Okay, so… I am juggling a lot of scheduley-things, and I’m really struggling with getting stuff done. SO. I am going to tell you about my schedule, and if you make it to the end, you can tell me what I can do to make it better. Because I KNOW everybody is SO BUSY, and I want to know how you handle it. Actually. Even if you don’t make it to the end, if you see something that really sticks out, tell me!
I try hard to pack lunches the night before. Some nights, it just doesn’t happen.
Every morning
5:30-6:00 Get up. Shower, pack lunches if that hasn’t been done, get grab&go breakfast stuff ready, get dressed…ish.
6:00-6:30 Wake Samuel, get him through the morning grind. Rebekkah usually gets up at the same time as him, no big deal, because her stuff is later. Clothes, teeth, socks and shoes, double-check backpacks again.
6:45-7:00 Load big kids in the van. Wake Sarah and Sophia, stuff them into carseats. Pass out breakfast.
7:30 Back home from dropping Samuel. Take care of Sarah and Sophia, make sure Rebekkah is dressed, second breakfasts if necessary.
Mondays and Fridays:
7:30-10:30 Hang out with my girls, snuggle, read, color, keep them from killing each other, try really hard to get something productive done. No really. You would think this three hour block would be useful. It is not.
10:30-11:00 Lunch
11:30-12:00 Try to get Sarah and Sophia snuggled in for naps. Not that they actually fall asleep during this time. haaaahahahaha.
12:30 Load Rebekkah and take her to preschool. (Mom is in the shop with the adjoining door open, so she can hear if Sarah and Sophia actually need something. Mostly, I tell her to leave them alone unless she thinks they’re injured, or the building is on fire.)
12:45-1:45 Try to get SOMETHING done. Fold laundry, do dishes, prep dinner, tidy the bathroom. Some days, I lay down for a few minutes and mess around on Twitter.
2:00 Wake Sarah and Sophia (sometimes after a meager 30 minutes of napping yay), and load them up to go sit in the car line to pick up Samuel and Rebekkah.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I work and the girls go to Mother’s Day Out and Extended Day/K3 at 9:00
9:30-2:30 Work for my parents.
2:30 Pick up Sarah and Sophia, go pick up Samuel, go BACK to the first place and pick up Rebekkah.
Every evening
3:20 Arrive home, unload everybody, encourage the kids to play outside for a little while.
4:00 Get Samuel started on homework. After that, the big kids get encouraged to help pick up the living room. Rebekkah usually cries. Sarah and Sophia usually cry, more on MDO/work days.
5:00-5:30 Samuel goes to work for my Dad.
6:00-6:30 Dinner
After dinner… things sort of fall apart. Actually, things usually fall apart as soon as the kids get home, but whatever. We rotate through baths, kids finish picking up, load backpacks, etc. Sometimes they get to watch a show. I TRY to get Sarah and Sophia in bed around 7:30. Actually, I try to get them in bed before that, but it never actually works. AND they would never see Jeremy, who gets home 7:00-8:00ish.
I would LIKE for the big kids to be in bed at 7:30 and asleep by 8:00, but since I’m juggling all four kids during that time… it’s nearly impossible. I aim for 8:00-8:30, but really, they’re in bed around 8:30 and asleep by 9:00.
After kids get in bed, I finish the kitchen, and catch up on what little work I can before I feel like I’m going to stab somebody. Pack lunches. Fold/run laundry. Talk to Jeremy for at least 5-10 minutes.
I’m always behind, and the house is always awful, unless I stay up until 11 or 12, which… maybe while I’m not pregnant. If I do that very often these days, I end up oversleeping every day, which is really problematic.
I try to keep dinners simple, but I really enjoy cooking… when the kids aren’t clawing at my legs and weeping. I mentioned on Twitter that during my last pregnancy, I tried really hard to meal prep one day a week, and I froze a lot of dinners. There were enough dinners that I didn’t actually cook dinner for three weeks! I have zero meals frozen now, at 31 weeks, unless you count the three boxes of Stouffer’s dinners I tucked away. I’m thinking that I might just stock up on a variety of those when Publix has them on sale again– $5!
Back to the simple dinners thing: I’ve tried doing slow cooker meals, but the results are pretty mediocre. OR I think it’s delicious and nobody else will really eat them. OR I don’t get around to freezing any, and they end up mutating in my fridge. I DO buy the bags of frozen, steam-in-the-bag veggies at Sam’s, and we eat A LOT of those. Even/especially the kids.
Laundry usually gets run on Saturday night/Sunday and folded Sunday night. If it gets folded. We’ve been living out of baskets for the last two weeks, which is okay, but I feel like a lot of Sarah and Sophia’s clothes have disappeared?
I just… I wish I had one magical kid-free day a week, where I could do some seriously intense work, and get stuff ready for the rest of the week. Even every other week would help. I don’t know what do to make my days more efficient.
Also, Hi! It’s only going to get crazier with a new baby!
TELL ME YOUR SECRETS! HOW ARE YOU SURVIVING?