Our Daily Schedule (Roughly)

I’m not a schedule keepin’ girl.  I like making them (or used to before it got so complicated), but it seems impossible to fit all of us into a tried and true schedule.  Real life (and lots of little unpredictables) seem to get in the way.  I had a request the other day for what our daily-ness looks like.  I’ll try.  At first I thought, “We don’t have one.”  But then, when I backed away I realized we roughly do the same things at roughly the same times each day.  I’m very visual and I “see” our day broken down into blocks.  Now, mind you, I didn’t sit down one day and make this schedule.  This is how we naturally fall into a kind of schedule at this point in our lives.  It changes as we have more babies and I’ve realized it seems to be going in rotation.  We move back through the motions we’ve done before as each new baby sets the pace in our house.

Early Morning Block
Baby is not on an artificial-set-by-me schedule.  He naturally wakes up and nurses around 6 or 7 and then we get up.  Everybody usually tumbles out of bed around the same time.  The joys of having lots of little people sleeping very close to each other.  I change the 2 youngest diapers, brush my teeth, get my shoes on (who wants to stick to the floor first thing?), and make coffee.  The olders are either watching tv, playing the Wii, or their Nintendo DSes.  I set out some snacky easy breakfast – crackers, granola, dry cereal, poptarts, etc. and then I sit down at the computer with my cup of coffee.  Either holding TheFinalist or with him in the swing next to me.  I check email, catch up on facebook and sometimes blog.  Then I look over what school work we’ll do for the day and set it aside.  I usually either unload dishes or switch the laundry or both depending on if TheFinalist needs to nurse again or just needs to be cuddled.

~I want to interject here that I keep the kids’ day on a rotating schedule of settled time, rowdy time, and working time (either mentally or chores).  I move them onto the next time either if I need them to do something (get ready to go to town or pick up the house for somebody coming over) or if I sense they need to be moved onto the next.

Mid Morning Time
I call everyone to the table and we do school work.  This always looks different.  Now that I’m not sick and tired with the pregnancy and the first few months of postpartum, we’re doing much more unit-type studies and activities – things I can do with a 2 year old (mostly) occupied at the table, a pre-k-er, a first grader, and a third grader all at once.  This lasts about 2 to 3 hours.  Then I fix a late breakfast/early lunch and I send the kids out to play.  Or make them ”play in the real world” - no tv or electronics.  Then I sit down at my computer again to veg for a few minutes.  Baby fits in around all of this – nurses as needed, changed as needed, cuddled fairly constantly, put down to sleep whenever he feels like it.

Nap Time
I fix a snack, potty and change everyone, and move everybody into wherever we’ll be settling for the day.  Sometimes I let them watch tv while I settle the 2 youngest with me on the couch and I drift while they sleep beside me.  Sometimes I let the boys bring paper or books to the bedroom and they can occupy themselves quietly while the rest of us sleep.  It changes.  What doesn’t change is that there is always a rest time.  And we do this together.  Mostly because I like the security of knowing they’re all right with me and I usually drift in and out.  Lately, we’ve been reading The Secret Garden.  I have everyone settle into a spot in the bedroom.  The loveseat, the floor, the foot of the bed, beside me, wherever.  I do sometimes assign spots depending on who is messing with whom the most.  I make sure we’re all in place with our read-aloud material and then I crawl into bed holding the baby, with the toddler next to me and the older 3 in their chosen spots.  I read a chapter or 2.  And then I either require that we all lay there quietly (which I know means everyone will go to sleep) or I let the older 2 or 3 depending on who’s still awake watch tv, play their ds, look at books, etc.  But they are not allowed to get up or talk – this allows them to settle as well as letting me get some much needed rest.  Prep time for this is pretty extensive, but pays off for me.  The prep time of getting everyone into place, quiet, and still is at least 30 minutes sometimes as much as an hour – we base the time it all starts on baby – he must be ready to sleep by the time we lay down or mama gets no rest.  Our whole lives are finely tuned timed events.  As with most things we do – everyone must be freshly potty-ed, freshly fed, and sufficiently tired enough to pull this off.  And I’m really strict about no wiggling and no talking.  If it’s conducive to sleep, then the littles will sleep – even with 6 people in the room.  The actual resting time is an hour to 2 hours.

Afternoon
We all start stirring again and food is the first thing on the agenda.  We have a really late lunch, illustrate the chapter we read at naptime after discussing it, and prepare for clean up time.  We clean the living areas first and move onto the bedrooms and bathrooms.  I’ll save our chore charts for another day.  While they clean their assigned areas BigMan “helps” everyone and I try to fit in folding laundry, doing the dishes, and starting on dinner.  As soon as chores are done they are free to play – outside if it’s nice, but again, this is usually “in the real world” play.  Get that energy out!  See the cycle yet?  Rest, active, thinking, rest, active, working – keep them moving through the rhythms of the day.  Again, baby runs my world.  I stop when he needs to eat, be changed, cuddle/awake time – what I do depends on him.  He’s always with me – either in the swing, lying on the floor – trying to figure out that rolling thing!, or in my arms.  At the end of this time I usually start baths and showers.  I bathe the 3-4 younger ones (baby skips a day) and get my shower as well and then TheOldest gets his shower a little later after we’re all through – allowing the hot water to get, well, hot, again.  He has to have his last otherwise he’ll stand in the shower hanging out until all the hot water is gone. 

Daddy Comes Home
Again, meticulously timed.  The house is picked up (most days), the kids have been burning energy, are now clean, and been deprived of electronics and are ready to settle and be with daddy.  They spend time with him – ecstatic when he drives in.  And then we usually allow them tv/Wii time – allowing Matt and me time to talk and watch the news.  I finish dinner and we all eat together.  After dinner is hang out time.  Again, be in the real world, make something, draw something, play something.  I usually try for quiet things, but the reality is they are usually running through the house yelling and jumping while I continually say, “Y’all sit down and do something quietly!”

Bedtime
This changes with the seasons.  Really.  In winter we aim for 7:30 to begin round one of bedtimes and 8 for round 2.  Now that means they’re in their beds (or room – hanging out, as the case may be), not asleep.  It’s so early in winter because I’m just done.  I’m done.  It’s all selfish.  I can take no more in the winter.  In the summer we usually have the pool out and we don’t come in until dark – but I’ve had a lot more fresh air and sunshine, so I’m good to go for a lot longer.  At about 7:15 I start the “go potty and brush your teeth” routines.  I change BigMan and try to get him settled on the couch (read: he’s running around like a wild child while I get everyone else in place).  The 2 older children who are not “Boss” gather “what they need for bed” – books, colors, paper, legos, baby dolls and head that way.  “Boss” is out in the living areas with BigMan.  “Boss” gets to pick (within limits of what I’m up to doing) what they want to do in that special 30 minutes.  TheOldest will blog some, they play Wii with daddy or me, they play checkers or some other game with us or watch a show they want to see or just sit and be with us.  At this point, I’m usually rocking TheFinalist (fussy time of night) and BigMan is made to sit on the couch with us.  “Boss” then does their potty/brush teeth/get a sip of water/gather things for bed routine and off they go to the bed.  We tuck everyone and prepare for at least 30 minutes of semi-constant “Y’all get quiet in there.  Lay your heads down.  STOP TALKING!”  BigMan lays on the couch next to me, by this time TheFinalist is usually out for the night in my arms, and we watch boring Mama and Daddy shows (the news, sports anything innocuous and sleep inducing) until BigMan goes to sleep.  Then we watch our shows we don’t want them seeing: The Middle, Castle, The Mentalist, Celebrity Rehab, our late night shows, you get it.  Then we carry 2 little sleepy heads to the “nesting room”, check on the other 3 sweeties, and prepare to do it all again tomorrow.

Please know though, that this is a very rough draft of what our final results actually look like.  I have lots of mishaps and most of the time BigMan has had at least 2 bubble baths in the day.  Sometimes I skip naptime in lieu of cleaning out a closet, scrubbing a bathroom, cleaning out the van, or some other pet project.  There’s a whirlwind of activity through all of these.  And some of them are actually focused and on target.  Mostly not.  Sometimes we do 2 sessions of school (when we’re stuck inside due to bad weather or they’re being particularly unfocused and crazy).  On go to town days there is usually no school and a modified clean up time.  But we often do school on Saturdays and most holidays.  It’s a sketch up of what our lives generally look like right now.  So how does your day compare, please tell me – I love to peak inside other’s days!