Typical day, part 2

Here is the second installment of What I DO All Day:



Then after reading, math, piano, and me nagging everyone to stay on track, it is almost lunch time. Buster disappears. He’s reading the Fellowship of the Ring, and steals every moment possible for it.
Kewpie follows me around, talking. Every time I go into the kitchen, she picks up the large plastic stepstool and sets it down right next to my feet, so that she can see what I am doing. This used to be charming when I had one child. Now it is maddening, since the bouncy seat for Honeybee is also in the kitchen and since when the dishwasher door is open there is exactly 3 square feet of space in which to walk. Remind myself that she is doing her job as toddler. Remember to kiss her and tell her she is a good helper. Turn on radio and ask her to go play. Sigh when she protests that she doesn’t want to go play. She is opening medicine bottles and pouring old milk from one dirty cup to another.
Make lunch. Eat lunch, while listening to Buster or Sweetums read the saint for the day.
After lunch debate the efficacy of homeschooling, get children going on after lunch chores. Sweetums is not yet done eating, so Truckster can’t clear the table. It’s not snowy, so Buster can’t shovel. I make him take out the garbage instead.
Baby is crowing and drooling, dance around, check e-mail. Kids run off. Since they are playing, debate just doing their jobs for them. Call them down, make them do their jobs.
Then comes the video time in which we argue about who gets to pick the video and how none of the videos are any good. I don’t blame them. They are completely in love with any glowing screen and frustrated when they can’t have the exact thing they want appear on it.
Honeybee goes to sleep again, and I sink onto couch, longing for a cup of coffee and a good book. Buster goes upstairs to finish lessons and I pull out meditations. Pray. Consider my sinfulness. Ponder possibilities of putting children in school next year. Deplore messiness of dresser-top and breakfast bar, resolve to clean them today.
After prayer, feel better. Run down and revolve the laundry, deplore messiness of the basement.