A Day in the Life: Jennifer Blair

6:15 am | If the kids haven’t had me up in the middle of the night, I try to be up no later than 6:30 most days. I’m naturally a morning person but our schedules don’t always allow me to get up as early as I’d like. I love to read my Bible, spend some time journaling and reflecting as the sun slowly rises. It’s truly magical how the sun will suddenly come bursting through our front window right onto my chair and lights up the whole corner. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day, unless its dark and cloudy. This time really fuels me up and helps me get the right perspective before the day gets going. Also, coffee…it’s my happy place.

7:15 am | Eleanora (age 4) and Genevieve (15 mo) are up (if its a good day) and we spend a few minutes cuddling together. Genevieve gets a bottle and some cuddles too, but she’s usually very ready to start playing. We get dressed, make our beds and tidy up the house a bit. We all eat breakfast with Daddy, then start our day.

8:30 am | We start “Circle Time” in our living room, which involves reciting our Bible memory verse for the week, reviewing all the previous verses, singing some hymns or other worship songs and reading a passage that coordinates with our “Name of God” flash card for the week. We pray for our day, usually with many distractions, and then do a few exercises of skip counting, sequences, a few foreign language words and possibly read a poem. We also check out books at the library every week to go along with our preschool curriculum, and we usually pull out a few to read together at this time. It sounds like a lot, but really it only takes 15-20 minutes or so.

9:30 am | By now Genevieve is ready for her nap, so I take her to her room with her bottle and assemby of stuffed friends and put her down in her crib. She usually sleeps 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours. After she’s in bed we trot off to our “School Room” for our work for the day. Our room is actually a combination our back entry, back bath/ laundry and extension of the kitchen. Oh, and our black lab Luna sleeps there too. I have a thing about working in a messy space, aka I can’t do it…so we always sweep, clean up the kitchen and tidy up again before we get to work since it’s such a muti-purpose space. We’ve been using the Peaceful Press, alphabet-based curriculum, and we do a few of the activities planned out for the week that go along with our letter for the week. The actvities vary from painting to simple math equations, coloring a worksheet to researching the life of plants. This week is “G” week, so we learn more about gardens. We choose seeds for our own Fall garden, till up the soil and plant the new seeds. We do math with the seeds. We learn about goats and how Jesus is our Good Shepherd.

10:30 am | By now Eleanora is finished with most of the projects I’ve given her. She requires an incredibly amount of stimulation and activity, so I always have a stack of books, a workbook or fine motor skill activity (from our curriculum or otherwise) for her to work on while I get a few emails done, work on editing or get a few things done around the house.

11:30 am | We’ve finished most of our “school” for the day at this point and Genevieve is up from her nap. I usually put on some classical or worship music and pull out a basket of kids musical instruments for them to play with while I make lunch. Music always seems to get rid of any lingering cranky moods and keeps them from whining for food while I’m making it quite as much. Today is Wednesday, so we don’t have a ton of time before we have to head out the door. We quickly eat some turkey wraps with a few fruit and veggie sides.

12:00 pm | We’re all in the car, but oops! I forgot something in the house more than likely. I rush back in – then out again so we have enough time to run errands and make it to piano lessons on time. It’s usually one of the big four we have to visit: Publix, Target, the library or the Post Office.

1:00 pm | We pull up at Nana’s house, who also happens to be Eleanora’s piano teacher. She has her lesson while I keep Genevieve from destroying their house – ha! I chase her around until it’s time to go.

2:00 pm | We make it back to the house and I pull together some lunch for my husband. Wednesday is a very long day for him, so he takes a late lunch and tries to make sure he sees the girls for a little while. We all rest, play for a while and talk. Genevieve piles approximately 100 books in his lap to read. The musical instruments are pulled out again and my husband picks up the guitar. Our dining room is also home to our piano, guitar, mandolin and the kid’s music basket. If you hadn’t guessed it already, we’re musicians! We kind of love music. Genevieve dances and shakes her little tambourine with her whole body…then tries to eat it. Eleanora makes up a “song” and performs it for us.

2:30 pm | Genevieve is tired and Daddy has to go back to work. Baby gets put to bed and Eleanora and I clean up from lunch and put away the items we needed (sometimes that’s debatable) from Target. The laundry is dry from earlier, so we fold it together. Once we’ve tidied up, we head back to our school room. I pull out some watercolor paints for Eleanora while I work on a session. I’m still taking a few sessions and doing a few family weddings, so I always have leftover work. I have to get up at least every 2 minutes to observe or discuss whatever Eleanora is painting or working on, which is why my desk and hers are in the same room. I give her a little instruction but she is pretty zoned into her painting and I can go back and forth from the computer. After that I keep pulling out more things for her to do. Today she is doing simple equations, pretending to be “the teacher” to her pretend friends. After 10-15 minutes we pull up videos about goats and she learns about them while I multitask teaching her and trying to edit, text people back, email and reserve the books we want from the library for next week’s letter study.

4:30 pm | Genevieve is up from her nap and we all go outside for some fresh air. We like to make a little loop around our neighborhood or play in the backyard for a while. It’s been so hot and the mosquitos are still terrible here, so we choose to walk. We pick up random leaves and point out things in nature like the birds or the neighbor’s cat. We come back sweaty, but everyone is in a better mood.

5:00 pm | I quickly grab something simple for dinner, and it’s just leftovers for tonight. Tuesdays and Wendesdays are always busy, so I try to have something left from the weekend or Monday night for us to eat. We pack our bags, find our collective shoes and get out the door. We bring Eleanora’s purse, with an assortment of things she “needed to show her friends” and her balloon from yesterday’s grocery run to Publix. Genevieve is in tow with her bottle, beloved bunny, and favorite book, “The Gruffalo.” Eleanora “reads” it to her on the way, just about reciting the whole thing because we’ve read it so much!

6:00 pm | We arrive at church and stop by the college building to say hi to Daddy before he starts sound check with the college group band. I take Eleanora to her choir class and Genevieve to the nursery. I always use this hour to meet with different girls one on one. As much as I’d love to be in a Bible study class, this is one of the few times I have during the week to do any kind of mentoring one on one. Some people need a group setting and others need to talk out more personal things with one trusted person, and so I’m there to be that person for now.

7:15 pm | I pick up the girls from their classes and we head over to the college building to say hi to everyone. I’d love to stay for the service, but it doesn’t start until 8, which is way past the girl’s bedtimes. The girls squeal with excitement when they see Daddy playing and singing on stage. Genevieve basically just dances until he can come give her a hug. Eleanora heads to the kitchen to see if there is pizza, because you know, college kids always have pizza! Haha! We give Daddy goodnight hugs and kisses and head for home.

8:00 pm | We’re home, and I chase the kids into their pjs. No, seriously we do a game of chase. I run, or rather crawl quickly around the house on my knees as “The Kissy-Monster” – distracting them from my real agenda of getting them to bed without too much fuss since it is past their bedtime. I finally get them ready for bed, Genevieve gets a bottle, lullabies are turned on and I take Eleanora to her room for her bedtime routine. She gets a Bible story, we pray and I sing her “night-night” song while scratching her back.

8:30 pm | It is finished. I close all doors. The house is quiet. I go take a shower. This is just about the only “me time” I get, and it’s become my time where all the day’s cares wash away like the soap down the drain. I come out like a tomato from the heat, lather on all the oils (my frankincense face blend being my favorite) and put on my pjs. I then head back to the kitchen/ school room, cleaning up all the mess I see along the way. I clean up all the dishes, wash everything down, or at least good enough. Once everything is mostly tidy, I sit down at my desk. My husband will be at the church until at least midnight with the college ministry, so this is my night to work on things. I look at my schedule for the next day and review items for the week. I look ahead in our curriculum and plan out ideas. I often have editing to do as well, so I’ll put on a podcast or youtube sermon while I work. I usually end up researching a method or some new resources or think of ways to better organize our school/ life/ home.

10:30 pm | Thankfully, I’ve finished most of my editing and I can think about bed. If I have a family wedding to work on, I’ll stay up until 1 am sometimes to get more done since it’s basically impossible during the day. Tonight I can play the piano for a while, plunk out some lyrics or melodies for a few minutes and then head to bed. I pull out “A Chance to Die” by Elisabeth Elliot about the life of Amy Carmichael. It’s such an amazing read that I end up staying up later than I should. Then I open up my phone, post a few stories of our week so far, respond to comments and think about anything I might want to share. Sometimes an idea comes and I write it out, but tonight I don’t have much.

11:30 pm | The light goes out and I attempt to fall asleep before my husband gets home. I never sleep well when he’s not in the bed with me, but I try anyway. Thankfully, he’s off on Thursdays so it’s a little bit more restful and less used than Monday-Wednesday.

________________________