Wednesday...one of the very unschooly days but full of laughter and activity

So, yesterday was my big laundry day. We are downsizing and I am enjoying taking out "everything that you are not ECSTATIC to see in your dresser drawer" : ) This was what I asked of my children and husband, so I got rid of (Salvation Army) a LOT of clothes and weird ugly blankets and such.

Greta and Mickey played around on the Guitar Hero for a while in the morning as me and the littlest three hung out in the basement. Casey asked to hear "rock and roll" so I put on Os Mutantes. Super weird brazilian 60s stuff. I love them listening to cool stuff. Eska jumped and jumped in her jumpy while the littlest boys set up some crazy thing that involved duplos as bowling and rolling them down the stairs.

Lunch was nachos and since I am being really hardcore about meals and not snacking and such anymore (more later on that, maybe on Hearth and Home blog?) they were all super hungry and not a complaint! It was nice to have a lunch without griping fussing picking and requests for goofy alternate meals. EVERYONE helped clear the table if they wanted to play Sorry Sliders with me...a little board game that involves rolling pawns to score, almost like curling.

At one oclock the bell rang (I am using a little wind up alarm clock in conjunction with a little egg timer lately for Lunch, Nap, Nap Is Over, Sharing, Clean up Time, Dinner, Bath, Bed....it is working and they even think it is fun!) I took Charlie upstairs to his nap and Greta and Mickey settled in to finish their thank you cards for their Christmas presents. This small project has taken along time and I was done allowing them to procrastinate, so it was time to do that. they looked up the addresses/zip codes that always seem to elude me and we had a chat about the Post Office and how quaint and amazing it all is. Then as Eska needed a nursing and as the kids are STILL rather sick, we agreed to make a "big blanket puff" in the front room for resting for one hour and watching Wall-E, a new pixar film that is really really cute and wholesome and has a cool message that is very easy to "get" about taking care of Earth and such. Eska sleeps very well if she can nurse and then just be held asleep in my arms and so we did that.

At around 3:30 I announced "no more electronics" and nobody fussed. Greta said something sassy about How she guessed we were supposed to just sit there and look at each other and I cheerily said that that was one option! And then I went and washed up the dishes by hand. We are using the dishwasher only once a night, right before bed now. I have no idea if this saves or wastes water but this is what we are doing. Eska played in the big blanket puff and loved it, and soon the "bored" kids had made up a big game pretending they were running an animal daycare and Charlie and Eska were the naughty cats, etc.

We did our 4:30 clean up and noone fussed--Mickye needs some guidance and so I tell him "you fold all those quilts and put them on the couch" whereas Casey and Greta can just tidy up a place without a meltdown. Charlie was being very wild and so he had some highchair time with his cool magnet tangrams from his auntie for xmas gift. He ended needing an impromptu bath which served as a great playpen for about 1/2 hour for a dirty sticky tot. He is so sweet in the bath, unlike his older brothers at that age whose sole intent was to flood the universe, he plays very cool little games with cars and cups and balls and never splashes. For real!

I started making dinner right at 5, another one of my "resolutions" and Greta helped somewhat although I encouraged her to keep up the cat-daycare-game rather than burn all the tofu. I said it nicely though! she did perfectly cook the broccoli and seems to all of a sudden want to cook with me because I am gracious and cheerful and not put out and crabby, most likely.

Steve got home lateish (5:40 and he works 5 miles from home...the traffic!!!) and we had a nice meal of tofu, mashed potatoes and gravy, canned corn and broccoli. Strange combo but everyone gobbled because, again, we did not have 4 oclock pig out.

Greta, Mickey and Daddy clean the dinner mess while I gave Casey a bath and popped Eska in there, too, since she was a bit grody--she can go in that little baby bath ring thing now and she LOVES it. By the time I got her out and did the cream and powder and diaper and outfit and all, Casey had appeared in my doorway frozen wet naked (he never gives warning or asks to be done he just gets out! argg!) and so I got him all set with pajamas and teeth and took him up for a story. He was asleep by 7! Efficiency, I tell ya, we are doing so well lately....Charlie was in bed by 8 but did yell for a little while. "I dont wanna go bed" seemed to be the theme. I have no idea how Casey can sleep through that, but he does!

Greta and Mickey started their basement hang out at 8pm and Steve and I chatted and tidied and puttered about. I showed him all I had done in the basement and we went in our bedroom and talked about Life while I nursed the baby and then at 9:30 Greta and Mickey went off to their beds, with the admonition of complete lights out by 10.

Steve and I watched funny tv shows and cuddled for a while on the soggy old couch until our backs couldnt take it anymore then we hit the hay. A Lovely day!