Our Typical Day (for now)

Life has seasons and those seasons change pretty frequently. As our kids have grown it seems like we have changed our schedule a MILLION times. I remember being very frustrated one time when my younger two were babies (they are 1 year and 2 days apart). It seemed that my whole life was spent feeding, putting kids to sleep, feeding, changing diapers, feeding, changing diapers....I felt like I wasn't getting anything "done for the Kingdom." I was expressing my frustration to a dear older lady and she said, "Stacey, this is just a season. It won't last forever. They will grow. Enjoy them during this time. This is what God has for your life right now. You are making a Kingdom impact with your kids during this time." Boy, was she right! Amazingly, they have grown!!! Now we are in a different season...and this too will change at some point.

Schedules are important BUT SHOULD NOT RUN our entire lives. We have found that there are times to relax a little and throw the schedule "out the window." There are also other times that we have had to be flexible to do anything God has us to do...Kids can really be flexible. We shouldn't stop life when we have children…Find out where God is working, and get in on it! We love to involve our kids. We stress to them the reason we are here on this earth (to glorify HIM), and serve HIM together as a family! So, FOR NOW this is what a typical day looks like in the Dunavant household:

6 Matt wakes up for his Quiet Time
6:45 Matt wakes Stacey up for “couple prayer time” together
7 Matt and Stacey wake up kids
7-7:45 Time getting kids ready for school
*Matt prepares breakfast and takes a shower
*Stacey dresses kids and sits with them while they eat
7:45 Meredith leaves for school with a taxi driver (don’t freak out…it is normal here!)
8:30 Matt takes Madison and Matthew Ray to an all Arabic speaking pre-school (their language is getting better than ours!)
8:30-11:00 Stacey has her Quiet Time, checks email, works out on the Elliptical and with weights(3 to 4 days a week), studies Arabic
9 am Matt returns from the pre-school, reads the news, checks email and studies
11am-1pm Arabic language lessons with language helper
1pm-3pm More study time, time out in the community to practice our language (shopping for fresh fruits and veggies, bread, visiting with nationals)
3 pm Meredith arrives home from school. She begins homework and chatters all about her day…Meredith is the family social butterfly!
3:30 Matt leaves to pick up Madison and Matthew Ray from school
Stacey begins making preparations for supper on the days that she actually cooks!(:
5 pm-7 Dinner, Family Time, cleaning up from supper (Matt and Meredith do dishes and Stacey folds laundry.)
7 pm Bath Time…It’s a toss up...many “final of the day things” get done during this hour…Matt usually oversees bath time with Madison and Matthew Ray while Stacey gets clothes ready for the next day and tidy’s up the house a little.
8 pm Family devotion time (a favorite for all of us!)
8:30 Bed time for Madison and Matthew Ray
9 pm Bed time for Meredith
9- 11ish Matt and Stacey spend time together, study Arabic, watch a little T.V., blog and connect with the other side of the world!
11-12 Bedtime for some exhausted parents in language study!

This schedule changes on the weekends and it also changes when we have Egyptians in our home or when we go to their home until REALLY late!