Heather lives in Argyle and co-owns Imagination Yoga, a yoga studio for children. She has been married for 15 years to Will Leonard, director of Enterprise Solutions, and homeschools her three children: Brooke, 10, Caleb, 8, and Clare, 3.
6:20AM The alarm goes off. I attempt to justify skipping a shower so I can snooze a bit longer. Reluctantly, I get out of bed and hit the shower.
7AM My sister drops off her daughter with me. I plop the littles in front of the iPad for 15 minutes while I make breakfast.
7:30 AM Finally get the littles to the table to eat their breakfast. One of them needs milk, the other needs more, one doesn’t like it, one needs to go potty, and on it goes. I tend to all their needs and, hopefully, get a little food in each of their bellies.
8AM I make sure the big kids are awake and getting ready for their day. Then I review my schedule for the day, check the budget, check email and go over the kids’ school. I prep anything that needs to be prepped for the day. This means researching biology lessons, cutting flash cards, printing handwriting pages and, of course, checking Facebook.
8:30AM I remind the big kids to brush their teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast and take their medicine. They had gotten off task. Brooke set up horse jumps in the living room and was jumping them. Caleb started running around the house with his dog.
9AM School begins. The big kids do independent work, while I teach the littles. We sit down and review all the letters and their letter sounds and work through our critical thinking and math workbook. Then, on to their ABC Mouse lessons on the iPad.
9:45AM We do a short session of Imagination Yoga and a short meditation.
10AM I check the big kids’ work from first hour and help them with any questions. Then we have outside time. If the weather is nice, we’ll take a bike ride around the neighborhood.
10:45AM Snack time, then back to work: a handwriting or coloring activity for the little ones, while I work with the big kids. I re-teach myself double-digit multiplication, review math facts, work through reading comprehension, learn Latin with them and any other of their schoolwork they choose. Though they have a list of all the things they need to accomplish each day, they are able to choose which tasks they do when. I have to be ready for whichever it is they have chosen.
12PM It’s time for lunch and free play for the kiddos. After all the kids are fed and cleaned up, I try to steal a 15-minute mommy timeout to read and check Facebook. If I am lucky, I get five minutes before someone needs me.
1PM Get the littles down for a rest. This means at least two bathroom trips each and subsequent re-tuck-ins. The bigs and I get our more difficult schoolwork done, now that there is a little less going on. Today, I read history and science to the big kids and get them set up to finish their work for each.
2PM I grab my laptop and try to get a little work done while answering questions for the bigs as needed. I prep my classes for our Thursday and Friday co-ops. I am teaching a reading group for Thursday and biology, Latin, and Imagination Yoga for our Friday co-op. I also work on my Imagination Yoga business — make some calls, work on finances.
3PM The littles wake up and get a snack. The bigs bring me everything that they have completed for school that day. I “check them out” of school and help them finish up any remaining items or questions.
3:30PM The bigs practice their music (piano and violin), while I get myself and the littles ready for the gym.
4PM I load everyone in the car and we head to the gym. Hopefully, everyone made it
with shoes.
4:30PM Workout! Me time! My workout keeps me sane. I have recently started lifting weights at the gym: squats, deadlifts, bench, overhead press and other similar excercises. I really enjoy lifting and feeling stronger. It takes me less time in the gym and as busy as we are, that is a really good thing.
5:30PM I finish up at the gym. My sister picks up her daughter from the gym and I load everyone else in the car. I figure out whether we have soccer, fencing or horseback tonight and how much time that leaves me to make dinner. I plan dinner in my head as we start the drive to fencing.
7PM We arrive home and I start dinner. While I cook, the big kids do their chores.
7:30PM I get everyone fed, showered and ready for bed.
8PM I spend one-on-one time with one of the kids. In order to try and stop the bedtime chaos, each child has a night during the week when they get to stay up and hang out with me. Tonight is Caleb’s night. Brooke and Clare know that it’s not their night and they have to be in bed. Caleb wants me to watch him play his new LEGO Marvel video game, so I watch him play and even attempt to play some. It is very comical how bad Mom is at video games.
9PM This mommy is off the clock. I think about cleaning the kitchen, but I don’t have the energy. So instead, I grab a glass of wine and my book and curl up in bed. Clare is up and needs to go potty. I get her back to bed and lay down again.
10PM I get ready for bed and turn off the lights. I’m hoping to fall asleep soon, but I start remembering all the things that I forgot to do today and need to do tomorrow. I get up and write them all down so that I remember to do them tomorrow.
11:30PM I finally fall asleep.
Diaries are penned by moms (and dads) in the North Texas area. The authors volunteer to share a day of their choosing and are not paid or endorsed by NorthTexasChild. Send your diary to editorial@dfwchild.com. All submissions are subject to editing and may be cut for space.
