The Daily Grind

Lately, I have received a lot of questions about our day to day routine. 

Before I lay out our typical day, I want to say that I am a huge believer in making your routine work for you...the mom.  When I was pregnant with Little P, I read something that made so much sense to me.  It said to make your home a FAMILY centered home, not a child centered home. Meaning, as an adult, we have the ability to look at the big picture to see what works for the WHOLE family, parents included, not just the kids.  This means, within reason, mom and dad make the schedule.  That was a huge revelation to me and boy has it changed the way I parent.  Of course, you are going to have your days where nothing goes as planned but on a typical day-to-day basis, mama sets the schedule.

So, our general routine with a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and 10 month old is as follows:

6:30-7:30 They wake up   

       Breakfast

           Get Dressed

8:30-11:00 Mini C's first nap

                                                                Kiddos are usually playing, doing an activity, etc

12:30 Lunch         

              1:00-4:00 All kids are down for nap

5:30 Dinner      

6:00 Bath time  

    6:45 Mini C to bed

               7:30 Little P and C to bed

So, that's it.  Every parent has to come to the point of deciding whether they want their kids to stay up late and sleep in or go to bed early and wake up early.  For my husband and I, we need that time every night to unwind and spend time together.  For others, sleeping in the morning is important.  Its all in personal preference. 

The only point I have to make is that you have recognize that as a mom, you have to take care of yourself.  Make sure your daily schedule works for you and gives you a little break somewhere so you can gather and prepare yourself to finish your day.  You can only put out so much before it becomes too much.  Your glass also need to be filled up...make time for that to happen, even if its 5 minutes.

Making A Fool-Proof Cleaning Schedule

The other day, a few girlfriends and I were talking about keeping up with chores around the house.  Between kids, meals, errands, cleaning, carpool, laundry, and any other mental or emotional breakdowns that happen throughout the day, it is so easy to get lost!

After having little C, I found myself wandering through my day so overwhelmed with everything that I had to get done.  I felt like everytime I started on laundry, someone needed to be fed, changed, or whatever else goes on with having two babies.  At the time, my husband was working ridiculous hours and while he couldn't always physically help with the work, he helped me come up with a plan to organize myself.

So, this is what we did.  We sat down and made lists of the things that needed to be done daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly.

Don't judge, I know my handwriting is ridiculous... :-)

So, once we came up with these lists, the next step was to put it into calendar form.  For this, I just took a blank piece of paper and wrote out four weeks worth of Monday-Friday. 

First, we added the weekly chores, being conscious of when certain things would get done in conjuntion with any weekly commiments that I had. 

After that, I went to bi-weekly.  I split them up pretty evenly and made sure to take time into consideration (not pairing two time consuming tasts together).

And last, I added monthly chores. 

I had considered putting them on a calendar with dates but after thinking about it realized that dates nor length of the month mattered.  There will always be Monday-Friday.

So, once I got it all settled, I wrote it up on my refrigerator calendar my awesome sister-in-law gave me. 

Now, everyday, I don't have to get overwhelmed with a long list of things to do.  Rather I have 2 or 3 things to do each day and it's pretty simple to keep up with.  Obviously, you will have your times when you miss days and have to catch up but that can be done at your discretion.  Those are the times when it is nice to be your own boss!

Anyways, thats my cleaning schedule.  No matter how organized you are, it all comes down to self-discipline and being flexible to work with the variables around you.  Nothing is ever perfect. 

Happy Cleaning!