May 28, 2015

Alright Dad: this update's for you!

7:00 I'm awake!  I'm awake!  I roll over and check my messages: 44 people love my purple hair, 3 piano teachers take offense that I question the validity of marking on note as an eighth note AND a quarter note, and my 8:30 adult student has written to say she's not coming because she didn't practice.  Cool.

I eat my bowl of cereal, M goes out to play on the new fort, and E is organizing the school books they left all over the house and yard yesterday trying to find her math book so she can take her test.  

8:00 C rolls out of bed and asks me to strip his sheets: he's wet the bed.  I strip the bed, strip him, and draw a bath.

8:30 I mix hot tap water with instant oatmeal to make C's favorite breakfast.  I consider getting dressed... But a tee and yoga pants is awful comfy for teaching in. Hmm.

8:45 C asks for chocolate milk, and fist bumps the air  repeatedly while galloping into the kitchen ahead of me.  I get a hearty congratulations for successfully matching an orange cup to an orange lid.  I make up a batch of trail mix for the kids to snack on, wipe the black watercolor paint water off the floor that C just spilled while clearing yesterday's painting project, and wonder if it's too early to start eating cookies.  I could REALLY go for a cookie.  

9:00. I didn't get dressed.  No big surprise.  I ring the bell for school, M cries.  I guess when she asked to go play at 8:00 she never actually went outside, now is is extremely unhappy with the unfairness of life.  

We have our gathering song, prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and value song-of-the-month (Love at Home.). I get M started on math, E heads to the front patio to do her math test, and C heads to the back yard.  I am on a stink hunt: something smells like bread dough.  I can't find it, and this is day three.  Has something died in the walls???! 

9:30 Both girls are doing math outside, C is on an early spelling game on the iPad, and I have located the horrible smell: it is my electric composter blowing hot hair through a stinky filter.  Got to clean that today!!  I move it to the deck for a quick fix.

10:00 A neighbor friend came by for plants- everything but tomatillos is long gone, but she took two of those home.  Her boy played with the kids outside for a few minutes.  E is done with her math test, and has taken all her workbooks out to the recycle bin, so she is free and clear!

11:00 M is working on a math sheet, and C and E are in the back yard with a sheet pan of baking soda, two glasses of colored vinegar, and two tiny droplets.  I am kind of really hoping one of those cups tips over and the whole pan foams away in a technicolor glory.

11:30 C and E are done with the baking soda.  C has soaked his hand in the Orange vinegar and looks like pruny Cheetos.  I rinse his hand with milk just in case I can neutralize something, rinse him off, and take him outside to declaw him.  Dude grows fingernails faster than anyone I know! 

I come inside to discover two excited girls: E has yanked M's tooth.  Wow.  They run off to bag and stash it for the fairy to find tonight.  I make C a sandwich.

I point out to M that the point of math repetition is to help her get faster and faster at these problems... And suddenly she is flying through without laboriously counting things like 2-2 on her number line.  Novel concept!  I must be the greatest teacher ever!

12:30:  E and C are outside watercolor painting.  Well, C has coated his paper in black paint and is currently burying his bare feet in the French drain rocks.  E is painting nicely on the patio.  M is taking her math test.  Oh we are so close to finishing it makes me jittery!

12:45. Well, I got about five minutes of piano practice and ran through two Grieg pieces.  M is out playing with baking soda and vinegar now, and C came in asking for a bath.  He seems to have watercolor painted his feet black.  Second bath of the day, and he will surely have one more tonight after we go to the beach!

3:00 We have lunched, packed and are at the beach.  E has made playmates out of the little boys she found here, M is sunning and day dreaming, and C is ricocheting around the park.  Life is pretty good.  We are so amazingly blessed to live with access to a private, gated, neighborhood beach.

4:00 I am home to teach piano.  My 4:00 is a great girl, and she is totally ready for next week's recital.  My 4:30 is a group primer lesson with a six and an eight year old.  We run through their recital pieces, and I make up a game with foam, alphabet, floor tiles.  We pick out the ones in the musical alphabet and take turns hopping the songs in their piano books.  They get five minutes of iPad time and a piece of candy on their way out the door.  

5:00 J gets home from work, we load up the truck with dinner supplies and the three kayaks and head back to the beach where Aunt LoLo has all six kids.  We have BBQ chicken wraps for dinner and the standard s'mores: we have those at EVERY beach night this year.  I bought a Costco box of Hershey's bars and ordered special sticks from Amazon.  In fact, we have a whole picnic tote I grab every time: S'mores fixings, plastic plates and cups, a big platter, BBQ tongs, paper towels, a knife in a sheath, and a lighter, all in a big tub.  It's grand.

The adults take turns kayaking up and down the shore after dinner, and the kids play.  

7:45 We are loading the car, with all the drama that comes with ending a park outing after the kids have been playing hard for nearly six hours.  

8:00 Showers for everyone, and family scriptures and prayers.  Tonight's story is Lehi's vision in First Nephi.  Mimi acts as Lehi, I'm all the wicked people, E is Sariah, and C is Nephi.  Scriptures are way more fun for the kids when they get to move!

9:00 Light out for the kids, I get my much-needed shower, and it's time to clean the dinner dishes.