For over a year I’ve wanted to blog about our loose daily routines, so our family and friends have an idea of a typical day, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. (Besides the fact that our daily routine seems to change every three months or so!) This week I’ll give it a go, before everything changes again with the coming of Jensen #6.

Each morning Josh and I pray together before starting our day (ok – I cheat and get ready and start breakfast before we pray – Josh does his Bible reading while I’m doing that). I’m so glad we started this is a tradition early in marriage. It now includes our kids; sometimes sitting with us, sometimes interrupting with questions, and sometimes but very rarely sleeping through it. Around 7, I dish up the oatmeal and peel the boiled eggs. Ideally, everyone is done with breakfast by 8, but this fluctuates.

Some mornings the older kids choose to go to the market with Chanthu. If not, we head straight upstairs to learn together. Currently I’m using very little curriculum with the kids; my hope is to instill in them a love of learning, before we get bogged down with all the material. This year we’ve begun starting our learning time with Becca reading a Bible verse, which we then discuss, before praying together. (I recently read Noel Piper’s book Treasuring God in Our Traditions. In it she talks about establishing, even before our children can read, a daily time for them to have their devos. It was a great encouragement to me.) Afterwards we work on Becca’s reading and then do some other learning activity, depending on what the current need is. I’m finding that if we don’t start our learning right after breakfast, our kids struggle with being motivated and our learning time usually turns out to be a flop.

Josh tries to leave the house by 7:45 so he can study his vocabulary before he leaves to meet with his tutor at 9. His whole morning is usually filled with studying with Om Lim, so before leaving for Lim’s house, he tries to get some extra time to go through his Khmer vocabulary flashcards. When Josh returns we have lunch and put the younger kids down for naps…and snatch some time to chat. In the afternoons when I study with my tutor, Josh studies Khmer or works on his Kachok project, then he takes some time to make popcorn and read with the kids. Once I’m done studying, Josh heads back to the office to continue his work until supper. On weeks the Kachok men are with us, Josh works with them the whole day, except for lunch and the 1-hour rest time they take in the afternoons.

Our evenings are short. We usually try to go upstairs to get ready for bed by 8:30. We’re tired and have found that our spirits suffer if we don’t regularly get in bed early. One thing I really appreciate about Josh is that on nights he/we don’t have evening commitments, he typically stops his work around 8, makes popcorn and sits on the couch with me before we go to bed. It’s a precious time where we can talk without the kids or anyone else, and it allows us each to unwind (though sometimes I’m the one who does most the talking, because I need it).

There you go. There’s a little glimpse of what we try to do each day. Nothing that exciting. Things are always changing – sometimes Anna naps long and sometimes short,  people show up and have needs, my helper needs to talk about something – we adjust. It’s not that different from our friends in the States – we all have full lives. God gives all the grace we need to accomplish the tasks He’s given us as we faithfully do His work.

Note – I can’t seem to get a photo showing the true color of Anna’s hair. She has light brown hair, but the flash/sunlight always makes it looks like it’s blonde. She’s nowhere’s near what Isaiah used to look like.