the schedule

I've had this in my drafts posts for awhile, but thanks to a friend's blog post noting something similar, I decided to finalize and post it so I have it for documentation purposes.  And this post is definitely not a "hey, look how I busy I am" post, because we are ALL busy, but more of a snapshot of our life right now.  PLUS - after seeing my boss's schedule (who has three children all in middle/high school who are all active in extra curricular activities), I haven't even seen busy yet.

6:00am - alarm goes off.  Andy gets in the shower while I play on my phone.

6:30am - I get in the shower.  During that time, Alex normally wakes up, so Andy takes him downstairs to get him changed, get his ears on and gives him milk and breakfast.  Andy also unloads the dishwasher from last night. (You'll see that Andy is a kickass partner in this thing called life.)

From 6:30-7am I shower, do my hair, makeup and get dressed.  It's impressive at how efficient I am.

7am - I crawl into bed with Tay and wake her up.  Even though she's 4, she still crawls into my arms and I carry her downstairs.

On M, T, and Th, my sister-in-law also arrives at our house at 7am.  She helps with the chaos of the next 45 minutes.  Andy leaves for work as soon as my SIL arrives.

I get Taylor set up at the table with breakfast and get a bunch of Alex cuddles in.  I also get my breakfast and lunch packed for work.  I talk to my SIL for a bit about what's going on and I'm usually out the door between 7:20 and 7:30am to be to work by 8am.

My SIL gets Alex on the bus at 7:45 and gets Taylor dressed and to school by 8:30am. 

On Fridays, my mom gets here by 7am to do the same as my SIL and on Wednesdays, I utilize FMLA and take both Taylor to school 10 minutes from our house and Alex to school 40 minutes from our house so I can spend some time with their teachers.  On Wednesdays, I don't arrive to work until 9:30am.

I work 8-4:45, and during that time, my SIL picks Taylor up from school, gets Alex off the bus, feeds them lunch and puts them to bed as they both nap from 2-4pm.  Andy is home by 4pm every day.

On Mondays, Alex has prompt therapy from 5:15-6pm near our house, so I drive from work directly to therapy while Andy brings the kids there.  I take Taylor and Andy takes Alex.  Andy stays at therapy with Alex while Taylor and I go grocery shopping.  We all arrive at the house right around 6pm, where it's a free for all for dinner (kids normally eat yogurts, fruits, nuts, cheese and crackers) and Andy & I put groceries away.

On Tuesdays, Taylor has dance from 4:30-5:15 near our house, so Andy takes the kids to dance, and drops off Taylor.  I race to dance directly from work and normally get there at 5:07 so when she comes out of her dance room at 5:15, I'm there to pick her up.   We got home and all eat dinner together at 5:30.

All other nights, Andy cooks the dinner I prepared the night before and we all have dinner around 5:15 when I normally get home.  Andy often cleans up after dinner and loads the dishwasher while I get to play with the kids, help Taylor with homework, do therapy with Alex or just have a mini dance party.

Bath nights are every other night and Andy gives the kids a bath while I fold and put away all the kids laundry (omg the laundry).  Andy releases the clean naked kids into Taylor's room where we lotion them up, and get them in their jammies and play in Taylor's room for awhile.

after bath shenanigans

On non bath nights, we like to get out of the house.  During the summer, we normally are outside most of the evening and during the winter we go for frozen yogurt, walk the mall, go to the library...

At 7pm, the kids get a snack, so we go back downstairs for snacks and the tv turns on.  We half watch a movie or a tv show while playing/wrestling/building/arts and crafts and cuddling.

Bedtime is 8pm.  Andy & I take turns switching off putting the kids to bed.  Alex gets milk, a diaper change, brush teeth, a few books read to him, a song and then he goes right to bed.  It all takes around 10 minutes.  Taylor goes to the bathroom, brushes her teeth and then we read to her and she reads to us.  It normally takes about a half hour to put Tay down.

On Alex nights, I go down to the basement and workout for about 45 minutes.  On Taylor nights, I do a quicker workout in the family room.

After that, I prepare the kids backpacks for school, fill out the notebook for my SIL (what the kids should have for lunch etc) and then prepare dinner for the next day. I do a lot of crockpot and casserole dishes to make it easier. I also normally do a load of kids laundry (omg the laundry).

At around 9:30, I crash on the couch with a snack and start my second job (photography business) and I respond to clients and edit photos until about 11pm.  Andy is in the room with me, so we chat a bit, but he normally is working too.

At 11pm, we head upstairs for bed and I'm normally sound asleep by 11:30pm.  We are extremely blessed that our kids do not wake up in the middle of the night, so although I only get 6.5 hours of sleep a night, it's uninterrupted.

Some things that keep me sane - we outsource our house keeping, lawn service and snow plowing.  I do most of my banking/paying bills during lunch.  I also do a LOT of online shopping during lunch.  Also, my husband and I "chat" throughout the day so a lot of important husband/wife conversations can happen while at work.  We even planned our upcoming trip to Mexico over chat.  It really truly helps. I do all my laundry on the weekends (and Andy does his laundry on his own time).  And finally, MY HUSBAND is amazing.  Not only does he do his part and so much more with house upkeep, he's a super hands on dad and he never has a problem when I have my photo shoots on the weekends.  He's seriously the family's rock.  I couldn't do this without him.

And there it is.  Our day in a nutshell.  And as exhausting as this seems, I know its only going to get busier.  But omg - it's so worth it!