A day in the homeschoolers life...

It's "Day-in-the-life Week" for the hop this time. Here is a peak at our typical day of homeschooling...

7:00-8:00 AM~ This is my morning time. I get up and get ready for the day...that includes my Bible Study, a load of clothes, and breakfast prep.

8:00-8:30 AM~ This is the Wake-Up time for the boys...I try to have them up and out of bed around 8:15 AM and we always start with boy cuddles in the big recliner. I think this is my most favoritest part of the day! Especially with Baby Britches since he always brings in his special blanket.

8:30-9:00 AM~ Breakfast for us all and Chores for Little Britches

9:00-9:15 AM~ Piano Practice for Little Britches; this is also my prep time for getting out our morning supplies and writing our daily sentence for correcting on the board.

9:15-10:15 AM~ Calendar Time/Daily Math Problems/Bible/Language Arts

10:15-10:30 AM~ Read Aloud--Little Britches reads out loud two books from his book basket

10:30-10:45 AM~ Recess/Snack Time

10:45 AM-Noon~  Depending on the day this will be time for Math, Geography or Science

Noon-1 PM~ Lunchtime and recess

1:00-1:30 PM~ Quiet time...this is when I get Baby Britches down for a nap and have time to just sit and relax for a bit. Little Britches has to play with quiet toys during this time. Usually that is Legos.

1:30-2:15~ Afternoon Session---this could be Five-in-a-Row, or more science, or more Geography or more History...I save afternoons for a larger project or for whatever extra subject we need to do. I never get any complaints now that afternoon session is reserved for these subjects. He loves them all.

2:15-3:00 PM~ My time for finishing up my own chores before my piano lessons usually start. I also use this time to prepare for the next day or upcoming week's lessons.

3:00-5:00 PM~ Most days this time period is full of the piano lessons that I teach. Little Britches typically calls his grandpa and they spend the afternoon together. Sometimes Baby Britches goes with them but if not, then he and I will play together or he'll play vehicles quietly during piano lessons.

So that is the bulk of my day...the last part of the day is for dinner prep, more chores, more prep for the week and work on my projects for the magazine.

This is a typical Monday-Wednesday day...I say that because my husband is home on Thursday and Friday so that tweaks up my schedule. For right now this works for us...naturally we don't live by the stroke of the hands on the clock. If we get off track then fine. If we need to spend more time on something then we do. And some days we throw our hands in the air and call it quits! LOL!

Pickles!

It's been a cucumber jungle here, but thankfully my mother-in-law can eat about 5 every day...and she's been taking some to her sister. We've also been taking some to church. But now our jungle is reaching it's end so we decided to make pickles! Now I grew up helping my mom with canning. She canned EVERYTHING and still does for the most part. I loved going out to our pantry and seeing row upon row of yummy things! And I grew up loving the sound of {pop} that a sealing jar makes. So I eagerly tackled trying out canning on my own.

My husband's grandma also canned everything...but her stash made my mom's look miniscule! And man, talk about a jar cemetery! The barn loft is full of every shape and size of jar! But they are also absolutely FILTHY! My husband was super sweet and told me to go buy us some brand new jars to start our own collection. There is something rather appealing about sparkling new jars!

I decided that for this first venture I would go with a pickling mix so that I would have everything I needed this time around. And to reduce the chance of user error! LOL!

 As you can see we have cucumbers that were wayyyyy too big for pickling whole, so we decided to go with making pickle chips this time around. Some of these big mamas I had to slice in half or quarters to get them to fit in the jars.

 Baby Britches LOVED helping me fill the jars. We went with wide-mouth pint jars this time around. Mostly because I couldn't find any quart jars at our local store. But these are awfully cute and just right for pickles. We crammed these puppies with as many slices as we could. Meanwhile I had the pickle juice concoction boiling on the stove. Whew. Do NOT put your face right over cooking pickle juice--ESPECIALLY if you are wearing contacts! That vinegar burns!!!!! LOL! But boy, it sure smelled good! I did two batches--1st batch was Bread & Butter and the second batch was Sweet.

Here are my jars just out of the boiling water bath--waiting to seal. {Pop} {Pop}...love that sound! If Baby Britches heard it he'd coming running and point at the jars! LOL!

My husband was so sweet. While we were in the middle of canning, he offered to buy us pizza for dinner. And then he took my place so I could pick it up and started cutting cucumbers and manning the boiling water bath. We didn't have the right utensils so had to make do with tongs--and he figured out how to finagle them just so and took care of removing all the hot jars for me.

By the end of the night we had 14 jars of Bread & Butter and 14 jars of Sweet...and only one jar couldn't be shelved! The boys are dying to bust into it this evening. I sure hope they taste good, but I'm confident it will since I used a mix this time around.

Here are my jars after I labeled them (with my label maker!!) and stored them in the cellar. 

I love seeing them there!

So that is my first adventure with canning...next up--SALSA! And I won't be using a mix because I have some DELICIOUS recipes for making my own salsa that I'm dying to try.

Canning is oh so satisfying because you get to see immediate rewards for all your labor--and then continue to reap the rewards long after the process is complete! I am happy that I can provide for my family this way...

{Not} Back to School Blog Hop--Student Photos

Here are our first day of school photos marking the start of 1st Grade and Tot School...

Little Britches--age 6 1/2 and Baby Britches--age 24 months