The Peach Parents: A day in the life

Heres an attempt to capture A day in the life of the Harvells at our current stage. I don't want to forget all the daily details that make our family special and provide sweet memories.

Every night one of two things happen. Little man comes in and ask to snuggle or he finds his way into one of his siblings rooms and crawls into bed or curls up on the floor beside their bed. When he does stay in his bed the whole night we normally have to wake him up in the morning from being so extremely worn out from the day before. Ribbit has been having lots of growing pains lately and complains of her legs hurting at night too...a little Deep Blue oil and she is good to go though.

Every morning between 4 and 4:30 I wake up and head to meet my girls somewhere, either for running or weights or a little of both. The last few times I have tried to get Goober to come with me he has waved me out of his room and knocked off a blanket or two as he mumbles something.

I get home between 6-6:15 and turn on lights and say Good Morning. That is the kiddos cue to head to the breakfast table. Goober always says "morning mom" and grabs the OnGuard to start dripping it into the kiddos hands. Little Man walks out and declares he is hungry and sits down to get his OnGuard. Ribbit comes out, looks around and bust it to the bathroom in a flash...she does this EVERY MORNING!!!. They all take their vitamins while I am cooking breakfast and down some water.

They all eat and with Daddy's help we all start getting ready. We get dressed, brush "teefers", tie shoes, pack waterbottles (very important to our family to always have 5!), we do hair (two ponytails almost daily), sometimes eat some more breakfast and make sure we have our violin! The kids almost always unload the dishes before they head out and I load it while Dad lets the chickens out for the day.

We load up for the long (seriously sarcastic) ride to school. We have walked once or twice but until the heat wave is over we are driving! We park and all start walking. I try to take the kids to class every day but Friday. Adam takes them Friday since I have a first period. We walk, talk to our friends on the way, gives hugs and kisses and are off.

Every school day is different but Adam probably sees every kid once or twice as he is all over campus. I see Goober daily as he spends more time in my building now. I try to eat lunch with the kiddos at least once a week and we also try to see them when they have chapel performances or on field trips.

Goober comes straight to my room after school and gets any homework done that he can...especially if he needs to print off materials. I clean up all of the clay, clay tools and wheels (i have monitors for each class but there is no way that 55 minute classes are going to include perfectly clean pottery wheels :)). I put in any attendance I forgot for the day and go around and lock doors. ( I have a back outdoor classroom...its so stinkin nice). Adam lets us know what his plan is for the day at this point..either staying late or coming home with us.

We pack up, drive down the little kids school and pick them up from Cougar Club. I teach until 3:45 and they get out at 3:15 so our school offers teachers free child care until 4:15. We head home and discuss what everyone did that day and what we are doing that night.

The minute we get home Goober grabs the mail and the two youngest head out to see how many eggs the chickens have given us that day. They love to walk in and say "we didn't get any with sad faces. Then out from behind their back they pull 4 or 5 eggs.....every single day ;). We then start homework and dinner. Ribbit normally reads to me while I cook and the boys do hw or play.

Then we have dinner or head to an evening activity....gymnastics/baseball/church/ trail life or American Heritage Girls....we almost always take our dinner though as eating out is super expensive and there aren't that many paleo options...plus Adam thinks my cooking is better and I know that the way to man's heart is through his stomach :). We even take our own food to our school sporting events and everyone gathers around to smell and taste ...its quite comical.

Dinner at home consists of prayer, going around and hearing everyone's High and Low from the day and discussing those. Then Adam normally ends with a devotion or something that God is teaching us. There is normally one kid that needs some encouragement to finish their food. There is always someone asking for more mustard or salsa or a different utensil than the one they have. We love to watch our neighbors who walk daily as they pass the big window in the kitchen.

Our nightime routine always changes but always includes brushing "teefers', kisses and hugs, reminding of what we have the next day, "i love yous"....and oils, always oils. For scabs, sleeping help, acne, growing pains or all of the above.

Other routine details include Little Man wanting to be carried out of bed to the breakfast nook every single morning...in nothing but his underwear.

Ribbit always strips down to nothing when she heads to bed. She slings her clothes all over the floor and then wraps herself in a the hottest fleece blanket known to man.

Goober hums all day long, during any activity he has.

Goober and Little Man have begun to fight over their shared bathroom, opening doors on one another and calling dibs on the bathroom as we approach the house.

Goober has started gelling his flat top...its quite the morning routine.

I sure do love my little family and everything that makes us us.