A typical evening

To say that the time period from 4:00 - 8:30 everyday was busy would be a tragic understatement. It is CRAZY busy. Today we had activity days, swim team, and mutual on the schedule. Once we hit about 8 o'clock though everyone knows just what needs to be done. Every night ends pretty much just like this.

The boys hit the tub. They will still bathe together thank goodness. They always bring an assortment of toys with them. They are always cute.









Catherine is almost always in the upstairs game room working on her homework. She likes to go there because it is quiet and I am not always right there so she can sneak a little tv while she does homework if she is stealthy enough. She thinks I don't know her tricks, but I do. I am just glad she is quietly doing her homework and not bothering anyone.





Madelyn always announces that she is going to bed and will be reading. But when you check on her, as I always do, I usually find her playing games on her iphone. Once I take the iphone away, if I check on her I find her doing a craft. Once I make her put the craft away THEN I will find her reading and quickly falling asleep.







Julianne manages to find a place to do her homework so that she can kind of annoy as many people as possible. The middle of the staircase is a favorite place of hers. Today it was the middle of the hallway.





As everyone slowly settles into the night time routine, she revs up and as I affectionately refer to it -- she stirs all the pots. She'll walk in the boys bathroom and take out a toy from the tub -- just to bug them. She will also check on Madelyn and loudly report her iphone use. She'll then head over to Catherine and take her pencil or something. She has ALWAYS been this way and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Today was a rare surprise though. She did not stir ANY body's pot. She worked efficiently and quietly on her homework and for the second time today I wondered if she was not feeling well (the first time was when she got home from school and promptly put away her school bags -- something that typically takes 4 hours and 200 requests). But . . . I soon discovered the reason for this radical shift in behavior. As soon as she had her homework done and put away she came downstairs and politely asked if she could watch TV -- "the new season of Psych is starting right now, please Mom???"

"Fine, but only if your room is cleaned up too." She raced upstairs, cleaned up and is watching psych right now. I'm definitely of the opinion that TV can be a good thing. If only a new season of Psych started EVERY night.