Fall 2016 Schedule

I've been wanting to record a typical day in the life lately, but it seems whenever I think about it, we have something weird going on that makes it not really a typical day. So instead, I thought I'd write about our Fall schedule. I think years from now, these are the posts I'm going to want to go back and reread. I always think I'll never forget what our lives are like in this season, but I know I will!

Morning schedule:

6:00am- My alarm goes off. I've been getting up early, so I can have a chance to exercise/get ready for the day/ do a few things by myself before kids get up. Our whole day seems so much smoother if I can feel put together when the day starts

7-7:30- Kids start trickling downstairs. Usually everyone is awake by about 7:30. Our mornings are pretty lazy and casual. The kids watch TV or play and eat breakfast. We keep breakfast simple around here. None of my kids are huge eaters in the morning. Elisabeth usually has a cup of milk and a bowl of dry cereal (that she eats while she's watching TV and usually finishes in the car). Samuel likes cereal a lot of mornings and occasionally a Z bar and cup of chocolate milk. Nathan usually has a granola bar and yogurt.

7:30-8:30- I pack lunches (depending on the day of the week. Samuel and Elisabeth need lunch at school on Mondays. Nathan eats in the cafeteria 1-2 days a week, and the rest of the days he asks to take a lunch). I also eat breakfast, take care of whatever the kids are needing- changing the TV, helping them find toys, finishing Nathan's homework if we need to, etc.

8:30- If the kids have not already gotten dressed, we get busy getting ready- clothes on, brush teeth, fix hair, wash face, etc, so we are ready to get out the door

8:55- This is our target time for leaving the house to drop off Nathan at school. Some mornings I need to take him early, and on Wednesday his school starts 30 minutes late, but this is our normal time to load up

9:00- I drop off Nathan at school.

After school drop off, our days differ depending on the day of the week, what we have scheduled.

Mondays:
9:15- I take Samuel and Elisabeth to preschool. We have a little too much time between when I drop off Nathan and when their school starts, so sometimes I'll run an errand (pick up groceries), and sometimes we just take our time making it to the church

9:30-2:15- This is my scheduled time during the week without any kids. So I take advantage of it, and do whatever I need to by myself. I try and schedule appointments (dentist, dr, hair, etc) on Mondays. I also will run errands, pick up groceries, clean house. I try and eat lunch with Nathan a couple times a month too.

2:15- I leave to pick up Samuel and Elisabeth

2:45 we come home and the kids play until it's time to pick up Nathan from school. I usually try and finish up any projects or whatever I didn't get finished while they were at school

Here are how the rest of our mornings look:

Tuesdays:
9:00am Two Tuesdays a month we have our MOMS of preschoolers meetings, so I drop off Nathan at school at 8:45, so I can make it to our church by 9:00. I'm the registration chair, so I get there early to check the moms in. Our meeting time is from 9:30-11:30, and I usually stay a little late to help tear down, get everything put away.

We usually have a play date scheduled with the Millers on the Tuesdays that we don't have our MOMS meeting.


Wednesdays: 
I recently started attending a mom's in prayer group at my church on Wednesday mornings. Nathan has late start Wednesdays, so his school starts 30 minutes later. We usually try and load up about 9:25 and drop him off and then head to church. We pray from 10-11 while the kiddos play in the nursery.


Thursdays:
This is usually always our morning without plans. After a busy few days at the beginning of the week, I'm always ready for Thursdays. Sometimes the kids stay in their jammies, and we just stay home (after we take Nathan to school), or we'll go to the park/playground or do something else fun with just the three of us. Occasionally, we have errands to run, but usually I'm able to get those out of the way on Mondays when I'm by myself.


Fridays:
We don't have anything regularly scheduled things on Friday morning either, but usually something comes up like a play date or a meeting or something. If not, then it just ends up like a Thursday morning.


Afternoon schedule:
Other than Mondays, we are usually at home by lunchtime and spend the afternoon at home. Our afternoon schedule is pretty consistent:

The kids eat lunch around 11:30 (sometimes 12 if we are gone in the morning). We usually do easy lunches like sandwiches, soup, chicken nuggets, lunchable, mac and cheese, and I let them watch a show while they eat.

After lunch I put Elisabeth down for a nap usually around 1:00 and she'll sleep until anywhere between 2:30-3:30. Samuel doesn't nap, so he will either play in his room or play on his kindle, or usually just play downstairs and have a million questions for me :). I try and get him to do his own thing while Elisabeth naps, so I can get some housework/computer work/whatever needs to be done, but he's not super great at not needing me :). Sometimes I'll rest during nap time, but I usually have a list of things that need done.

We stay home until it's time to pick up Nathan from school. When Elisabeth wakes up, she and Samuel will play until we leave. We leave our house around 3:50 to pick up Nathan from school. Most days we just pick him up and then come straight home. Nathan is ready to play after a day at school, and most of the time he's happy to include Samuel and Elisabeth in whatever he wants to do. So they will play and I'll usually start dinner shortly after we get home.

Evening Schedule:
Our evenings are similar to our mornings in that they differ depending on the day of the week. Pretty consistently, I try and have dinner ready between 5:15 and 5:30, and it's a priority that we eat together as a family (Sometimes we start eating before Matt gets home if he's running late or we have to leave for an activity)


Mondays:
This Fall Nathan has had football practice on Monday evenings from 6-7, so we eat early and quickly! so we can get out of the house by about 5:50. A couple of times, Matt has taken Nathan, and I've stayed home with Samuel and Elisabeth, but if possible, we like to all go to practice as a family. Samuel and Elisabeth like running around outside or playing on the playground, and it's just nice to be all together as a family.


Tuesdays:
Nathan has speech therapy at 4:30 every other Tuesday, so we go straight to speech after school and then make it home around 5:30. So on Tuesdays our evening schedule is pushed back a little if he has speech. We don't have any regularly scheduled meetings or activities on Tuesday evenings, but it seems like things come up (meetings at school/church meetings, etc) once or twice a month


Wednesdays:
The kids attend AWANA at my parents' church on Wednesday nights, so Barry picks all three of them up around 6:30, and they make it back home around 8:30. Matt and I don't have anything scheduled on Wednesdays right now, so we usually get a little mini date night. More often than not, we end up at Andy's for ice cream :). We will go for a walk or stay home and spend time together. Sometimes we are productive too and run errands if we need to, taking advantage of not having the kids with us, or I'll work on things like cleaning or organizing at home (which again is way easier without kids around)


Thursdays:
We don't have any regularly scheduled Thursday evening activities except once a month we serve at a ministry with our church where we help lead a craft with some kids in a neighborhood. And occasionally, something else will come up.


Fridays:
On a typical Friday night, the kids stay the night at my parents' house. After I pick up Nathan from school, I drop them off with them for the night, and Matt and I get a date night. Woo hoo!!

Aside from these scheduled things, if we are home in the evenings we will eat dinner around 5:30, then Matt will clean up the kitchen, and we will usually go for a walk as a family to the little pond by our house where the kids run around and play.

We try and start our bedtime routine around 7 on a normal night (which doesn't seem to happen very often), but if we are home, then I bathe the kids at 7:00, then they get a snack and watch a night night show from 7:30-8. At 8, we all head upstairs and brush teeth and read books. Then it's bedtime. I put Elisabeth in her crib first and then I go and lie down with each of the boys. We talk a little about their day, practice their AWANA verses and sometimes I work on a little homework with Nathan if we didn't get to it earlier. I try and pray with them at bedtime too. Elisabeth usually goes to sleep pretty quickly, but the boys want to pick out a toy to play with in their beds before they go to sleep. For the most part they are good about staying in their beds (so they can have their kindles on Tuesday nights!). After the kids are in bed, I usually try and get the kitchen and living room cleaned up and then Matt and I will watch a show in bed before we go to sleep. My goal is to go to sleep between 10-10:30 at night (and sleep all night without any Little Ones needing anything, ha!)

Our days are full and tiring, and our daily schedule reminds me of a quote that I love from a book about motherhood
"I've come to appreciate the importance of the many thousands of routine moments in a mother's life, for it is in these moments that real greatness tends to be taught and caught. It is certainly important to grasp the great calling of motherhood and respond to a vision of what a family can be. But it's the way I respond to my children in everyday moments that gives me the best chance of winning their hearts."