A Day in the Life

A peak into the normal everyday workings of the Black Family residence.

I'm home for Thanksgiving break right now, and every time I get home I must adjust once again to how things work at the Black Family home. What the daily routine is, who is responsible for what, and where my place in the family is.

You see when I was the oldest child at home, I was the top of the pecking order. Maddie got to call the shots, and I was the one who liked to be in charge and in control of what happened every day. Call me mini mom. And that job slowing passed from me, to Sophie, to Helen; the three oldest girls. But now that Sophie, Helen and I are all out of the house, and Jonathan, my 15 year old brother is the "top dog", things look a little differently then they ever did before. And we all are having to adjust to a new day in the life. 

It's a Monday morning, at 8:00am, a school day, and Jane and Sam and Jon and Ava are all getting ready for school, or forgetting to get ready for school. 

One of us older girls home from college, wakes up and come to the kitchen and see that the kids forgot to eat breakfast and are still in their jammies and that they have 15 min to departure. Not knowing how the new morning routine works now, one of us girls starts barking orders at the kids. Mom then hears the commotion and comes down, all ready to go, calms the waters and then gets the kids out the door right in the nick of time. 

Then the three of us older girls take our time getting ready for the day, drinking tea and coffee, eating breakfast and doing our hair. We then kinda don't know what to do with ourselves because we are not in school and are not home long enough to work.

Mom then sees our lack of things to do and puts us to work deep cleaning the house. We grumble a little but are mostly happy to help out. 

We clean and then play 20 questions with the youngest, Josie, and soon it's time for lunch. We eat lunch, and maybe walk the dogs and chat among ourselves. Then before we know it it is time for the kids to be picked up from school. I will usually be the one to drive the big black suburban to pick them up and they are so excited to see me, their cool older sister. I then get introduced to all of their teachers and friends, we load up into the car and make the short drive home. 

We get home, and the kids plop in front of the TV and take a little bit of time to unwind. Helen and mom will work on dinner, and then call everyone when it is ready. 

We all gather around the island in our kitchen and dig in. We talk about our day, and laugh at funny stories and clean up spills. It is not a dinner at the Black 's house without someone spilling something. 

Then about half way through the meal, dad gets home, and once we hear the door open, everyone screams "dads home!" and run over to give him a big hug. Dad then comes in and eats the rest of the meal with us.

Everyone disperses, to get the little ones all cleaned up and ready for bed, and it is then my self proclaimed job to clean up the kitchen. I turn on some music, wash the dishes and sweep the floor. Usually a dance party with whoever is around soon starts. 

Mom and dad read to the little ones, us older kids are around reading, talking, doing homework and watching TV. 

Dad comes down all sleepy from putting the kids to bed, and mom soon follows. Mom checks her email, dad makes tea and popcorn, and then we all settle in to watch a movie before going to bed. 

I love being home because everything is as it should be, even though our family has changed in some ways as the years have done by and we have grown up. But regardless of all the changes there is always a constant knowledge that we are all loved and cherished for who we are. So, that's a normal day in the life, and I would not change it for the world.