I usually wake up at around 4:30am to pee. By then, Cha is already working in his office, and Lu is (most days) in our bed. He's almost 11, and he's had his own room for 2 years, but old habits die hard.
I climb back in bed, slide my arm under him, pull him in close, and sleep for another couple hours until Cha calls up to us in a sing-song voice with his British accent: "It's a quarter past six."
Lu jumps up, puts on his pants and is READY TO GO! I usually stay and stretch under the covers, extending arms and legs in full occupation of the bed, like I could always do when I was single. And then I'm up.
I walk down the hobbit hallway between our bedrooms and open the door to the dressing room, where my puppy (above) attacks me full-force in a jumping-licking frenzy. Cha and Lu are in the kitchen getting their breakfasts and talking about... I don't know what they're talking about because my brain isn't working yet. I need coffee. But first I call Lu into the bathroom to make sure he drinks a glass of water. I do this eight times a day. Our water filter is in the bathroom. Tap water carries all kinds of tummy bugs here. If I don't remind him to drink water, he won't.
I feed the puppy and make my coffee. Then puppy and I go upstairs to my office. Puppy sits on the draw-bridge window that looks out onto a sea of trees, and a majestic volcano. I upload yesterday's pictures to my photo library and find one that Lu took of the sky. It's beautiful. I smile.
At 8:00 am, I call Lu up to do a Spelling worksheet with me. He needs me for the dictation part of it, but then I'm free to go. I'm finally hungry, and I have to teach a class in 45 minutes, so it's time to get some food in me. I usually throw some corn tortillas on the griddle and, while they warm up, grab a pair of tights and a tank top. It's a bodyweight training class that I teach today. I flip the tortillas, stick some brie in between them, and spread on some orange marmalade. It's my intercultural breakfast.
9:45 am and my class is over. I chat a while with the ladies (my students), and then go check on Lu. My studio is about 20 steps and a flight of stairs away from our house. He's baked a cake in the time I was gone. No, not a cake. I am informed that it is a Cacao Banana Bread.
I praise the creation and ask him to get on to math and geography -
both are free internet programs that he can do on his own.
In the meantime, I do half an hour of weights in my office. I don't workout quite so vigorously every day, just Tuesdays and Fridays. I do, however, make sure to get an hour of exercise a day. Be it dancing, walking, or lifting. I go nutso if I don't move.
I'm done with my bicep curls and we watch a short science video. Then, Lu writes and draws pictures about the new concept in his science notebook while I get a quick shower and then make lunch.
We often watch a documentary with lunch.
Usually about history, nature, or space.
I've said it before and I'll say it again:
If you get your kid to enjoy documentaries,
homeschooling is a gazillion times easier.
I remember reading on someone else's homeschool blog that a child who is eating is a child who is listening. Just make sure the meal doesn't involve a lot of on-plate preparation - like tacos, or anything that needs dipping. We eat lots of beans and tortillas.
After lunch, we take a walk downtown. Each with our own dog. I pick up some vegetables at one of the street stands, and some beer at the store. We don't have a car. Our town is so tiny, everything is just a short walk away. I drink dark beer. Sometimes with lunch (if I don't have an afternoon class), always with dinner.
We get home and find a little friend has come to visit. She sits on Lu's lap while he reads from our history document on the screen. She looks at the picture of Mongol warriors invading Slavic territory. We got all into Genghis Khan. Did you know that the Mongol Empire was the largest land empire EVER? I didn't. The Mongols were highly kick-ass.
And this pic isn't from today, but here it is - from the start of the week. Lu's puppy (the sandy-colored one) recently got fixed. He waited at the vet's with her, gently talked to her while she came to, and took on complete responsibility for the administration of her pain killers and anti-biotics - taking the orders directly from the vet. He was compulsively punctual with the pills, and a great nurse. He spent the first two days of her recovery on this mattress, on the kitchen floor with her - making sure she didn't pull her stitches out.
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