Behind the Scenes of Teach Beside Me

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I have never really done a behind the scenes post. I am not sure how much most of you even know about me! 🙂  But, I am glad you come by and read along, believe me.  So, today is the day I show you a little more about who I really am!  I hope I don’t scare you away.

This is my work station.  It is usually pretty messy because my kids tend to dump and I make piles…  I tidied it up a bit for the picture. I have heard creative minds are usually somewhat messy. That makes me feel better about my piles!  😉

Since I do a lot of product reviews, they are typically piled on the left table.  My kids have gotten so used to having their picture taken with different books, toys, etc. They will pose and pause when I have my camera out.  It cracks me up sometimes!

Being a homeschool mom and a blogger is a busy life. My days are gone so fast and I wonder where my time went. Now, lest you think I have it all together, I DO NOT!  In order to blog, other things suffer. My house is never as clean as I would like it to be.  I rarely do yard work.  The emails do not always get answered in a timely manner. I have a list smile long of to-do’s.  We do not do a lot of extras in our lives. This blog keeps my busy, but I really love it.

This is my typical (ideal) day:

5 am– Wake up. Read scriptures & a chapter or two of whatever book I am reading. Work on blog stuff.

6 am – Exercise. I run or go to a boot camp class.

7 am- Kids are up usually. Make breakfast, shower, get dressed.

8:30 am– Morning devotional while the kids finish breakfast.
Our current schedule for devotional:
New Testament, sing a hymn, doing some scripture memory work, memorizing the Proclamation to the Family (from the LDS church), reading Little Pilgrim’s Progress and working through Laying Down the Rails for Children.  This usually lasts about an hour all together, I think.

9:30 am- Breakfast clean-up, kids need to be dressed and ready to work on their school work. While they are doing individual work, I do preschool with my 4-year-old.  We are doing Mother Goose Time, IEW PAL, and a little of Learn with Homer. He likes variety and I just added in the PAL since he is wanting to start learning to read now.

12:00 pm- Lunch and Family read-aloud time.

School lasts through until about 1:30 pm usually, depending on the day (and the child!).

My youngest goes down for her nap after lunch and then we can work on art/craft projects or I can run some quick errands with my oldest in charge. The kids work on their chores and then can have some tech time or free-play time.  Also In the afternoon, I sit down at my desk again to work on blog posts, check emails, social media, etc.

4:30 pm–  I start working on Dinner, then the day is basically over!

6:30-  Dinner clean up, get the kids through the bath, we read scriptures and say a family prayer together before bed and read stories to the kids.

8:30– Kids are in bed. My husband and I will watch a show together in the evening, or I will read until I fall asleep.

Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes a Man Healthy and Wealthy and Wise!  That’s my motto! 🙂 I am still working on the wise and wealthy…

Now a few fun facts about me:

• I was born in Michigan but grew up in Southern Florida in a family of 8 kids. I am #5 of 8.
• I am very religious~ LDS (Mormon). Right now, I work with the youth at our church.
• I went to college in Idaho and Utah at BYU.  I started as a music major (vocal performance), but changed it to Home Economics Education.  I used that degree to teach 3 years before deciding to stay home after having my first baby.
• My favorite hobbies are baking and singing! I always wanted to audition for American Idol, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but neither has happened.
• I studied abroad in Jerusalem for a semester in college and got to also go to Egypt and Jordan.
• My uncle ran for president in the last 2 elections making me VERY interested in politics now. It’s so cool learning the behind-the scenes of how it all works!

  

• My husband and I only dated for 2 weeks before getting engaged!

  

• I was a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding while on my honeymoon.
• My favorite food is fresh raspberries.
• My grandfather was from Wales. We took a family trip there a few years back (all 8 kids, parents & spouses!) to learn about our family heritage and see where he lived. While in Europe we also visited Rome, London and Lisbon!!

Well, there you go.  You have seen behind the scenes a little. Now we are best friends!   Any questions?

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