A day in the life of Alden 2019

Gather round, good people! This is Alden, blogging my annual day in the life. This day was packed full, so let’s just jump right in. First, I should tell you that I woke up this particular morning and heard mom and dad talking about how the furnace was out. Which was no problem for me because it meant we got to build a fire first thing. And I love fire wood!

When I wake up each morning, I let everyone know by yelling, “I awake! I awake!” I love mornings and am happy to greet the day and get out of my crib. But this pink blob beside me is Elsie. She’s more hit or miss when it comes to mornings. Some days she wakes up ready to go. And other days, well…

But good mood or bad mood, it is time to start the day because there is lots to get done. Dad wakes up, makes his coffee, reads his Bible in the yellow chair and heads out to do the animal chores.

And now Ivar is beginning to do daily animal chores as well. Just look at those sheep following their good shepherd Ivar!

Ah! Looks like Elsie made a turn around! Good to see. She unloads the dishwasher every morning and that puts mom in a great mood.

School begins about 9:15 each morning and Ivar and Elsie do their Handwriting, Spelling and Reading (all subjects they can do on their own without mom’s direct help). Then once I go down for my nap at 10:15, she can teach Math, History and Geography without my 2-year-old awesomeness disrupting everyone all the time.

And while the big kids worked on their school, Hattie got out her scissors and stickers. Oh dear. Mom’s blood pressure goes up when the scissors and stickers come out. Hattie has real skills in cutting one paper into a thousand pieces and scattering the pieces all over the house.

And I tell you what, even though our furnace was out, this house gets so, so toasty with that wood burning stove! Look at Elias laying out.

At some point during school, Elsie got super excited to make pizza for supper. So at lunch she got right to work making the dough.

Then after lunch Ivar and Elsie went outside for recess. You might notice I am still sleeping. I usually sleep for 3 hours or more each day! And it really does give mom a nice break because I am busy, busy, busy. All the time. Except for the three hour nap.

So out to the barn for recess! The sheep are always excited to see us. On this day Ivar and Elsie got to work building a mailbox they’re going to put up on the fence between our house and the new neighbor’s house. Our neighbors recently sold their house and the new family has kids (this is a whole awesome story for another day…) and so Ivar and Elsie want to set up a secret mailbox with them.

And here’s Dad, working hard on his book. He has a publisher who is interested in his manuscript, so he is out in his cabin getting it all spiffed up to submit.

And look who woke up! I’m finally up and ready to take in the rest of the day. First thing was a fast trip to the grocery store to get sausage, mozzarella and marinara sauce for the pizza Elsie was planning for dinner.

Elias is a cute one. And so content to be along for the ride. But where will we put the groceries?

Right when we got home it was Choppin’ Time. Ivar and Elsie spend 30 minutes a day splitting wood and stacking it up for the winter. And they have yet to complain. I think they actually really like it!

Back in the kitchen to make the pizza. We need to eat early because we are going somewhere after dinner. As you can see, Hattie and I are super helpful in the kitchen. We just always want to be helping.

The pizza was awesome! As the sun was setting at dinnertime, we loaded up the car…

…and drove to another farm to pick out new sheep that will join our herd!

Dad and Ivar took a long time listening to all sorts of information about each lamb, making their decision on which ones to purchase. I was freezing cold and so was Hattie and Elias, so Mom brought us into the minivan where we hung out for 45 minutes in the dark. I loved it! I found some halloween candy in the back and ate it before mom knew what was happening. We listened to music, changed the baby’s diaper and were toasty warm while big decisions were made in the barn. And dad was thrilled. He is really happy with the sheep! (We’ll come back in the spring to pick them up)

On the way home we stopped at a Flying J because Elsie and Hattie thought they were dying of thirst after that sausage pizza. And then we came home to a very chilly house since the fire was out. But Dad built another fire and then we all snuggled up for Family Worship.