by Amanda Coers

Created on: January 17, 2009

9:18 AM - The dog is staring at me. The click-click of his little nails on our bedroom floor woke me up. With a grunt, I'm out of bed and shuffling through the hallway to let him out into the back yard. My three children are up. Rowena, my oldest - age ten, is brushing her hair. My middle child, Daniel - age nine and my youngest child, Vivian - age eight are setting up a mountain of stuffed toys on Daniel's bed.

9:30 AM - Coffee and email time! I troll around Facebook.com while telling my children to put "real" clothes on and finish their morning chores so that we can get started. I swear by chore charts and stickers.

10:12 AM - Chores are done sort of. We start today with a letter to my grandfather. I remind them to write their letter before decorating the margins with ninjas, flowers and peace signs. While they work on their letters, I go back to the bedroom to wake up my husband and finish my coffee.

11:00 AM - The letters are tucked away and we move on to math with minimal groaning. After making sure they're each set up with their individual workbooks, I head out to the enclosed back porch to crank up the radio and hop onto the treadmill. Hubby is available to give help if the kids should have questions.

11:15 AM - The cat, who has watched me from the window the whole time, does not seem impressed and I make a mental note to try and last a little longer on the treadmill and then stumble back into the dining room to check our math progress. My oldest needs a little tip on reducing fractions. Math crisis solved, I wash my face and then eat some cereal.

11:30 AM - The best part of the day - individual reading. Rowena is reading Where the Red Fern Grows, Daniel is working his way through The Spiderwick Chronicles and Vivian is reading Stuart Little. We all grab spots on the couch and settle in with our books. I'm able to have a seat and drink more coffee and curl up with my own book. I'm on a Stephen King kick. Hubby gives us all a kiss and heads out to do a few errands.

12:20 PM - Books away. I head to the kitchen to make lunch while the kids take a break. Today is chicken fried rice. We also need to eat the rest of the oranges before they go soft. In the living room I hear the kids pop in a DVD we checked out from the library. They're watching Bill Nye the Science Guy. We love Bill, he cracks us up. While the rice is cooking, I decide to fold the load of whites that has been sitting in the dryer for two days.

1:00 PM - Hubby is back and lunch is out on the table.

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