The Big White Farmhouse

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• I rise around 6-6:30, drink my coffee, read my Bible, start a load of laundry and get the dough going in the bread machine.  Then I hop in the shower, dress and eat breakfast.  During this time, the kids trickle downstairs, eat breakfast, get dressed, and sometimes watch a cartoon.
• At 8:30, we all meet together in the kitchen to divvy up the day’s chores from The Confident Mom’s Household Planner.
• At around 8:50, I have a mini meeting with my two middle school boys, go over the assignments/reading of the day and then send them off!  They pick different quiet places throughout the house and will typically sprawl out while reading and head to a table for written work.
• At 9:00, we do kindergarten!  We start with TJ because he will otherwise relentlessly bug me for his turn.  This is the time we work on his math, letters and read aloud.
• I take a quick break to switch laundry and put bread dough in pans for their second rise.
• At around 9:15, my elementary students (K, 2nd & 4th) all meet at the school table for our group subjects like science, history, art and geography.  We do these altogether and just toggle the amount of work depending on grade.
• I take another quick break to switch laundry again, put bread in the oven to bake for lunch and check in on big boys.
• At around 10:15, we split up.  My 2nd and 4th graders do their math on the computer with Teaching Textbooks, so while one is on math, I work on the individual subjects of the other, like language arts.  With Mark home full time right now, he’s taking on their catechism and they love that special one-on-one time with him.
• This takes us to about lunchtime and we break from 12-1.  This used to be our household quiet time but now that my kids are older, we just kind of hang out and relax.  It’s like a midday siesta minus the nap.  (Although I sometimes could go for one, ha!)
• After 1:00, we finish up any work we haven’t completed yet.  If they work diligently and we don’t have any big projects, we easily can be done by early afternoon.  Sometimes we get in the kitchen and bake something at this time, or they play, draw, play guitar, get outside, etc.  On Fridays, we take a nature study hike through our back woods.  

100 Little Things Update: I checked off the first two tasks on my new list!
+ Get Lucy a new dog bed. (#57) – This technically breaks goal #100, but I found a reasonably priced dog bed and it was a Lightning Deal too!  Lucy cuddled right in, so I’m calling it a success.
+ Buy myself a pair of snow pants. (#79) – This one is random for late August, but my thinking is that I would pay less if I bought now versus later in the fall.  I ended up finding a secondhand pair, like new, for only $9! 

On the Nightstand: I just finished The Woman at the Window by A.J. Finn.  Still working through Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola, Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard and Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves by Jason Evert.

Recipe of the week, A is for Applesauce Muffins:

What a week!  It started with a flat tire.  Simple enough to deal with, right?  Oh man, it turned into a fiasco.  We tried to remove the tire so we could put on the spare and drive to the mechanic, but it would.not.budge.  For two days, we tried everything, bought a few supplies to lift the SUV better, watched all the tips and tricks on Youtube, but to no avail.  We ended up calling a tow truck (to the tune of $100) and having to replace the one tire since it was too big of a hole to patch.  Since we were at the mechanic anyway, we decided to get Mark’s car inspected and were told that he needed all new brake pads to pass.  Later in the week, I checked our propane levels on a whim, only to discover that it was muuuuch lower than we thought and had to quickly make an appointment to fill the tank.  Money’s just flying out the window at this point.  

Other than that, it was a flurry of final school planning and project finishing as we prepare for our school year to begin on August 17.  The kids won’t admit it, but I think we’re all ready for a little more structure in our days.  I’m especially praying for a smooth transition as we begin – I’ve got five students, from 8th all the way down to K this year!

I’m always on a mission to prolong the lifespan of our clothing, so I’ve been doing a little mothproofing research.  (This article from Martha Stewart was helpful.)  I’m still on the lookout for hanging red cedar boards, but I did manage to find an etsy shop that sells lavender sachets to add to my closet.  Reasonably priced, cute fabrics and a wonderful seller.  Highly recommend.

On the nightstand: Follow the River by James Alexander Thom, Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola and Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard.  My reading has slowed way down these past few weeks as I can only read a few pages at bedtime before I start nodding off.