I’m thrilled to share with you something I’m super excited about!! There is a fabulous group of bloggers {myself included, not in the fabulous part. ha!} that are going to be regular contributors at The Busy Mom blog with Heidi St. John!! So, for our introductions and kind of a “get-to- know” you post, we are going to share all about a typical day in our homes!

So, HELLO BUSY MOMS!! I’m so happy that you’re here! First of all, if you’re new here, you can read more about me on this page. My husband, David and I, have 3 kids ages 11, 10, and 8 and homeschool in East Tennessee.

So…be prepared for some real excitement, folks. 🙂

A typical day at Crabtree Academy

6am – hubby is up and leaving pretty soon. I try to roll over and go back to sleep but it usually doesn’t happen.

6:30am – I turn on my lamp ~ and coffee pot ~ and grab my Bible along with my all time favorite devotional that I have read for several years now. It never fails, God speaks to me just where/when/why I need it most through these short little pages!!

7:30am – sometimes at this point I head back to the Keurig. 🙂 or I head to our play/school room to sit at the computer desk and check some email. I work part time from home for Winter Promise Publishing and the work I do for them is social media, blogging, etc. so I generally work in snippets throughout my day when I have a few minutes here and there.

8am – for the past few months I have been SO blessed to walk several times a week with my sister- in-law Valerie who lives down the street from me. We’ve done a lot of evenings, but we have been trying some mornings lately too! Our 4 lap routine takes 40 minutes…and we will go around 8 if we do a morning walk. {while we walk, my kids are supposed to be working on their morning chores. But what usually happens is I get home and begin nagging them to do what they should have been doing all along!}

8:45am – if I was walking, I come in and grab a quick shower. If I don’t walk in the morning, I’ve probably already showered by this point.

8:57am – I get out of shower and hear screaming. Oh, imagine that, my kids are fighting. ha! {You can read more here as I share about our IMperfect homeschooled kids.}

9am or 9:15ish – I try {emphasis on try} to get our school routine started around this time everyday. First things first, we go over our current Scripture we are memorizing {Romans 8:35-39 right now} and also review some older ones we’ve done with the Seeds Scripture Memory songs! These CDs are great. 🙂 we usually listen to 2 songs each day. We also discuss prayer requests and pray. I recently wrote more here about our memory work and why it is so important to us.

9:30am – over the last few years I’ve done lots of reviews on my blog…so at times we have lots of various materials we are using and moving through on a regular basis. Right now we are loving this Spanish program from Flip Flop Spanish! We listen to the audio CD and do the activities for that with the flashcards and games. Doesn’t take long at all! During this time we also watch a new lesson on the Math DVD {we are using and loving Math-U-See this year, which I reviewed a few months ago.} The DVD lessons don’t take long and then we do some work on the white board.

10am-ish – BRAIN BREAK {If you haven’t heard of brain breaks, check out my description & review of this ebook — my kids NEED and LOVE these brain breaks!! Mom does too!}

10:15ish – Now we get into the real heart of our homeschool ~ reading aloud ~ I have ALWAYS done a lot of reading to my kids. I read to them from various children’s Bibles {we’ve read The Jesus Storybook Bible about 4 times now,} different devotionals, then we move on to our topic of study for the week and read several chapters of each book that goes along with our study/history time period. Right now we are in ancient history and you can read more about our Winter Promise curriculum that we are loving HERE.

10:20ish – break up fight #278 between my lovely children. Someone stepped on my paper! It was an accident! No it wasn’t! You did that on purpose! 

10:24ish– break up fight #279 between my children that aren’t quite so lovely anymore. Oh wait, you probably don’t want to read every minute of their fighting. Well, regardless. Just letting you know that they.do.fight. Yes, they do. A.lot.

11am-ish – BRAIN BREAK

11:15am-ish – We continue reading. 🙂 I continue breaking up fights among my children that are either throwing legos at each other or accidentally knocking down someone’s awesome lego tower that took days to build.

11:30 or 12noon – LUNCH

12:30pm –  at this point I really like to be done with the reading and teacher intensive stuff! I usually check email while the kids eat lunch, and sometimes I don’t get back up from the computer for quite awhile! LOL!

For independent work here is what on my kids lists:

• math sheets that go along with the Math-U-See DVDs
• Explode the Code~ for Caleb
• Language Arts ~ for the girls, from Winter Promise this year
• Piano practice
• history assignments from Winter Promise ~ map work, individual project choices
• chapter book reading independently
• any homework from our weekly co-op

Most of our afternoons are finishing independent work, free time, playing outside, ipods, an occasional tv show, and WORK for me. 🙂 One afternoon a week we have co-op, one day is piano lessons, one afternoon we have dance at 4, and Wednesday evenings is church.

Also, typically, if we have any projects going or needing to get started, we will work on those in the afternoons!

4-ish – If I’m really on top of things, I have already thawed meat and start preparing dinner around 4 or so. I try to menu plan, but it seems like since fall and a new routine started I haven’t gotten quite back into the swing of things. But a menu plan (and my crockpot!!) do help me a LOT. I use my crock pot several times a week.

5:30/6pm-ish – this is usually when my husband gets home from work and we try to eat at the table together with the children a few times per week. I love this time, but I will admit, my kids rush through dinner so they can run outside and play some more! 🙂

6:30pm – if my sister-in-law and I walk in the evenings, it’s usually around now

9pm – we try to have the kids in bed around 9 or 9:30pm each night

BEDTIME. Whew. I survived another day. I am tellin’ ya, bedtime is when I want to pull out the ice cream. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t have any, unfortunately. 🙂 Being a mom and homeschooling is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I go to bed exhausted every night. But, even through the struggles and the hard times and the times I wanted to give up, I’m so thankful God allows me this privilege. I am blessed.

I’d like to leave you with one last word of encouragement. I am a homeschool mom that struggles with depression. One of the goals of this blog is to encourage other moms that struggle. If you find yourself struggling right now, I’d invite you to check out this post and then the 5 day series on homeschooling with depression. I pray it blesses you! And I’d love the honor of praying for you! I keep a list at my computer desk of other mommas online who are struggling and have reached out to me for prayer and encouragement. 

 **Linking up with: Frugal Homeschool Friday