Sun, 04 Dec 2011
more morning routines
Have I mentioned that Thomas is hard to wake up in the morning? Really hard. The other morning I was trying to get him up. Marc had awakened him before I got home and I'd already been in his room at least once before trying to gradually wake him up. But now we were getting down to the last minute possible to get up.
Me: Come on Thomas, are you awake?
Thomas:
Me: Thomas. It's time to get up! Are you awake?
Thomas: mmabfuilersrks
Me: Thomas. You really need to get up now. The bus will be here in 15 minutes. YOU NEED TO GET UP NOW!
Thomas: (his eyes finally open)
Me: Good, You're awake. I have a question for you. Are you planning to go shopping with Melody and me after school today?
Thomas: mmm you know how to operate the magic closet….
Me: THOMAS!
At this point I decided to physically pick him up and set him in a vertical position on the side of the bed so he would wake up. What am I going to do when he is too big to pick up? I'm thinking that he needs a better alarm clock for Christmas, but the only thing I think will work is a Wallace and Grommet-like device that will slide him out of bed and into his clothes and drop him at the breakfast table. Has anyone seen something like that for sale? I think it would be a real hit.
The other funny/annoying thing about that morning, is that I did re-ask Thomas that question about shopping with Melody and me later when he was sitting at the breakfast table. He answered that he did want to shop with us. So we waited for him to get home from school before we went to do the shopping, but when he got home, he denied any knowledge of the question. But we made him come with us anyway. Ah, there are so many barriers to communication.
And we've laughed many times about operating the magic closet.
daily routines
I write this blog for several reasons. First is to communicate with family that is far away. This has developed in place of family letters because the letters took too much time to write to each person. Phone calls take the place of individual letters and this way I can send the pictures that don't go into the phone calls.
Another reason is to have a place where I can look back and realize that we do have a life. Generally I complain that we never do anything interesting. When I feel that we "never do anything as a family"I can come to my blog and realize that we do other things besides chores and homework and watch movies. It helps my sanity. And some day when my kids are gone and I wonder where all my time went, I will have this as a reminder.
And I hope the kids will someday want a copy as their history. So in that vein, I sometimes write about mundane routines. That is what this entry is.
I was thinking about how our morning routine has evolved this year. When Bryan went to seminary, I tried for the first couple of years to get him to eat breakfast before he went, but he just doesn't like eating breakfast, so finally I gave up and he didn't eat in the morning. So I wondered how this was going to work for Melody because she has always been a HUGE breakfast eater. But how do you balance the desire to sleep as long as possible with the need to eat? Here's our current morning routine.
Melody gets up at 5:15. Sometimes a little earlier, but this is when I get up to make sure she is up. Sometimes she is. Sometimes I get her up. I go back to bed until 5:30. At 5:30 I get dressed and go downstairs. Usually she has packed her lunch the night before. If she hasn't had time, I'll quickly pack that. But I don't have to do that very often. Then I start on her breakfast. When she comes down, she gets her backpack ready and helps me with her breakfast. We have gotten pretty good at working together to get everything ready. Let's see…
Two pieces of toast in the toaster. Meanwhile, crack an egg into a bowl, add sausage, milk, beat and microwave for 50 seconds. Add cheese and put on toast that has popped up. Place on a napkin. Also warm up water for hot chocolate or hot cider and make either in the thermos. Use the cup that was warm to put on top of the thermos to drink from later. Add another item. Usually banana bread or yogurt or something similar. Then we can go. Melody eats the egg sandwich as breakfast on the way to seminary and has second breakfast (just like a hobbit) on the way to school after seminary.
I walk with friends while she is at seminary and then drive her to school after this while she eats second breakfast. Then I go home and do the breakfast routine with Thomas. He is more like Bryan and if left on his own, would skip breakfast. So I often make him an egg sandwich also so that he goes to school with breakfast. Sometimes he eats his egg sandwich at the bus stop. And if he is running really late, I give it to him in a baggy so that he will eat it at school after he gets off the bus. You know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and all that.
destruction and construction
A couple more odd notes this week. We've been watching the library being torn down. I've mentioned before that it has been closed to move things into the new building. Well, they had a sale which was a feeding frenzy of shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that all the library furniture was being sold until most of it was gone. When I drove past and saw people walking down the street with furniture, I stopped in time to get a couple little things. Oh, it would have been nice to get a few bookshelves…
And the next day destruction began. When that is finished, they will make a parking lot and the new library will open. We are excited for that day. Notice the new building behind the old. It makes our old library look tiny.
And in the midst of all this destruction, Melody got her braces off this week. Do these things go together? Well, they happened the same week, and her teeth were "constructed" or her braces were "destructed", or, anyway I'm putting it in the same post. And here are her before and after pictures.
Christmas music
December is always busy. We put up our tree on Thanksgiving day and then got around to decorating it a few days later. Melody would like to have a showcase house.That's just not me. Someday I look forward to visiting her in her house that probably will be beautiful and organized, just like Melody. But in the meantime, she settles for helping me put up our odd assortment of sentimental ornaments and decorations. Yesterday was warm outside, so we hung some ornaments outside like we usually do. As far as I'm concerned, that finished the decorating.
I've been shopping, and am almost done with that also. Soon I will be able to enjoy the parts of Christmas that I like best. That is the baking and visiting. And maybe making some crafts or something. And the music. Bryan will be coming home for about ten days and my mom will fly out also. It will be nice. I got us tickets for a Messiah sing-along on the Friday before Christmas and we will have choir music on Christmas Day because it is on Sunday. Of course Marc always has Christmas music streaming in the house too. That's one thing I like about December.
We listened to orchestra music this week because Thomas had his winter concert. It was good, but especially nice to see the improvement between sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The eighth grade was obviously the best. I really prefer to hear Thomas play individually. I think he is good, and the cello is such a beautiful instrument.
We also had music at out ward Christmas party this weekend. Melody and some other youth were asked to sing carols in the foyer as people were arriving. I always love to hear my children sing. Mostly because I'm so impressed that they can. And they didn't get it from me. Thank you Marc.
I hope you get to hear lots of music this holiday season.
Jan Dill Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 31 December 2009
