I've really sort of been in a funk all week. I think it's a combination of my last doctor's appointment and the fact that I'm just tired...and ready for our family to be more of a family. READ: ready to have more than half of a day off each week together as a family. I don't mean to be whiny (even though I am). We all have our struggles and such...and I have SO much to be thankful for. I do believe God led us here and has His hand in all of this.....and most weeks I handle it pretty well.
But I guess this week I just let myself swim around in self-pity a bit. Not productive, though, I know. ;/ There was lots of tv and iPad playing for the girls this week. And a day where I don't think they ate any fruit. And my mom-guilt meter was in the red.
So Thursday night- I took some time and tried to plan out our Friday in an effort to be a bit more productive than earlier in the week. I catalogued most of our day to show "A Day in the Life" (linking up with Kelly's Korner)....but I must say first and foremost...this is NOT normally how our days are. Right now we do have certain "norms" for each day of the week...places to be and such. And here lately we have had very few days at home. So it just kind of worked out that we didn't have many commitments for this day.
The day started early with Parker waking up around 6:45 (which has been a norm for her this week! uuuhhhh!).
She helped me make pancakes though and I loved how eager she was to help (it's been a while since she's wanted to help me in the kitchen)....
Because I had somewhat planned out our day the night before (again- not really normal for me!)...
I already had this coloring page setting at the girls place at the table so that they would have something to work on while I was cooking breakfast {so that we could actually all eat together instead of them being all done by the time I get around to sitting down}. It worked!
This is the best coloring I've ever seen Grace do!
After we sat down and ate our breakfast together...I unloaded the dishwasher....then loaded the dishwasher....and because the dishes had been stacked so high from my dish neglect earlier in the week....I was able to fully load the dishwasher and run it again. The girls played very well together for probably 20-30 minutes.
About the time that I was done cleaning the kitchen...the girls were done playing and ready to move on.
Parker had just a little bit of school work to do, so we did that first to get it out of the way.
I let Grace do this shape matching from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
And to buy me just a little more time with Parker...I thought Grace would love to sort these fruits in the pie by color. And she did. For 1 minute.
And then she had a 'forget this' attitude and just poured them all in!
Turned out, though, Parker was pretty much done by this point.
I printed out a few do-a-dot sheets. Grace is really starting to get the hang of it. For the first few minutes she was just blobbing the purple wherever she could...and loudly. But then- for whatever reason- she decided she wanted to try and do it the 'right' way.
Parker was initially going to do hers like a real rainbow...and in the end decided to make each row a different pattern.
They also did a cross and an Easter egg do-a-dot.
Next Activity: we talked about how Easter is coming up and it's true meaning. We decided to make these 'stained glass' crosses. (this idea also from Confessions of a Homeschooler)
Tape down contact paper face up. Let the kids place tissue paper squares on top. Then cover with another piece of contact paper. Cut out any shape you like.
After I cut out their first cross...I let them cut out whatever else they wanted.
Ummm....yeh...my window needs to be cleaned.
And this is what we ended up with....
I put dinner in the crockpot.
And because I was feeling all over-achiever-ish...I even started a loaf of homemade bread in our bread maker.
It was nice to have new 'art' put up in the house (since I just took down the stuff from Thanksgiving and Christmas about a week ago).
We ate lunch. Again- we all sat down and enjoyed our lunch together. We had mac-n-cheese and strawberries (no pictures).
While cleaning up- again- the girls played so well together.
Then we went outside and the girls jumped on the trampoline for a good 30 minutes. Since I can't jump with them- they usually only jump for about 15 minutes or so. But this day- I decided to teach them the game "Simon Says" and they loved it. It took a while for them to actually hear the difference between when I say "Simon says" and when I don't.
They had SO much fun. And I did, too, just watching them laugh and giggle so much.
Parker is doing the "Simon Says" part here...
After jumping- the girls came in and got ready and we headed to Open Gym. We just go up to a local gymnastics place and the girls get to have free play there with other kids from Parker's school. They really enjoy it (so do I!).
On the way home- we stopped by for Sonic Happy Hour.
And once home...I let the girls turn on the TV for the first time in the day. This is good for us. :) I think they were pretty worn out from our day by this point!
And it gave me a little time to work on a few things I'm trying to get ready to hang in the girls' shared room.
Geoff got up around 4:00 and the girls were so happy to see him. Geoff ran to the store real quick to get a few things and I finished up dinner. I made our salads and Grace was ready for her right away. Which was fine by me. I'd rather her eat a salad when she's ready than not at all!
Only- the salad eating quickly turned to placing ranch dressing directly onto her crouton and eating it. (this picture is for you, Krisitn)
Homemade bread! SO good. And I'm pretty sure this ruined dinner for all of us by eating a slice (or 2) before dinner was ready!
Silly girl!
Parker is starting to show a little interest in wanting to read and I had left the BOB books out on our counter thinking I'd try to pull them out sometime during the day. Well- we didn't really have a chance, but she got them out on her own and read (with our help) a few of them. Such a fun thing experiencing/seeing your kids learn something new. Especially when it's reading.
Dinner (and I'm no food blogger, that's for sure)...but it was a baked potato loaded with cheese, butter, BBQ chicken and ranch dressing. So good. Green beans, salad, and homemade bread with butter. (I think the girls actually got their recommended daily allowance of fruits and veggies on this day! Yay!!).
Dessert: Angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream.
And a little snuggle time on the couch with Daddy (while watching Strawberry Shortcake) before bedtime.
All in all- this was such a good day. A much needed good day.
1 comment:
I had to laugh about the 'this is for you Kristin comment'. Still remember taking her out & her telling us over and over, please Aunt "B", ask for extra ranch! Love all the pictures, but every time now I see Parker's profile with her glasses on, she looks SOOOOO much like you at that age. Also sweet girl, looks like to me that you accomplish so much more each day that you never even realize! You are amazing and I love you so!
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