Hey, y’all, it’s summer.  The word “routine” has a very loose meaning around here during the weeks of summer.  There are, however, a few things that normally take place for me each morning.

First off, I wake up before everyone else in the house.  I may not really enjoy doing this all the time, actually.  But I discovered during my fourth pregnancy that it really did help me to drag myself out of bed at least an hour before everyone else so I could enjoy a little quiet time, exercise, get ready for the day, and have my morning coffee before the masses made their appearance.  Before this discovery, I could be found on any given morning being jolted from my sleep by three rambunctious, ravenous little people all saying, “Mama!!!!! Mama!!!!  What’s for breakfaaaaaast???” at the same time.  I would stumble down the steps in my pajamas, glasses on, and try to search my foggy mind for the answer to that terribly difficult question.  I had a Master’s Degree from Stanford University, and the question of “What’s for breakfast?” repeatedly left me with a deep, dark, black hole in the brain.  Usually during those days, the answer was: OATMEAL! Ahh, those were the days when a daily dose of lumpy oats served simply with brown sugar and milk was good enough to satisfy those starving little bellies.  Fast forward 14 years, and this is not so simple anymore.  Thankfully, I have figured out the art of menu planning, so my brain no longer has to come up with the answer to “what’s for breakfast?”.

Back to my routine.  These days, with teenagers in the house, we usually have to wake the masses.  During this summer, I haven’t been doing that at all (shh..don’t tell anyone).  I let them trickle into the kitchen as they wake up on their own.  This can mean our kitchen is never clean until after lunch, but it’s summer and that’s ok.  So, before they begin trickling in, I wake up and exercise.  I have been running three times per week, and doing some sort of strength training three times per week, with one day off.  After this, I have my coffee and quiet time in God’s Word, usually alone, occasionally with my 3-year-old little guy by my side (he is our current resident early riser).

This is when things get more interesting.  We have three dairy goats (Nubians). Two of them had kids a couple of months ago, so now my morning routine involves wrestling with those feisty gals in order to acquire liquid gold for the baby of the family, our 14-month-old boy. He loves this stuff, and it makes up a significant part of his diet right now.  His little tummy tolerates our raw goat milk way better than cow’s milk!  And his chubby little cheeks and very round belly attest to the fact that it is doing a good job of nourishing him.  So, I trudge out to the goat yard each morning, grab a flake of alfalfa, two scoops of homemixed goat feed, and head out to wrangle Charlie and Dolly. This can be a  somewhat soothing (uh, once the wrangling part is through), as the soft cool morning breeze wafts around me, and the sounds of the farmyard serenade me.  Chickens cluck, ducks quack, dogs bark in the distance.  It can be quite beautiful.  Then Charlie kicks a little with her hind legs and almost ruins the whole bucket of milk I have worked so hard to get!  Dolly is pretty good till the food runs out and she begins to kick with both hind legs.  That little gal is younger and more athletic and can actually put all her weight in her front legs and kick with both legs at the same time.  She has amost knocked the whole milking stand over doing this.  I have it down to a science now, though.  I hold the bucket in my left hand, and milk with my right, so I am able to quickly pull the bucket away when I sense the kick coming.  It must look prett amusing, but thankfully there is no one there to watch me but the chickens and the other goats.  And the gigantic spider that has taken up residence in the goat house….

Eek!  This creature is really huge.  I’m not sure you can tell from this picture just how huge it is.  For the last week or so, as I milk I can feel all 8 of its eyes staring at me from above.  You may be wondering why I haven’t just squished this thing.  I haven’t killed it, well, because….Charlotte.  And Wilbur.  Not to mention that I estimate there to be about 50 gazillion flies out by our animals at the moment, and Charlotte here could help reduce that number by at least 2 or 3 per day.  That’s a big dent there.  I could be a tad squeamish about the actual process of killing such a large spider, too, maybe.  But really it’s mostly about Charlotte.  Spiders really are very fascinating creatures.  We had a spider just like this one spin a web right outside our kitchen window a few years ago, and I created an entire science unit around that baby (confessions of a homeschool mom).  We watched her catch everything from flies to large grasshoppers, wrap them up, eat them, and cut them out of her web to drop to the ground below.  Spiders like their webs to be tidy, unlike my children.  At the end of our spectacular spider unit, she even left us a substantial egg sack just to the side of the window. It was truly a gift.  But I digress from my morning routine.

Once I have procured the liquid gold from my not-so-cooperative morning compadres, ducking so as to not plant my face right in the middle of Charlotte’s web (eek!), I head to the chicken coop, collect the eggs and head on back to the house where things are usually still pretty quiet.  I filter the milk, put it in the fridge, and put away the eggs.  By now, usually littlest bit is awake and ready for some of that yummy milk I worked so hard to get for him.  And…we are off and running! Read alouds, catching up on unfinished math lessons, errands, summer camps, music lessons, attempts at organizing and taming the monster that is our home right now are the things that fill our days this summer.  I am thankful for each little busy thing.  Every one means my home and heart are full.  It’s a good life.

Well, there you have it: a little glimpse into my basic morning routine.  Anything can change on a given morning, but this is a general idea of what my mornings usually contain right now.  When school begins in a few short weeks (*sniff*), this routine will change significantly.  This is it for now.  It’s busy, full and sweet in many ways, even the spider.  I’m hoping to get the kids out there to watch her with me soon.  Hopefully, I won’t regret leaving her there and find that someday she decides to just come on down and jump on my head while I’m milking.  That just might disturb the peace of the farmyard a little bit.

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”  Lamentations 3:23-24