a blog about faith, family, food, & more written by a wife and stay at home mom of five
On Saturday, we met my family “in the middle” between our two cities at a beautiful community park. The weather was absolutely amazing, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch, a fun playground, rides, and lots of laughs!
Vera loved riding the carousel.
Cordelia wasn’t as sure, but she did ride it once.
I also took some pictures with my cell phone.
Jude liked seeing his Uncle Nich.
The boats were very popular!
Vera told us that it was her “favorite day!”
Last Monday I decided to write down what I did pretty much every moment of the day.
In ten to fifteen years, or even in three years, maybe, I’ll want to remember what my days looked like when I had three children ages three and under! I’m sure there will be a tendency to just remember the “highlights” and not all of the ins-and-outs of each day.
This might be somewhat uninteresting to you to read, but I’m posting this more for my benefit and so I can show the kids one day. I know I would love to have a little peek into my mom’s (or Tad’s mom’s) days when we were small!
A large portion of our days (“our” meaning everybody, not just moms) is spent on the mundane, the essential, and the “boring.” But faithfully serving God in those “little” moments (where we, in reality, spend almost all of our time) makes up a life of faithful service.
I’m sure I could have picked a more interesting day (i.e., one where we actually left the house), but this is actually quite typical of what our family does most of the time!
So enjoy this little view through the window into a “normal” day at our house!
March 17, 2014
7:20
My alarm goes off. I lay in bed for a few minutes, then I get up.
7:30
I go to the kitchen to fold diapers, put away dishes, and make a pot of coffee. I start making breakfast for the girls. I say good-morning to Tad, who has been working in the office for a while already.
8:00
The girls are awake. I get them up, change diapers (one of which is I-might-quit-cloth-diapering bad!), and get them dressed. We go into the kitchen and I finish making their breakfast, as well as some eggs for Tad (he eats while he’s working in the office) and a bowl of oatmeal for myself. I only eat 3/4 of my bowl before getting interrupted, and then it’s cold. When everyone’s finished eating, I clean up the table, wash dishes, and straighten up the kitchen.
8:50
I put in a load of laundry. I go to the girls’ room to put away the clean diapers, and I also straighten up their room (somehow all their blankets and animals end up on the floor by morning).
9:00
I promote today’s blog post on Facebook from my phone.
9:03
We play ring-around-the-rosie (the girls, their stuffed animals, and I).
9:20
I pump some milk for Jude since I’ll be leaving him with Tad for a couple of hours when I go to Bible study tomorrow night.
9:30
Jude is awake. I get him up and change him. I put up a quick Instagram post, then I nurse Jude while doing my devotions. The girls join me on the bed and are pretty quiet while I read my Bible and my devotional book (Joy by Lydia Brownback). We read our “love verse” together. I do a quick pick-up of our bedroom and make the bed.
9:55
I put the laundry into the dryer and pick up a few stray toys.
10:00
I write some thank-you notes and a note of encouragement to a friend. I finish addressing/stamping the notes in time to get them out for today’s mail. The girls play (writing their own “letters”) while I work on this.
10:30
Cordelia goes down for her morning nap.
10:45
Vera gets a snack (pretzels) and I finish printing out some photos to send to my grandmother. I touch up a quick blog post while Vera is eating her snack.
11:05
Jude goes down for his morning nap.
11:10
I put away clean dishes in the kitchen.
11:20
Vera wants to play with Play-doh, so I help her get that set up. While she plays with that at the kitchen table, I fold the laundry that is now dry.
11:40
I put a meal in the crockpot for dinner. Vera helps me measure the spices and stir it.
11:55
We clean up the kitchen and the Play-doh mess.
12:00
I start making lunch. Cordelia is awake, so Tad gets her and takes his lunch break.
12:30
We eat lunch together – Chipotle Maple Pulled Beef (leftover from a meal last week), Macaroni and Cheese, and Green Beans.
12:45
Tad gets back to work. I clean up from lunch and do the dishes. I put away all the folded laundry, and when I go into each bedroom (the girls’ and ours), I straighten it up.
1:00
Jude is awake, so I change him. I nurse him and read half of a chapter of the book I’m currently reading (Fierce Women: The Power of a Soft Warrior).
1:40
The girls and Jude and I all pile onto the couch to read books together.
2:10
I put Vera and Cordelia down for their afternoon nap.
2:15
I wash the bathroom rugs and straighten up the house.
2:20
I play with Jude and get some “new” toys out for him. I give him another “snack” and read a few blogs while nursing.
3:00
Jude goes down for his afternoon nap.
3:15
I work on blog stuff, specifically printing out a new blog planner that I hope will help me stay organized. I relax a little.
4:45
I start doing dinner prep.
5:00
I realize that the water is off! Tad gets involved and soon realizes that the whole town doesn’t have water. The girls get up.
5:45
We eat dinner – Mexican Black Bean Chicken Soup and Whole Grain Cornbread.
6:10
We clear the table and get the kids cleaned up from dinner. The girls help sweep the floor. We don’t do the dishes, since there’s no water!
6:40
Tad brushes the girls’ teeth and gets their pajamas on while I get Jude up from his nap and change his diaper.
6:45
We do family devotions while I nurse Jude.
7:15
The girls are in bed and the water is back on.
7:30
I upload a video for the blog and snuggle with Jude. We play together while Tad fills out some job applications.
8:30
Tad and I hang out. I get a snack. I try oil pulling, but can only make it 10 minutes!
9:30
I get ready for bed. Jude nurses while Tad and I talk.
10:15
Jude goes to bed and I turn my lamp off. It’s an early bedtime tonight, for which we’re all thankful!
That’s a pretty average day for our family! I know often the things I blog about are the “highlights” or the pretty pictures, but honestly, our day-to-day life probably looks a lot like yours!
Keep serving God faithfully in the little things, whether you’re married or single, kids or no kids, job or no job. God delights in our faithful service to Him as a response to His saving grace in our lives!
A while back, Tad shared here and here about why family devotions are important. When we first started doing devotions with Vera, we really started out small… working on a memory verse, singing some songs, and praying.
We still keep things really simple, but this year we started learning the New City Catechism (children’s version). We’re eight questions in (there are fifty-two), and Cordelia is actually learning some of the answers along with Vera!
Here you can watch Vera working on her questions (this was a week ago, so we were all still learning the eighth question). Notice how CC helps her out with an answer at one point!
I think it’s important to note that Vera was exceptionally well-behaved for this video, which may give you the impression that sitting on Daddy’s lap is easy for her. She’s a wiggle-worm, so it’s a big deal that she is growing in obedience and self-control!
In addition to working on our catechism, we also sing songs and pray. We chose quite a mixture of songs, from the ones that go along with our catechism (by Songs for Saplings) to children’s Bible songs (The B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves Me, etc.) to hymns (Trust and Obey, Be Thou My Vision, the Doxology, etc.) to contemporary songs (10,000 Reasons, All I Have Is Christ, etc.) to seasonal selections (Christmas and Easter songs). We usually do 5-10 songs each night, depending on everyone’s attitudes and how late it is.
We close our devotion time by singing the Doxology. Tad always prays for us after that. Recently, we’ve started asking Vera what we can pray for her about. Usually it’s about a sore finger/toe/elbow, but sometimes she asks for prayer to be more loving or something like that.
Most evenings, family devotions are crazier than a three-ring-circus. For real. Kids are twirling around the room, usually one out of three kids crying at a given moment, and certain people do not want to sing/say questions/etc. Our girls can be crazy and wild most nights! But we keep persevering at this anyway, knowing that it will reap eternal rewards as the Gospel takes hold of our children’s hearts. This is totally worth it!
I’ll also add, most mornings I do a brief devotion time with the girls after breakfast. We worked on learning 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in February (“our love verse,” we call it), and I’m hoping to start a short Easter passage soon.
We strive to make our home a Christ-centered place, though we fail many days. We are thankful that His grace is there even when we are weak! I’m praying that my children grow up with fond memories of the time we spent as a family worshipping God together.
