daily life

What do we do every day?

Part of me thinks most people probably wouldn't care to see a ton of pictures that document a day in our life :)  But for those who are curious (I know I love to read blogs about the daily lives of others!) or for those who hope to attend mtc someday (I had a ton of questions before we moved here)...here is an average day for us.

My ideal time to start my day would be around 5:00 or 5:15.  I love being able to exercise and read my Bible before my kiddos make their appearance.  

However, I said "ideal time" for a reason :)  

Most days, my day actually starts around 6:15.  I can usually get out of bed around then, which gives me a little bit of time before we have to get Kaine up.  I usually take a quick shower and read my Bible for a little bit at this time.

We get Kaine out of bed at 6:45.  (no...actually, Nathan gets Kaine out of bed.  Because "getting him out of bed" entails dragging his dead weight out of the top bunk.  He is always so out of it!  And lets face it--I am not nearly as strong as my studly hubby :) ).

I feed Kaine breakfast...

(Kaine always tries to hide from me when I want to take his picture!)

And then he is off to his bus stop.  He always runs the whole way :)  Kaine's bus comes around 7:20 or 7:25.

The girls start waking up anytime between 7 and 8.  Usually closer to 7.

They eat breakfast...

Our first class is at 8:00, but the childcare doesn't open until the 9:00 hour.  Some moms take their kiddos with them to the 8:00 class, but for me...it seems like 3 girls would be distracting (for others and definitely for me!)  And the classes are streamed online, so I can listen at home. So Nathan had the idea to take one of the girls with him each day.  They take turns each day, and they get to pick a sucker to eat during class.  The benefit is two-fold--it is good for them to sit still on Nathan's lap for an hour, and it helps me out as I am at home trying to listen to the class with the other 2 girls!  

So here is Nathan and Layla, off to the 8:00 class...

At about 8:35-8:40, I start off for class with the other 2 girls.  Usually we drive, but this day we walked:

I drop the girls off at their childcare classes, and then about once every week or 2, I am scheduled to work in the childcare (the moms are all on a rotation).  It does stink a little to miss my class for the day, but it is really fun to get to know the kiddos better and be more involved with childcare!  On this particular day, I was scheduled in the "Mini-Toddler" classroom.  I didn't have any of my kiddos in there, but I got to hang out with my sweet nephew!

So many "minis"!  They are such cuties :)

So, on the other days, I go to class for the rest of the morning.  We go from 9-noon every day, and we are receiving some amaaaaazing teaching.  Wow, we are really loving it and so appreciative for the privilege of being here!

haha...I love this picture :)  This is Nathan's favorite way to photo bomb a picture...and don't worry, our friend in the green hat isn't a gang member or anything!  He likes to act tough :)

At noon, our classes are done for the day and we walk out the back door to pick up our kids at childcare.  The building in this picture is the childcare...it is literally right outside of our classroom!

This is how Daisy greets me every day :)  She knows how to make a mama feel good!  She is always soooo happy to see me!

We go back to our apartment after classes to eat lunch.  Here is Daisy praying before we ate lunch one day.  She always volunteers to have the prayer!!

After lunch, Halle is in charge of the dishes (since Kaine is still at school)...

After lunch, Nathan goes to work some days in the IT department.  (each student does 7 hours of "work detail" every week...Nathan works Mondays and Tuesdays in the IT.  Which we are still surprised that he got put in the IT dept, rather than carpentry/construction or maintenance...but he is stoked to learn more computer skills!)  But Nathan usually has some time to play with the girls before their naps.  On this day, he was holding Daisy while working on some memory verses.

Then it is to bed for these 2 girlies.  I am very thankful that they both take such good naps!

Once the girls are settled in bed and I tidy up the house a little, I start to homeschool Halle.  She is in kindergarten, but we felt like all day kindergarten  at public school would be such a long day for her.  So we were super thankful that the childcare coordinators are allowing Halle to stay in the preschool class in the mornings.  Then I am homeschooling her for kindergarten in the afternoons.  So far it is all working out great!

I love having quality time every afternoon with Halle.  She is such a sweet girl, and she LOVES homeschooling!

I usually try to wake Layla up around 3:00, because if I let her sleep too long then she takes forever to fall asleep at night!  She usually wakes up to a snack, and on some days I let her play the ipad for a little bit.

Yay!  Kaine gets home from school around 3:45-4:00 each day.  We are always sooo excited to see Kaine!!

After coming home for a snack and a little bit of time to hang out, Kaine always wants to go outside and play with his new friends (and his sisters).  I am very thankful that he has a fun and safe place to play here--in Jackson, it was much harder because we lived all the way on the third floor.  Here at mtc, they can just walk right outside.

We eat supper around 5:15 or so.  Then we do supper devotions and Kaine and Halle do the dishes together.

After supper, our evenings look different every night!  We usually always have some sort of family time in the evenings. Here are some random things we have done lately:

Nathan making hummus:

Kaine, Halle and Layla playing "art class":

Daisy roaming around the house, playing with random toys:

Hanging out at the playground with the neighbors:

Going on a family walk to the lake for some fishing:

(Halle found a locust shell that night!)

After our evening activities, we do an evening snack (on this night, Ivy joined us!)

Then it is bedtime for our kids!  Around 8:00 or so, we start getting their pj's on, brushing teeth, etc.

(For some reason, they always seem to get a second wind right at bedtime!)

Nathan does their nightly devotions, while I fill up their water bottles, get their blankies, babies, etc, lay out their clothes for the next day...etc.  

Then we kiss the kids goodnight and we have a couple of hours of QUIET!!  We love the evenings!!  We usually have some homework to work on, or sometimes we have friends over for popcorn, or Nathan and I  just have quality time with each other.  We usually end up going to bed around 11 or 11:30.

Whew!  That is our day, and sorry for all the pictures...I probably bored some of you :)