Time for an Update

I've been looking at Coleen's, Alysha's, and Brooke's blogs and it inspired me to update mine. I've been trying to post for over a week, but I've been having problems with our computer. Hopefully it's fixed. Anyway...................

Happy 4th of July! I love Independence Day! We're not really doing anything exciting. Lincoln, Cody and Faha will be coming back later today from Scout camp at Bear Lake. We'll probably get some fireworks to do here at home and then we usually go up on our sundeck to watch the big fireworks shows. We usually have a pretty good view of them. I'm mostly looking forward to a day without day care kids and piano lessons!

Well, in the spirit of Brooke's blog I'll give you a view into a day in my life. I get up between 5:30 and 6:15 depending on which day care kids are coming. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually my early days. I get ready, make our bed, and eat a little something. (If I don't eat when I get up, I get sick. It must be from all those pregnancies.) My friend, Kayla, and I go walking at 7:00. We walk around the neighborhood until 7:30. We come home and wait for two more day care kids to arrive, then we leave and walk until around 8:00. I come home and make breakfast. We usually have omelets, french toast, pancakes, oatmeal or other hot cereal, or scrambled eggs. I try to make a hot breakfast most mornings. We have not been having much cold cereal lately, only once in a while. So we eat, clean up and we do house cleaning from 9:00 until about 10:00. Then the kids have free time and I usually fold clothes, feed babies, or something else that I can do sitting down and rest a little. Then I usually take the kids outside and they play until around 11:30. I start making lunch at 11:30 and we try to sit down to eat by 12:00. Two kids get picked up at 12:30. I eat lunch and clean up. By then it's usually 1:00. I read to the kids and put them down for naps. I rest, work on Primary stuff, and tidy up. The kids usually wake up from their naps around 3:00 and we have a snack. I try to start making dinner then because piano lessons start at 4:00. I usually give piano lessons from 4:00-8:00. All the day care kids are picked up by 5:30. Sometimes the family eats without me, sometimes they wait and we eat together at 8:00. The kids clean up the kitchen. I usually get to bed about 11:00.

Some things I want to improve on as I read this are:
more structure to our day
scheduling time for doing schoolwork, art projects, and music practice
more routine to our evening and bedtime

I usually have a project I'm working on and my current project is the garage. I'm hoping to have the garage all cleaned out and set up to use as another room for my daycare for the summer. I'd like it to use it for messy play and also to give the kids more room to spread out a little because I'm not using my basement anymore for the daycare. During the winter we can use the garage to park the cars in (imagine that!).

After I finish the garage I want to change some things in the kitchen. I have finally had enough of apples. My plan is to paint the cabinets black and get rid of the country look. I am trying to decide on an accent color. I'm taking ideas and input. Let me know what I should use as my accent color. I'd like to paint one wall the accent color and the other walls will be a very light beige.

The family room is next. I want it to be brown and aqua. I need ideas for decorations for the walls. I'm also thinking of painting one wall aqua.

Well, it's time to go make lunch. I hope everyone has a happy 4th! We are so blessed to live in a free country with all the blessings we enjoy and the freedoms we have. I feel very blessed to have the family and friends that I do. I hope all of us can get together to celebrate Dad's birthday and Jenelle's wedding in the fall. I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Love you all!