Wednesday, January 31

• Lots of playing on their own today. I played catch-up: phone calls, project-prep, prep for Madeleine's "meeting", food prep, etc.
• Long breakfast - poems and bible story at table.
• Play-do w/lots of outside stuff: pinecones, sticks, leaves, nuts, etc. At kitchen table while I worked in kitchen.
• Girls played in living room while I did other stuff. Basically I ignored them for the morning.
• Lunch.
• Walked to neighbor's to play on swing set.
• Anne over. I left.
• Quick taco dinner. Madeleine and I left for Little Flower meeting. My turn to lead: candle centerpieces for "candlemas" and feast of presentation / obedience / Joan of Arc.
• Madeleine starting to get sick.

Tuesday, January 30

Dental appointments for everyone. Cancelled Erika's since she couldn't breathe out of her mouth. Went to Fred Meyer afterwards, for a few things. Home-lunch.
I was pretty much wiped out after that. But life must go on.
Quiet time-everyone horizontal, no talking. Sometimes I'm so mean.
Tea time w/ pretzels
Read lots of books on the couch while Caroline slept.
Dinner.

Monday, January 29, 2007

• Breakfast after Pete left. Read a couple picture books and talked.
• Girls at table doing "something" while I attempted to clean up kitchen. Caroline screaming or crawling around on the floor becoming black.
• Read 2 chapters of Our Lady of Banneaux. Madeleine colored the book. E spelled words on fridge. D played w/dollhouse.
• Read M,E St. Joan of Arc story for M's Little Flower project. Discussed.
• E did crayon rubbings. M did Little Flower stuff: copywork, organized book, memorized, sang. i sat next to her, watching Caroline tear up the house. D worked puzzles.
• Went through sight words with Madeleine and did a bit of Little Stories for Little Folks. E did puzzles.
• Jemma arrived for an hour (teacher in-service today). Caroline down for a nap. Did lots of OWL stuff. Drew owls from books, read picture books: Owl Moon, Owl Lake, Moon book.
• Talked about stages of the moon. Dorothy Jo did counting chips and more puzzles.
• Jemma left. We went through our new library books. Looked at L. Ingalls books. Lots of questions about her.
• E down for a nap; she's sick. Lunch
• Played in living room. I cleaned up.
• M,D did watercolors. E still sleeping.
• Quiet time.
• Watched Little House video. I did 5 decades of Rosary.
• Dinner. Lots of craziness, lunacy, I tell you.
• Random play.
• PJs. Teeth. Madeleine led everyone in decade of the 3rd Joyful mystery: nativity. For an increase in "obedience" her Little Flower virtue. They all did wonderfully. Then daddy called and everyone started crying!
• Bed. Here I am; avoiding the very messy kitchen and baskets of laundry folded last night that needs to be put away.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

• Up early. Laundry, soup, emails, b-fast.
• E, D went in our bed until 7:15 or so.
• dressed, played in living room.
• M did Little flower stuff w/me while I nursed Caroline.
• Breakfast. Music.
• I finished cooking. They played.
• Read Blackbird, Popcorn poems, Martha, Up North in Winter
• Lunch and playdate
• Girls played outside.
• Quiet time
• Read bible stories.

January 24

• Picture books on couch. Noah's Ark, Curious George, FIAR-Stopping By Woods on Snowy Evening.
• Dressed, jobs, quick breakfast.
• Everyone played in living room. I read books to D,C. D read to C.
• I made a few NFP calls which infuriated me, so I stopped.
• Art and Craft Day - Made peanut-butter-coated-pinecone-birdfeeders.
• Beautiful day, so everyone outside to play. I roamed around outside with Caroline for some fresh air, since she's not feeling well.
• Lunch outside! Sat around watching all the squirrels.
• Walked up to Amy's to play on swingset.
• Caroline down for a nap. Girls still playing outside in our yard.
• Anne over, fed Caroline. I returned several phone calls and began making travel plans for this summer/fall. I left to run errands.
• Called everyone in for dinner. (it was just like summer with them staying outside ALL AFTERNOON!) Great! We needed some lengthy time in fresh air!
• Dinner and clean up. Pete put travel crib away and hung out with them. I did lots of prep work in kitchen. Starting to worry again about C not gaining weight. Made mineral broth and some other 'nutrient-rich' baby foods for her. Prepped dinner for next 2 days and breakfasts. Along with Sunday soup. Pete did bedtime.

January 23, 2007

• Late breakfast. All slept in to try to ward off colds/coughs. Pete had a flight out at 6 am, but decided not to go.
• Quick breakfast. Girls did half-jobs, then helped w/laundry downstairs. M,E sort, I decided, Dorothy Jo stuffs it in. Erika empties the lint trap....or else!
• We all played Mass. MD did altar work. M sang tantum ergo. E in room by self.
• I worked on a present for Pete's birthday at table, while Madeleine and Dorothy cut, paste, drawing, random projects. Caroline in play yard. E still in room doing her thing. Madeleine drew pictures of things then wrote down the beginning letter of each picture. This is for Pete's bday.
• Girls outside. I cleaned up, got lunch ready. C down for a nap. Everyone is crabby.
• Lunch.
• I was exhausted from being up all night with Pete's coughing, so I fell asleep on the couch while the girls watched a bible story video. When I woke up an hour later, they were deep in a pretend game of "flying on an airplane" and "staying at Grama Charlotte's" complete with luggage that was staged to leave with Pete this AM but didn't.
• I'm in a fog, wishing it was 8 pm, but it's only 3. I "checked out" for an hour, let them play.
• Early dinner. cleanup, jammies, games w/dad, Pete watched State-Union address while I read books.
• Basically a pretty awful day. cranky kids + crabby/tired mom + Sick dad = recipe for disaster.

January 22, 2007

• Quiet book time for them in my room, upon waking, as I just wasn't ready for them yet. Needed my coffee!
• Fast breakfast, Caroline screaming. Girls did their "jobs." I helped with Caroline in backpack.
• MED - drawing/coloring and then recommenced their play from last night. I cleaned up.
• Atrium presentation again. Lots fidgeting that drove me crazy, but I held it together. Lots of discussion, as opposed to yesterday. We sang the offertory this time; they liked that. Colored page. D did altar work by self. Yet another fight over who snuffs candles first.
• I brought out my Prismacolors - girls used them. Discussed colors of the rainbow. Drew rainbows. Talked about mixing colors.
• I did Math-U-See with Madeleine and Erika. Dorothy Jo did Cuisenaire rods.
• Girls did their own building with MUS blocks. I put laundry in and cleaned up hot-spots
• Skip counting CD. Danced to '2' and '5' song.
• Little House video. I made phone calls, organized NFP stuff-potentially starting a class series next week.
• I lost it when they wouldn't clean up their "nonsense" from last night. Not one of my better moments. Decided we all needed to get outside.
• Outside for a walk. Played outside-all.
• We all looked at our new "owl books" from library. Read a few.
• Listened to owl audio tape for quiet time. I nursed C and listened too. Long talk about owls after this.
• Left Happy Birthday message / song for Grama Charlotte.
• More prismacolor drawing while I fixed dinner.
• Did FOUR puzzles with Dorothy Jo. She proud of herself; nice to see, as she often is 'down' about being 'littler' than the others.
• Crazy dinner. Caroline screaming constantly. I desired a margarita. M, E told back owl story from quiet time.
• I went to adoration chapel after dinner. Pete did PJs, and I have bedtime duty. MED are in their room playing with a Gregorian Chant CD playing. Ha! I would be an idiot to interupt THAT!
• Caroline was a crab-apple today. She's starting to cough too.

January 21

• Seemed like the day just 'got away' from us, and I have no idea what we did. Sundays are like this
• Lots of everything, a bit of nothing.
• Atrium Offertory presentation
• Started FIAR "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
• Anne over to watch girls while we went out to dinner.

January 20

• Girls played. Pete ran errands. I ran around 'doing stuff."
• Collages from craft box
• Girls outside while Pete took christmas lights down. I read and had computer time
• Everyone prepped for Noodle Soup Lunch. Jemma over. Silks on.
• Noodle Soup Lunch and play-ette
• I took MED for some errands and fun while Caroline slept. Went to DQ and ate ice cream FIRST, THEN a hamburger. Such a treat!
• Early bath, drawing/coloring, books, signing time video.
• Bed

January 19

• Music played during bfast, discussion about instruments.
• A few songs, dances, hand motions from one of CHC cds.
• approx. 20 minutes of folk dancing.
• Random play while I did lots of nonsense like searching hopelessly for Caroline's other robeez, peeling stickers off clothing and wood floors, wiping up dust bunnies so Caroline doesn't eat them, searching for more missing shoes, unplugging the toilet, wiping up spills and wiping lots of bums.
• About 25 minutes of hidden pictures w/read aloud of corresponding fairy tales: jack beanstalk, rumpelstiltzskin, elves and the shoemaker. D colored picture of St. Brigid and did lacing.
• Played Barbies while I read a chapt of Little House
• Lunch - Madeleine read Pig Will and Seven Chinese Sisters aloud. from memory, not actually reading them. Girls devised a plan for further "studies" about Seven Chinese Sisters. Daddy came up and witnesses this excitement; he didn't quite know what to think. I told him this was good. Kitchen cleaned up-sort of.
• Out for a walk. watched a tree come down at the neighbor's: learned about chainsawd, chippers, tree trimmers, etc. Walked further, ran up and down their favorite hill.
• Grabbed a couple branches of 'buds" from Trudy's house to take home and draw.
• Drawing of rhododendron buds at table. Madeleine drew the dragon from Seven Chin Sis.
• Made invitation for Jemma for our Noodle soup lunch tomorrow .
• More planning of our lunch tomorrow.
• Julee came over to try on the Chinese silks to see which ones fit which child. They are so excited about this. Read the book AGAIN with Jemma present.
• Practiced for play tomorrow.
• Cleaned up the house a bit.
• Daddy ascended from the lower chambers, and we had dinner: Chicken stew.
• Girls played in living room with Pete while I "did the computer"
• Ready for bed.
• Pete playing in bedroom w/EDC while I read w/Madeleine alone : "Days of the Blackbird" "Brigid's Cloak" "Lemon Sisters"
• Bed
• C sitting with Pete on couch while I "do my thing." She fell asleep.
• ME stayed up late and talked.

January 18

• M up first. Read Brigid's Cloak with her.
• Haphazard breakfast, Caroline was screaming, E slept in.
• Spent 1/2 hour tearing the house apart looking for C's other Robeez. to no avail. finally gave up.
• Listened to Madeleine's new Little flower bible verse on cd, we all memorized it.
• Girls played in liv rm while I cleaned up and tended to baby boop.
• Lots of pretend going on all over the house; I let them and took advantage of the time to oil the sewing machine and get caught up on some paperwork.
• Blocks, animals, Barbies. C down for a nap
• Did beads with D. M,E eventually wanted to join. all sat on floor and did beads, pattern, counting and mazes.
• Lunch, made a couple phone calls.
• C woke up
• Clean up
• MED watched Little People video while I tried not to fall asleep
• quiet time in bedroom...i fell asleep on E's bed. Listened to Lingua Angelica music CD
• Tea time - popcorn, hot choc. grapefruit,
• Listened to Can you hear it? . Danced to flight of the bumblebee.
• Walk outside. Ended up walking all the way to the school playground and playing on the playground and playing tag. On the way home looked at all the new buds on the trees...there's a lot.

Mater Amabilis

After reading this, I realized that this is pretty much what we do.

Read the prep level for Mater Amabilis.

Six Things to Include in Your Child's Day

From Lissa's blog.
• meaningful work
• imaginative play
• good books
• beauty (art, music, nature)
• ideas to ponder and discuss
• prayer

Whence it came
All Roads Lead to Rome
Everyone else's Rule of Six

January 17

• Each girl read a book to us while I nursed Caroline. M-wild christmas reindeer, E-napping house, d-seven chinese sisters.
  Girls folded load of red/pink clothes
• Breakfast. Snow poems.
  Jemma came over for 20 minutes....school late start today.
• M,D dictated letters to Grama Charlotte for her birthday. Printed out. M decorated hers.
• M practiced lower case "g"- 5 min., Reviewed her sight words-5 minutes. Dorothy Jo read books to her dollies. Erika in bedroom playing "house"
• Listened to Tantum Ergo w/Madeleine. She's been singing parts from the German Mass lately, thought I'd capitalize and have her learn something similar. Repeated first verse. Showed her how to do the repeat so she can do herself.
• Caroline down for a nap. Next Chapter in Raggedy Ann while Erika drew, Madeleine played w/her hair doll, Dorothy snuggled w/me. ME told back kite story from yesterday. There were some disagreements about some of the details; I had to intervene. It was NOT pretty.
• Read Nursery Rhymes w/Dorothy Jo. M,E listened and made various commentary and got excited about their favs.
• Watercolor painting
• Girls outside to play in the melting snow. I frantically did kitchen clean up and prepped lunch.
• Play w/dolls in Liv room while I ate my lunch and went through a very large pile of mail.
• Erika doing her "no talking" thing before lunch.
• Girls want to have "quiet time" on and under the picnic table benches. Whhaaat???? whatever....as long as they're quiet, I guess why should I care where they are!
• Turned out they COULDN'T be quiet there....of course. quiet time in separate beds listening to Joyful Mysteries CD, while I fed Caroline lunch. D ended up in living room; she can only do about 15 minutes of quiet time.
• Asked if wanted to do a project or "play on their own." The latter was more preferable, by a long shot. Good. I didn't really want to smear peanut butter and seeds all over a pinecone for the birds anyway.
• Made corrals for the zillions of ponies.
• Afternoon Snack - last candy cane. Read "Pa's Bear story" AGAIN! while they sucked on their red and white pieces of sugar. Then another chapter, then another. discussion ensued about when Laura lived and if she's dead now, how old she would be if she were alive, etc. Practiced skip counting. Talked about electricity, telephone wires, cotton, sewing machines, and guns. All this....over a candy cane.
• More "Corral" and "Camping" play.
• Read snow books on couch. Caroline actually content to be in play-yard.
• Little People video while I fixed dinner. Dinner.
• Madeleine's Little Flower meeting at our house b/c of potential ice on Lori's road. St. Joan of Arc. Read Joan of Arc: The Lily Maid (Hodges) book, small craft, coloring, etc. My turn to lead.
• Pete did books at bedtime, while I cleaned up. Exhausted kids.
• Pete and I discussed potential business "vacation." I would go w/him. Need to find poor people to watch girls, though. Could be a logistics/planning nightmare.

January 16

• They talked me into crepes for breakfast; I actually agreed. Poems during breakfast. More talk about the angels, Portland and snow vs. ice vs. water.
• I cleaned up kitchen while they played ponies.
• Girls did jobs, brushed teeth, folded diapers and their clothes. Hung out in changing room.
• Chapter 11 of Our Lady of Banneaux. E colored. M did copywork.
• Chapter 3 of Raggedy Ann.
• It was beautiful out today, constant snowfall. Went for about an hour walk in the snow to "the candy store" - reward for staying in their own beds the past couple of weeks. Build snowman w/Jemma
• Lunch. Lots of snow books.
  MD said DM chaplet with me while C slept. E didn't want to join.
  Outside play in the snow afternoon.
  Popcorn snacks - read several snow poems and a couple more books.
  Made paper snowflakes. Clean up before dinner.
• Haphazzard dinner-leftovers. Pete wasn't supposed to be here today.
• Everyone hung out in living room. Got ready for bed. Pete read books and put them down. C went over to Julee's for 40 minutes while I ran errands. $1 dresses (girls) at the thrift store.
• Caroline is emptying out the girls panty and sock drawer for the THIRD time today while I type. Note to self: must get locks for those bottom drawers. This is getting ridiculous.

Monday, January 15

• E made everyone's beds
• Eggnog French toast for breakfast. "I'm Glad" poem. Flower fairy poems.
• Pete called...he IS coming home for dinner, so no applesauce & cottage cheese for dinner tonight. Change-up req'd emergency split pea soup.
• MED played "friends" and drew while I cleaned up kitchen and made dinner
• Moved living room around to accomodate C's play-yard. Bye-bye to the altar area for the next few months. Realized that there is just too many little things on the floor (dirt and toys and other) to have Caroline free-crawling. She has to either be totally supervised, in the backpack or in the play-yard. She has FINALLY rolled over from back to tummy. Geez!
• Caroline went down for a nap
• did Pattern blocks with med for a LONG TIME (probably 45 minutes). They loved it; didn't want to quit.
• Read "Angel In the Waters" with Madeleine alone. Good discussions about creation, angels, babies in tummy, etc. ED played with blocks and people.
• Raggedy Ann story hour. brought out the RA dolls and read chapter 2. Talked about the illustrations
• Madeleine played RA while I prepped lunch. ED continued with blocks and people in liv rm.
• lunch. lots of discussion about daddy, snow, cold weather, animals
• girls outside to play & sled. Caroline woke up, fed her, then we went ouside too.
• More sledding, then went for a walk. Girls outside for about 2 hours. Home to make "Lemon Ice" from The Lemon Sisters
• Quiet time - MED in sleep sacs for last run of the Christmas Cat Chat CD
• Uncle Charlie called, talked for 30 minutes. Laundry switch, diapers in, nursed Caroline.
• ME played friends/camping in their room, D played w/Caroline in play yard while I got dinner on table.
• Lots of books tonight before bed. Pete still coughing.

Sunday, January 14

Read 2 chapters of Our Lady of Banneaux coloring book. erika colored pages. M did copywork. D-puzzles.
Intro. chapter of Raggedy Ann story. Madeleine did a great narration.
Dressed and undressed the raggedy dolls. Mom and Erika drew a picture of raggedy.
Played with rice bin, babies, ponies
Outside sledding. cold today.
Changed liturgical cloth for the altar from white to green.
Pete watched sunday football.
M,E measured with measuring tape. recognition of most of numbers. Accurate measurement, actually.
D-cutting paper with fancy scissors and regular scissors.
D - read books with daddy.
Girls painted while I was cooking dinner.
Pete told the story of Paul Revere at dinner. Madeleine narrated it back. Set up play-yard for Caroline. All four were in there after dinner.

What Is This?

I have been keeping random notes of the day's minutia off and on for the past 9 months or so in spiral binder. Needless to say, this isn't pretty, and since I'm a fairly visual person, I thought this may be a motivator to keep it going. It's quite motivating to "see" what we do in the course of a day even if the whole day is a disaster. It also could serve as a parent "examen" of sorts; seeing how I have or have not served my family throughout the day, according to God's will. Perhaps part of my examination of conscience.

I'm not concerned about punctuation, capital letters or spelling. I desire simply to jot down a few haphazard notes about our day. It takes 5-10 minutes.

Maybe this will just become a burden. Something else to do at the end of the day, or a distraction. We'll see.