Documenting a Day in the Life of The Thrifty Couple: Chaos Somehow Organized

We thought we would try something fun for you all! We have many people ask us how we spend our day! You see, those that know us personally know that we are not a normal family (who is?) in a lot of ways (yes, we are weird:)) but being beyond weird, our lives are often filled with organized chaos as we are in non-stop mode most of the time.

Here’s the factors that make our lives and each day interesting:

• We run and operate five businesses from home as a family
• We have five kids 8 and under
• We home school
• Alex is also in school undergoing training for the ministry

So how does our family with all of these dynamics run from day to day?  Well honestly, each day is quite different.  We decided just to pick one day at random and document everything that happened that day for a fun glimpse into one day in our lives.

Are you ready?  Here we go…Wednesday, February 15, 2012!

5:00 AM Hour

• 5:30 am – alarm clock goes off.  The snooze button is depressed – which one of us hits it is unknown at this point.  The alarm clock is across the room so one of us HAS to get out of bed to turn it off.
• 5:37 am – alarm clock goes off again.  Laying in bed with each of us checking emails from our cell phones to look for deals.  I get distracted by Dr. Weil’s email on curing heart burn naturally.
• 5:44 am – finally roll out of bed.
• 5:49 am – I am at the computer to begin the day’s business work and Alex prays for production, efficiency and good attitudes for the day.
• 5:57 am – Alex brings up cups of coffee for both of us – YUM! Alex starts his personal study time!

6:00 AM Hour

• 6:20 am – Alex jumps out of his study chair and comes to the realization that he needs to take the garbage to the curb and starting bundling up to face the cold.  I say “Why? It’s Wednesday!”  (the garbage truck comes on Thursday). Alex says – “I need more coffee” and to the kitchen he departs! A few sips later he starts studying again.  I get back to work!

7:00 AM Hour

• 7:15 am – Alex showers and gets ready for the day.
• 7:30 am – Alex starts his work by taking care of emails and quick requests, I keep working

8:00 AM Hour

• 8:09 AM – first child up – the 5 yr. old son.  My work efficiency decreases a little with the revving car sounds on the floor and questions about why cars can’t drive on the carpet by themselves without pushing them.
• 8:12 Am – second child up – the 7 yr. old daughter.  My work efficiency decreases even more now with two kids playing on the floor under my feet.
• 8:15 AM – Alex is done working for now and decides to take kids downstairs and start on breakfast so I can finish with focused time.
• 8:16 AM – 5 yr. old son brings me a Greek Yogurt.  Hugs and kisses exchanged.
• 8:21 AM – My dad calls to say that mom is now in surgery for her knee replacement.  Alex comes up to pray for Grandma with the family members that are awake.
• 8:26 AM – baby is awake and I am thankful he slept so long and hoping everyday will be like this.  I take a break from work to nurse him!
• 8:41 AM – Done nursing.  Alex comes to get him and brings me a bowl of my favorite cereal.  I take my first bite and it tastes really weird and funny.  I text Alex on Facebook to ask him if he thinks the same about the cereal.  No response, he’s busy with kids. Maybe it was the peach flavored Greek yogurt I had right before.  Either way – I look at the clock and realize I only have less than an hour of “focused” work time left, so I put the cereal down and get back to work!
• 8:47 AM – Heard Alex’s speech to the kids about “everyone having a part and role in the family”  as they perform the morning 20-minute, post breakfast quick clean.  He reminds them of the verse “do all things without complaining and disputing.”
• 8:51 AM – Alex now sees my chat about the cereal and says “it tastes okay to me.”  I think it must be the Greek yogurt.

9:00 AM Hour

• 9:03 AM – Alex decides to replace my cereal with oatmeal since I complained! So sweet!
• 9:05 AM – I hear giggles and colorful conversations for the kids and daddy (and realize that the 1st child is down there and didn’t hear her get up!).  I love that sound of kids and dad laughing!
• 9:15 AM – I hear Alex tell the kids that “he’ll be right back as he needs to run the diaper out to the trash.” I think to myself  “so glad that the baby decided to have his big bad diaper on dad’s watch right before I take over!”  And then I say to myself: “Good boy!”
• 9:19 AM – 5 yr. old son comes up to see if he can take my dishes!
• 9:27 AM – Last child, the 3 yr. old wakes up.  I am so glad that she slept in hoping for a good 3-year old mood!
• 9:28 AM – Scratch that, she was woken up by the 7 yr. old and NOT in a good mood!
• 9:32 AM – I look at the clock and realize my focused work time is up and I call down and ask for 5-10 more minutes to finish what I was working on.
• 9:43 AM – I am done working and go downstairs and see the kids finishing up their handwriting while the 3 yr. old slowly finishes her oatmeal and fruit breakfast.
• 9:50 AM – Family in the livingroom listening to the 5 yr. old son give his report on sharks.  We listen to the story about the bottom dweller shark eating another shark that swam close by and swallowing whole. His sisters are fascinated and I am looking around thinking “am I the only one feeling sick right about now?”

10:00 AM Hour

• 10:00 AM – family Bible study time!
• 10:35 AM – singing last song when phone rings.  It is my dad letting us know that mom is out of surgery and doing well. Praise God!
• 10:40 AM – Alex starts his focused work time in the home office.  Kids starting writing out their current memory work. The 5-yr. old son decides he can work better wearing the dinosaur towel.

• 10:50 AM – ACK! Haven’t got meat out for the beef stew yet.   Missed the Dinner by 10 deadline, but at least remembered during the 10:00 am hour, so we will call it “dinner by 10:50”.
• 10:54 – I unload the dishwasher while the kids keep doing their schoolwork.
• 10:56 AM – 8-year old asks if we can study science now  (because it is her favorite).  My response, “Book work first, not until this afternoon!”

11:00 AM Hour

• 11:03 AM – 7-yr. old cites memory work while I fold laundry
• 11:06 AM – 5 and 8 year old cite memory work while I finish laundry and then kids onto their math books!
• 11:12 AM – 8 year old asks if she can help the 3-yr old with her workbook.  I say “sounds good,” as I am thinking that this is good for character building to help her 3-year old sister with the strong personality!
• 11:34 AM – serve lunch to the kids and I get on the computer to answer emails, etc.!

• 11:56 AM – I realize that the pencil sharpener has been going continually for the last several minutes. I then find the 3-year old with a pile of sharp pencils.

12:00 PM Hour

• 12:38 PM – Sit down with Alex in the office to enjoy a 30-minute lunch together.  Kids are on their 30 minute quiet reading time.

• 12:58 PM – Okay, so lunch was 20 minutes and I rotate laundry, help 3-yr old on potty and change the baby.

1:00 PM Hour

• 1:09 PM – Kids are done reading. 7 and 8-yr olds back on school work.  5 yr. old reads out loud to me while I am nursing the baby.
• 1:34 PM – The kids and I do a 20 minute quick clean.  Focus areas for this quick clean are the livingroom and kitchen.

• 1:55 PM – me needing to vacuum after the quick clean.  The kids take a break.

• 1:59 PM – Turned off the vacuum 1 minute before Alex’s video conference call with his professor.  I need to keep the 3, 5 and 8 month old quiet for the next hour….. Contemplating putting on a show so I can finish folding and putting away laundry.  “Never mind” is my next thought as the 5-year old pulls the blanket from underneath the 3-year old and she screams.   Laundry can wait. Time for the preschool/Kindergarten character building course – we’re on obedience!  Sounds good to me!

2:00 PM Hour

• 2:05 PM – Start character class
• 2:06 PM – Baby starts screaming in play yard.  He was apparently entertained by the 5 and 3-yr old wrestling and watching the blanket being pulled from under the 3-year old.  I move him to the swing next to me teaching the Character Class.
• 2:08 PM -I read ONE paragraph and then 7-year old says she is done with all of her book work for the day.  Going to go get her ready for the Master Reader course on the family computer.
• 2:09 PM – I tried the password to unlock the computer.  It was wrong.  I kept trying…… I was then locked out of the computer.  “Never mind” I say in frustration and tell her to “join us for Character Class.”
• 2:12 PM – back on Character Class on the topic of obedience. As I reread the 1st paragraph, the 8-year old interrupts to ask a question!  Then back to reading the 1st paragraph YET AGAIN, realized we finished the all of the lessons related to obedience lesson. I quickly flip to the next unit on the topic of patience.  “Perfect,” I think as that is what I need right now!!
• 2:13 PM –  As I quickly scan the lesson to determine what the first lesson is about, the 3-year old gets up and runs over to the swinging baby, who was finally dozing off, and wakes him.  He starts screaming again! I look up and open my mouth to snap “NO, why would you do that?!?!”….. Back to reading about patience…. “boy I really need this right now.”
• 2:39 PM – Alex is done early with his video conference call and we finish up our lesson.  He gives me a 5-minute head and neck massage.  Kids eat a Valentine treat from grandma and grandpa from the day before.

3:00 PM Hour

• 3:00 PM – Alex and kids do their science lesson while I have focus work time again.
• 3:50 PM – Kids have a snack and I am thinking that I can catch a shower before making dinner.

5:00 PM Hour

• 5:05 PM – After a nice long shower, nursing and a phone call – it is time to make dinner.
• 5:06 PM – I decide to switch the dinner plans from Beef Stew to Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry as we have fresh broccoli that needs to be used before the stew veggies.

6:00 PM Hour

• 6:06 PM – We sit down to dinner! We all decide that we love the Beef and Broccoli stir-fry with the Korean BBQ sauce.
• 6:42 PM – we realize that it is getting late, we need to hurry and get ready to go see Grandma at the hospital that is 30 minutes away and decide we better hurry! The food gets put away, but the table does not get cleared off, only for me to handle it later in our haste in getting ready to go!
• 6:58 – Alex calls for everyone downstairs to get loaded up into Thrifty Helena.  The 5-year old yells from upstairs that he “can’t find his shoes!” after nearly twenty minutes of getting ready.  I look into his room and he doesn’t know I am there, but he wasn’t looking for shoes, he was playing with his cars. I call to him and he jumps as he realizes he is not doing what is was supposed to be doing and I caught him in the act. “Oh look,” I say, “your shoes are right here!” in the bucket in his closet – go figure!

7:00 PM Hour

• 7:06 PM –  Alex and I are in the house doing final prep for leaving while the older kids are supposed to be getting into Helena and getting buckled. We hear crying…. I run out and see that the 3 girls are in the van and have locked their brother out.  They don’t want him in because “he stinks” (he always stinks according to them :)) and it will “make the van smelly.”  I feel bad for the little guy that he doesn’t have a brother big enough yet to have a pal and the sisters gang up on him.
• 7:07  PM – They finally unlock the door and he gets in and we are right behind.  We pull out, get onto the main road and realize that we do not have the EpiPens for our daughter with the deadly peanut/tree nut allergy.  We go around the block and pull back in (always wondering if the sweet older lady next door is watching us and counting how many times we come back before finally leaving the house).  Alex runs in to get the Epipens.
• 7:12 PM – we are officially on the road! We need to stop and pick up Get Well Flowers for Grandma.
• 7:40 PM – We stop at Walmart close to the hospital and realize that the flowers are all 50% off! We make a joke that all surgeries should be the day after Valentine’s day so you can get cheaper flowers! We pick out a dozen peach roses arranged in a vase! So beautiful and still look great and cost half as much!
• 7:58 PM – get back into Helena and buckle everyone again!

8:00 PM Hour

• 8:07 PM – find a parking space and unload and make the long trek in the big hospital to find Grandma’s room!
• 8:07 – 8:19 PM – find the right elevators, arrive on the right floor, get confused by all of the hallways as patients and hospital staff find a family of seven wandering around the hospital and look shocked at our family size and that by “God’s grace at the time” are very quiet for as large as our family is and as young as all of our children are – but there were many strange looks and second glances as we walked around!
• 8:19 PM – finally found grandma’s room! All 7 of us pile in with my Dad, sister and brother-in-law.  It was a very full room.  We visited for about 45 minutes with hospital staff popping in and out and shocked by all of us in there. We also enjoyed a few funny laughs from “talking animals” videos being played on my sister and brother-in-laws laptop in the room.

9:00 PM Hour

• 9:03 PM – we decide it is time to go.  The kids were silent (WOW!) the whole time, but before we push it and have utter meltdown, we better skedaddle! Back through the hospital maze and to our trusty Thrifty Helena!
• 9:15 PM – we leave the hospital to head back home for the next 30-minutes.  Alex and I discuss going home and working for an hour.  I then get a bad headache.  I say that I am exhausted!
• 9:46 PM – we get home, two kids are asleep and we carry them to bed.  The older two get ready for bed.
• 9:54 PM – the older two get in bed. Daddy prays.
• 9:55 PM – the older two are out of bed – they need water.  I get them water!
• 9:57 PM – the older two are back in bed.
• 9:59 PM – baby starts last nursing of the day (hopefully) and I shut my eyes while nursing!

10:00 PM Hour

• 10:02 PM – 8-year calls from the other room because she has a question.  I am nursing, but Alex comes upstairs – they talk for a minute and then I hear “go back to bed, it is late and you need to be in bed!”
• 10:25 PM – done nursing, put the baby in bed.
• 10:33 PM – Plum exhausted, I crash in bed. Alex prays for us and I guess I fell asleep during the prayer…….

Did you enjoy this post?  Share with us if you think we’re crazy or just plum weird.  We had fun living it and a lot of fun sharing it!

Photo credits: artinfo.com,