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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Hubby’s alarm goes off around 5.40am and he hits snooze a couple of times. I elbow him out of bed if he doesn’t get up by six-ish! I roll over and snooze myself, while he stumbles around in his morning-state. His lunch is made and in the fridge and clothes are ready to put on. He makes a cuppa, says goodbye and heads off.

The kids wake between 6am and 9am and I get up sometime in between! They usually get up and watch TV, read or play quietly. Once I’m up I start asking that they eat and do their chores so we can get on with the day. I often wake the eldest.

I always get dressed and do my hair etc and make my bed every morning, before almost anything else. Otherwise I’d be perpetually in PJs or less! :p It really helps me feel ready to face the day.

I do a couple of loads of washing, clean the bathroom and do some kitchen tasks. Sometimes I’ll turn the computer on and eat brekky at the screen while I check out emails, do banking and see if there’s orders for Spiral Garden.

We all do brekky, chores, bedrooms and personal care tasks by around 9:30am. So we move onto schoolwork. The big girls go into the study and the younger three sit with me at the table. By the time I’m finishing up with the younger three I can spend time with the older three. Somewhere in there we eat some morning tea and take a break. Some mornings we all do an activity together before lunch, depends on the day. I’m often ducking off to put another load of washing on or check some baking or something through the morning. Hopefully the phone doesn’t ring to distract us!  

By 12.30pm we’re ready for lunch and our schoolwork is generally over (except our eldest who will often do some further ‘work’ in the afternoon). We share the preparation and clean up tasks. We often go outside for a bit. Then we might spend a little time reading, watching a movie or doco or playing together while it is hot outside. Sometimes we do dinner prep early. I usually do some work, housework and washing.

Three afternoons a week we have outings - violin lessons, homeschool group or art class (opposite fortnights), and Kids’ Theatre. On those afternoons we rush to get ready and get out of here in time. We’re rarely late, which is amazing with seven of us going! I time my errands with these outings so while the kids are busy, so am I - post office, library, shops etc. If only the big kids are busy, I take the little ones somewhere to play and have a snack while we wait.
On ‘home’ afternoons we go out to the garden, spend time with the animals, walk to the creek to explore or swim, watch more movies or play games and use computers if it’s raining a lot. Some days we have friends over, or go visiting.

Before we know it - evening is approaching. We rush to have showers (8 people, 1 bathroom), do afternoon chores, make a meal, tidy up and finish up for the day on whatever each of us were doing.  

Then there’s the mad rush of Dad arriving home, cleaning up from our meal, spending time together as a family and the bedtime routine - teeth, toilet, drink, stories and cuddles, etc. Usually it’s all quiet by around 8:30-9pm. The middle girls often have their lamps on to read or knit or chat for awhile. The three younger kids have a CD playing, but lights out. Brit has a TV so can watch a movie or something taped which wasn’t okay for the younger kids. Or she reads or takes the laptop to bed and works on her stories. She’s a bit of a nightowl!

Sometimes I watch a movie or talk with hubby. Almost every night we have a cuppa and chat at least for a little while. I also sort paperwork, work, sew, scrapbook, menu plan, write lists, sort out stuff in the kitchen for lunches or snacks, surf the net and otherwise keep myself busy for a few hours! I go to bed around midnight, rarely before and hopefully not too long after! Sometimes I read, other nights I just sleep!