A Productive Day

Today we purposed to be productive!

Of course, this is my goal most days,

but I actually verbalized the goal this morning to the children and here's what happened after breakfast:

First we had our "Circle Time" - read our Jesus Storybook Bible (LOVE this), The Children of Noisy Village, Favorite Poems of Childhood, and went over our memory work (verses, presidents, landmarks, and such).

Next, all of the children worked on cleaning up their bedrooms, laundry (for those whose "laundry day" it is), and personal items around the house.

Then everyone teamed up and tackled some projects around the house - we

• raked the backyard and picked up the random stuff outside
• raked the front yard and cleaned up the toys that were under the porch
• made lunch and cleaned up the kitchen
• put away some bulk spices into jars in the pantry
• put away blankets and pillows and sleeping bags from last weekend's "sleep-over."
• vacuumed upstairs bedrooms
• picked up the little boys room and washed the bedding from last night's bed-wetting accident

We quickly ate lunch, cleaned up and jumped in the van with a rake and a bucket and. . .

went to a friend's house to rake and pick up leaves and acorns from their front yard. Everyone worked really hard and we finished their yard and the neighbor's in just under an hour. The kids were blessed with cookies and some playing in the sunny yard before heading home with $30 that we decided to send to some missionary friends

spent some time celebrating with more cookies and oranges in the backyard before

tackling a little "academic" work of reading, writing, and arithmetic (about 20 minutes of each)

and then everyone was off to check their "zones" and do their "zone work" before

dinner with Dad, clean-up, and reading TWO chapters of Amon's Adventure (love it).

So, what do you think? Productive? I suppose it is a matter of perspective, but for us, right now, this was quite a day!