Just a normal Friday
6:45 am: Ignore first alarm.
6:50 am: Ignore second alarm.
7 am: Kick Jason. "We have to wake up now." Nurse Eli. Say hello to all the boys as they trickle into our room. Throw on some clothes. Put in contacts. Brush hair. Look in the mirror. Eh, good enough. Head downstairs with Sebi in tow. Realize the dishwasher was never turned on the night before. Start the dishwasher. Start making oatmeal. Sebi observes. Throw in blueberries. Sebi tastes. Chop up bananas. Sebi comments on the piece I dropped on the floor. Plop in a glob of peanut butter. Sebi requests to choose his own spoon so he can dip it in the jar. "Breakfast is ready, boys!"
8 am: Lucas eats his oatmeal right to left. Finley eats all the fruit first. Sebastian eats all but the last layer of oatmeal at the bottom of the bowl. Eli eats a flower rattle, a finger puppet dog, and a crinkle monkey. Discuss the huge flock of birds carousing behind the house. Hand wash the breakfast dishes and miscellaneous Tupperware left in the sink. Get Lucas started on his journal. Make a sandwich for Jason's lunch. Get Finley started on his writing and spelling. Jason heads to work. Rescue Eli from under a chair. Reset the Perplexus for Sebastian. Wipe a bottom. Reset the Perplexus for Sebastian nine more times. Watch his ball fall off the track nine more times. "It's not even 9 and you already want a snack?" Affirmative. Snack given. Refocus Lucas on his assignment. Quiz Finley on his spelling words. 25/25. "Nailed it, buddy." Rescue Eli from under the train table.
9 am: Review antonyms and degrees of words with Lucas. Listen to Finley finish his read-aloud. Start him on a subtraction game. Sebi watches. Open a bin of [large] buttons for Eli. Eli dumps out the buttons. Refill the button bin. Eli dumps out the buttons. Sebastian attempts the Perplexus yet again. Refill the button bin. Journal with Finley. Count buttons with Sebi. "Fifteen comes before sixteen." Eli needs a new bib. Wipe a bottom. Eli demands all the attention. Eli gets put in the carrier. Happy baby. Give Lucas permission to make up funny antonyms for his assignment. Initiate the Here's a Task game with Finley and Sebastian. Supervise fourteen stair races - the stairs are now clear of "one day we'll bring this upstairs" items. Open the Bible trivia cards for Sebi so he can arrange them in a row. Check the results of Lucas's three anatomy quizzes. Snack time. Ask Finley to find the scotch tape. Notice that he brings back a car to zoom instead. Make the scotch tape request again.
10 am: Supervise Finley and Sebi's clean up project in the front door area. Spray down bathroom sink to wash in five minutes. Start Lucas on an ounce conversion activity. Ask Sebi to play peekaboo with Eli during Eli's diaper change - Eli about bursts with excitement. Hear Lucas wailing about a mistake that he made in his math. Turn on a Bedbugs Bible Gang episode for Finley and Sebi. Go upstairs to nurse Eli and put him down for a nap. Come back down to find Lucas has finished his math and squeezed in between his brothers to also watch. Snack time during read-aloud. "I wonder what will happen to the one-eared bear." Show awe and interest in Finley's declaration that he is going to make a "ladder stand-er." Sebastian watches intently. Turn on some music styled to Ancient Roman times for Lucas.
11 am: Spray down the bathroom sink again due to forgetting it an hour ago. Review perimeters and areas with Lucas. "Remember, calculating your half perimeter will be useful for checking if your area layout is correct." Help Finley get some Lego heads off of Lego torsos. Wipe down the bathroom sink. Play cars with Sebastian. Discuss Ancient Roman entertainment with Lucas ["gladiators sure do fight a lot"]. Watch Sebi water paint and notice how carefully he's staying inside the lines. Listen to Finley's very detailed explanation about his Lego "hunting truck with equipment for catching bad guys." More Perplexus ball resetting for Sebastian. Start bread toasting, peanut butter spreading, crust cutting, apple peeling, cheese stick stringing. Explain to Finley the complicated situation of a good guy Lego man thinking another good guy Lego man is a bad guy and fighting the good guy instead of an actual bad guy. Supervise Lego room cleaning so Finley can make his 500+ piece set. Bible study with the boys while eating lunch. Wonder again why Isaac couldn't just give Esau another blessing. Rescue Sebastian's accidentally dumped out lunch bowl from the paws of the cat. Watch How It's Made while finishing up lunch. "You haven't seen every kind of rice there is, Lucas." Pick hairs off of Sebi's apple slices. Rub peanut butter out of the carpet.
12 pm: Clean up Eli's post-nap poop. Get some water for Finley. "You didn't spill that much, but if you want to change your shirt, you can." Take the TV remote out of Eli's mouth. Field questions from Lucas about how garage door openers know which garage door to open. Help Finley open his new Lego set. Announce to everyone that Finley is going to be building his new car set so that everyone goes to watch him. Enjoy five minutes of me time, interrupted only by taking You Can't Eat That items out of Eli's mouth. Endure Eli's climbing-on-mama skills. Tickle baby thighs. Put the Perplexus ball on the start spot for Sebi. Print out Lucas's reading comprehension worksheet. Clean up the front room. Request Eli not drool so much. Watch as Eli ignores request.
1 pm: Vacuum front room. Shake Eli off my leg. Continue to vacuum with Eli hanging on like a sloth. Warn Finley and Sebastian that they're playing a dangerous game. Set up Lucas's Chinese lesson. Run to see who is screaming. "Where are your clothes and who is hurt?" Give the okay for a balloon battle. Follow Eli upstairs. Turn on some music for a dance session. Collect random articles of boy clothing strewn about the living room. Snack time. Debate whether a duck can fly or not and if a panda named Duck can fly or not. Put Sebi down for his nap. Nurse Eli. Wipe milky baby sneeze off my face. Ooh and aah Finley's lego police car. Trail behind Eli all over the house.
2 pm: Play cars while Eli eats cars. Build duplos while Eli eats duplos. Take apart some Lego bricks. Find a brick remover in the middle of the floor. Pre-quiet-time bickering. ("No, you don't need a bookmark for that. Just remember the page number. No, you aren't on page 25, you're on step 25. Because I remember. Because I saw you do that step. You should still try to go pee. Because I don't want you careening out of your room in five minutes when you're upstairs and your brother is napping. No, you didn't just go, you went two hours ago. I know you don't like to wash your hands. Why are you still sitting there? That's not your bowl. Where are your animals? I don't know where Deer is. Please stop whining about this."). Bask in the quiet for three seconds before remembering there's a baby somewhere. Find him in the kitchen eating foam magnets. Head upstairs. Catch the last ten minutes of Let's Make a Deal. "Just pick door three!"
3 pm: Nurse Eli and put him down for his nap. Wake Sebi up from his nap. Eat all the plastic foods that Sebi feeds me. Read books with Sebi. "I like that digger, too." Tell the big boys they can come out of quiet time.
4 pm: Cheer when Jason gets home from work. Take a dinner poll. Beans and rice win again. Hear Sebi whisper, "I'm big." Note Lucas and Finley working together on a big Lego build. Put together a farm puzzle with Sebastian. And an underwater puzzle. And a space puzzle. Retrieve Eli from his nap. Shuffle Uno cards for Lucas and Finley. Start burrito rolling and applesauce pouring.
5 pm: Eat dinner. Take post-dinner activity poll. Clean basement stairs. Enjoy the squeals and giggles from the boys on the trampoline. Nurse Eli. Remind Finley he wanted to do a math game. Explain to Lucas why there is not time for him to also do a math game.
6 pm: Clean up the kitchen. Clean up the living room. Wonder how the front room is a mess again. Look at the clock. "Ten minutes til bedtime, boys!" Herd everyone upstairs. Give eight reminders to put on jammies. Cozy up in bed and wait for the boys to bring books to read with me.
7 pm: Read four books. Give six hugs. Nurse Eli. Kiss that sweet baby head. Breathe a sigh of completion when that bedroom door closes. Collapse into bed. Listen to the boys tell stories through the monitor. Finish the day's Bible reading.
8 pm - bedtime: Contemplate all the things I could do to be productive. Do none of them. Hang out with my best guy.
