew Bird and the audiobook of the same book that kept me up last night. (Damn you engrossing book.)

By the time get back everyone is awake and I need to start breakfast. My son is looking at lego instructions on the main computer, hb in getting dressed and the girls come downstairs to see what is going on. This morning the breakfast is potato waffles and scrambled egg. Nom.

8.15am

I go grab a shower and the children get dressed. The usual scramble ensues. eventually everyone is dressed approximately for the correct weather, and hb leaves for work. Just before he leaves I give him some of my birthday chocolates that my friend gave me yesterday, mostly so I don’t eat them all, but also to be nice. (but mostly so I don’t eat them all.)

9.30am

I am writing this. I am about to put on a Shaun the sheep so that I can brush my youngest’s hair. the 5 year old is making everyone cards and decorating the envelopes with drawing (note to self. add envelopes to my errands list for tomorrow.)

10am

The hair brushing didn’t take half an hour, it just felt like it did. After this, I decide to break my own rule about getting table work done before we watch a documentary, and set the children up to watch the last episode of Victorian Bakery. I go make peanut butter cookies, because I’ve been making them all week, and they have been going down really well with everyone. (I made vegan ones yesterday because we had vegan friends over – leave out the egg, add a mushed up banana instead, and about half a cup of flour or so, and they come out basically the same as if you had used an egg. Nom.)

11am

The documentary is over, the cookies are baked, the washing up is done and I have caffeine inside me (though not enough.) Really we should be doing today’s table work, and we will, but the children are playing and I sneak a few rows on the sock I’m knitting. Eventually we start our maths, which is about numbers to 100. My 7yr old finishes quickly but my 5yr old is too busy trying to make me laugh. but she does make me laugh and eventually we are done. (My nearly 3yr old plays with the small animal counters we have, and gets on and off my knee.) Everyone goes off to play for a bit and I write this, and think about getting Ready2Read done before we have lunch.

1pm

Ready2Read is complete and we need to get lunch sorted. It was a bit all over the place. Not the doing of the work, which was fine, but now I have a pile of work to be sorted into things to be filed, and things to be put away into the unit folders ready for the next person. (The 7yr old has just started level 3 and is really enjoying the new things to do. The 5yr old is getting the hang of level 2. Neither of them want to read early readers but are getting good at reading individual words. So progress.) More play once Ready2Read is done. I disappear off and hide in the loo and look at social media for a few minutes. I am joined by my youngest who has brought a book.

The postman arrives. It is the nearly 3yr old’s birthday tomorrow. there are cards, but she must wait till tomorrow. screaming ensues. The cuddly Rey doll has not arrived, but it is from her uncle and aunt so if it arrives early next week it will just make the celebrations last longer. I look at the state of the house. All the peanut cookies have  been eaten. We need to eat and tidy the house and then leave the house in about an hour. Urgh.

Time to make lunch (“lunch is boring!” – the nearly 3yr old. I know.)

2pm

We are supposed to be getting ready for our friday meetup. This is a regular thing with about 5 or 6 other local families, where we meet at each other’s houses and do a bit of craft and play. Usually this works really well. but recently some of the children (including my eldest) have had a hard time getting on. Some weeks everyone gets on really well. Other weeks they are like cats in a bag and need a lot of help finding some sort of middle ground. After meeting up with two sets of friends the day before, my lot decide they are really not up for the meet up today, so at the 11th hour I have to text round our apologies, and instead I spend a big chunk of the afternoon properly tidying and cleaning our front room, ready for family coming over at the weekend. The children dance around, play in the garden, listen to audiobooks and build stuff out of lego, and generally get busy doing their own thing, which makes me feel a bit better about bailing on our meetup (which we usually don’t do.)

5pm

5 o’clock programmes time, which they watch on the Iplayer while I make dinner. They take turns each day with who gets first choice, then everyone gets a choice after that. I make dinner and listen to some more of my audiobook. Daddy get’s home at 6pm, we have dinner, and then everyone goes upstairs at about 7pm to get ready for bed and have stories. Daddy is reading stories tonight, and then he puts the youngest to bed. I cuddle the other two, and read a chapter of Betsy-Tacy and then they go to sleep. Once the children are asleep I curl up in bed W and listen to The News Quiz. I’m asleep by about 9.30pm.

So there you go. Not the best day, but also not the worst.