Get up, make coffee and go stand outside and have half a smoke. (Half because not only am I trying to quit, but it's normally -40c in the mornings or at least feels like it)
Now if the kids aren't up already I either take advantage of the quiet and sit down and do some work (I run my own business, actually a couple of them ... Again another upcoming post), or enjoy the quiet and read a few pages in a book.
Once the kids are up the day officially begins. Breakfast needs to be made (or brunch depending on what time it is) so I get that going, very rarely do my kids have cereal for breakfast, they eat it if they get up before me or if they are in a mood for it, but generally breakfast consists of omelette, breakfast casseroles, eggs on toast, bacon, oatmeal, pancakes, you get the idea. Not a quick pop it in a microwave and poof breakfast in 2 min. This kind of cooking also means extra dishes.
Now I'll eat quick with the boys then go have the other half of my smoke from when I got up.
Next is doing up the pile of dishes that are dirty now. Before you ask, no we don't have a dishwasher, we moved from a 3000sqft house in the city with all the extras (stainless steal appliances, front load high efficiency washer dryer etc) to a 900sqft house on 20 acres. No there's no room for my dishwasher so I sold it! Along with all our other appliances because I'm done living in the rat race of needing to have the best of everything, and need to get back to basics!
Normally the kids are or have been working on their chores during this time. Which consist of, feeding/changing water for the dogs, feeding/changing water for the cats (times 2 since we have an anti social cat that like to be in the basement all by herself), cleaning cat litter, and if it snowed they start the first round of shovelling which is all the walkways and paths (again we're on an acreage there's lots of paths.
Once they have eaten, and chores are all done they generally get some screen time. Which normally means they are playing minecraft or wow with friends, which also means Skype calls as well. Some days they choose to play together on their Xbox, and others ones on computer the other on Xbox. Either way they get some free time.
While they are doing their free time I normally try to do some laundry or cleaning, in between answering emails, doing work, paying bills, baking, ordering this that and the next thing for hubby, or again any combination of the list. It is very rare that I just sit around doing nothing if I'm lucky I'm on my second cup of coffee at this point which is probably cold.
Then we do what most people consider school work. Kids will either work on a lapbook project, have a movie to watch, do research online, work on crafts, cooking, baking, worksheets, experiments, etc. my boys are constantly learning from the min they wake up until the min we go to bed.
In between I'm normally still cooking/cleaning/working when they don't need me. We also have had lunch and a snack or two by this point. Again generally real food, not a microwaveable dish although some days we do have that kinda thing.
Once that's all done the kids would normally go outside start working on shovelling the driveways, take out garbage, burn the burnables, etc. and I'd be starting supper. They also do a second round of food/check the water for all the pets if they haven't done so already.
We eat together as a family, especially supper. That is one meal that we make sure we have together. Whether we eat at the table or on the couch while watching a movie it is together.
The kids deal with the supper dishes and I try to deal with work or school or more things for hubby as well as fold and put away any laundry.
The night really depends on a lot of things, but is generally family time.
Once the kids go to bed I take care do any other business/school stuff, catch up with friends, read, clean, bake, sow, crochet, knit, paint, etc. Then crawl into bed myself.
In between the craziness of the day I've also smoked a few more cigarettes (half at a time), drank more coffee, and had a couple phone call convos with my hubby (the kids talked to him before they went to bed too).
This is a typical "no running around" "home" day in the winter. There of course are many variations of it, including me helping them shovel outside, snowball fights, running remote controls outside together, taking hikes through the snow to take pics, so on and so forth.
~ Niki
