A Day in the Life at our New and Improved Home

7 a.m. DOB's alarm has gone off. We procrastinate getting up for a bit. (OK, the house has done nothing to make alarms more pleasant or procrastinating less pleasant.)

7:30 a.m. I go for a brisk walk down quiet country roads while DOB gets ready for the day all by himself. (More or less. It will be even better once we can get the motorized wheelchair running. It's not an electric chair. I keep forgetting that.)

8 a.m. I prepare breakfast. DOB is clear at one end of the house, finishing getting ready to go. The children are all upstairs, nearly out of earshot, happily absorbed in a massive train spread which is now encompassing the entire playroom because they don't have to pick it up every night. They have also gotten dressed, with no fighting over the precise sequence and location, since everyone can just get dressed in their own room whenever they want.

8:30 a.m. The children finish up eating breakfast at the counter while I see DOB off. (Still waiting on a few adaptations to streamline that, especially getting the doorknobs replaced and keyed to a single key, so that it is possible to get into the garage from the ramp without someone opening the door in advance.)

9 a.m. I sit down to eat breakfast and check Facebook in peace in the dining room while the children start in on their schoolwork in the schoolroom. I start the laundry. (OK, this is not improved by the new house. It's a long way from the bedrooms to the laundry room, and today a massive city stands in the way.)

9:30 a.m. We have our group time in the schoolroom (memory work, singing, poetry, Spanish). All our school materials have been left out on the table, so we don't have to get anything out. It's sloppy but it's faster and we can close the door when I don't want to see it.

10 a.m. The twins run off to play while I read history to the big kids and then we do math. I can write it all over the board without messing up my to-do list, because I wrote that one on a different white board, in the kitchen.

10:30 a.m. We stop for snack, Bible story (Moses striking the rock, the Rock played by Dot with rather more lines than Rocks usually get) and laundry. Then we take a walk down some more pleasant country roads during a break in the rain.

11 a.m. The big kids curl up in my chair to do their independent reading, The Landing of the Pilgrims today. (This is a special privilege for cooperative reading.) I go upstairs, out of earshot, with the twins to read them a story about birds. When I come back down, the big kids are drawing comic strips of their story. I help Deux finish up his map study and we pick out a science experiment to do later in the afternoon, as it requires some prep time.

11:30 a.m. The kids return to their massive train city and I putz around the schoolroom getting ready for tomorrow while lunch heats up.

12 p.m. The kids eat lunch at the kitchen counter while I read The Peterkin Papers to them. The mess stays in the kitchen and does not get entangled with dropped school papers.

12:30 p.m. I eat my lunch at the kitchen counter while reading; Duchess and Deux have commandeered my computer to write a play. They are in a different room and don't bump into me once. When everyone is done we do our science experiment, which can be done without clearing away the other schoolwork.

1 p.m. The kids have their computer game time. I tidy the house without tripping over them and then sit down in my nice, comfy, far-away-from-other-bodies chair and read intelligent books.

2 p.m. I send the kids out to play and take the computer back to catch up on billing and correspondence.

3:30p.m. Toolboy and B5 come over to fix the electric chair motorized wheelchair. Everybody gets a snack. I make some experimental breakfast cookies for DOB to take to the gym. I leave them out to cool without getting in the way of fixing supper. Kids do chores. (The new house has not improved doing chores.)

4 p.m. The neighbor boy shows up, and after he admires the massive train city and the catapults in the backyard everyone settles down to reading Garfield in the living room. I start a supper of lentils and rice. (The menu may or may not be inspired by the shiny new mortgage payment.)

5 p.m. I finish folding the children's laundry and they put it away and return to the train city. I sit down to rest while supper simmers. Even though it has been pouring rain nearly all day, I do not feel like I am going to lose my mind.

6:30 p.m. I realize DOB is going to be late and have the children go ahead and eat supper. Afterward, they go back upstairs to play. I do not go crazy.

7 p.m. DOB arrives home and I don't even notice because he comes all the way inside by himself on the shiny newly-running electric chair motorized wheelchair.

7:30p.m. The girls do the dishes while I take DOB his supper and hang out in the alcove. The children are somewhere far away. And quiet. Playing with trains.

8:30 p.m. We have good night hugs and prayers. The kids have been reading and I graciously permit them to keep reading for another half-hour.