Tagged About My Daily Routine!
I have been tagged by my friend Sara. She wants me to describe my usual daily routine.
This was extremely difficult for me to do and is even more difficult for me to share. It’s not a pretty routine, people! And it’s not what I wish I could tell you I do. However, I am willing to share it and I would love to see other people’s routines as well.
I want to learn from other women. I want to see how you manage your time and how you organize your life. I think it takes some courage for anyone to truly tell how they spend their time, but I found it to be a really good---difficult, yes, but good---experience. I also want to say that I do sometimes do “better” things than what I’ve listed here. Some days, I’m cooking new things, doing art projects, and getting up to exercise before the sun’s up. But, unfortunately, right now, those are not part of my daily, habitual routine. What follows, actually is.
Now, I tag the following people to share their routines, if they so choose!
Janelle, Tristan, Kiersta, Heather, Pam, DesMama, Erin S., Erin A, Bethany A., Bethany B..…and anyone else who wants to share.
Okay, I’m going to do this for a day I don’t work and when I’m not in the middle of moving! A typical day might go something like this.
7:00 Kids wake up. *Get baby’s diaper changed and get him in the high chair with some
“do it yourself food” like Kix.
*Help older kids get their pull-ups off (cause at least one of them is drenched with pee) and underwear on. Jammies stay on during breakfast.
*Get them breakfast. Usually waffles or cereal. Sometimes eggs.
*Start a load of laundry.
*Get baby down from high chair, cleaned up, and dressed. He starts playing.
*After breakfast, get older two dressed and ready for the day. They start playing.
*Start dishwasher, clean up from breakfast. General pick-up.
9:00 Baby goes down for nap.
*Get a dvd in for the kids and Mommy takes a shower and gets ready for the day.
*Make phone calls, pay bills, switch laundry, do something with the kids that is almost impossible to do when baby is up (read, color, play a game). Sadly, I do not do this everyday. More often than not, I’m running around with wet hair, on the phone, or doing something for work, church, or their preschool.
10:30 or so…Baby wakes up. Everyone has a snack.
*If the weather is nice, this is our “go out” time. We do a play date, go to the park, or run errands. I do not grocery shop any more, as William has totally taken that over. Those Costco runs with the three of them made me want to jump off the nearest bridge. Anyway, they are getting much better at errands, though, and we do manage to get a lot done during this time.
12:30 or thereabouts Lunch. (twice a week the kids have preschool for 2 hours here)
1:00 Baby goes down for nap.
If they are at preschool, this is my email/blog/maybe even snooze time. At other times, it is do something for work, church, or their preschool time. I may put away laundry or clean the bathrooms.
3:00 Baby wakes up (twice a week, get kids from school) Snack
If weather is nice, play outside. Baby is high maintenance at this age, so I basically follow him around and hope he doesn’t put bad stuff in his mouth! Sometimes he’ll sit and play with the toys, which is wonderful, but most often he is just exploring away! Vacuum, other housework
4:30 Start dinner.
This is a shame point for me. These days, I don’t make nice meals for my family on a daily basis. I just don’t. I’m sorry to say that I usually give the kids dino-nuggets, mac n’ cheese, or easy pasta/grilled cheese, etc. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth! (If William is home, there is a wonderful meal, which we all eat together)
5:00 *Bath Time.
All 3 kids get in the tub together and have a blast. Baby’s bath is quick and then I get him out and ready for bed. I put him to bed while the other 2 are still in the tub.
5:30 *Reading/Flashcards
We’ve tried to have a bit of learning time before bed. It’s not cemented into routine yet, but we’re really working on it. The kids say words in Chinese and English or they might spell a few words. Other times, I read to them or tell them a story. If it’s a week-end, William does this.
6:00 *Bed time. They don’t always stay in bed. They don’t always quiet down right away, but if they are tired (and if we’ve gone outside that day, they usually are) they do fall asleep within the hour. It took me a LONG time and lots of tears (for all of us) to get this to be our routine. I’m sure with daylight savings it will change but this is what we do most nights, for now.
6:00-7:00 I’m upstairs resting and making sure they’re not getting too crazy. I turn all lights off , keep things quiet, and wait for them to settle down. Once in awhile I’m still in bed by the time William gets home, but usually I come downstairs when I know they’re really going to sleep.
7:00 Begin preparing dinner for William and I. Lately, though, I just start the rice, defrost some meat, and he cooks when he gets home. I also read blogs or update mine, read something on the computer, and do email at this time. I also clean ---fold clothes, general pick-up, etc.
7:30 or so William comes home. We cook, eat dinner, and clean up. Then it depends. I am always just so very tired at this point of the day.
8:30 If we’ve got a lesson at church coming up or if we have something for work, we do that. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie and do little tasks for preschool/fold clothes. Often he’ll read and I’ll go take a bath. That is “my time”. Sometimes other stuff is going on. Sometimes I’m working and the babysitter is there when he gets home.
10:00 Go to Bed.
I’ll be honest. I don’t like looking at this routine. I wish there were many different
things on it. I wish I had formal daily scripture study, journal time, time set aside for working on my writing
class, exercise, teaching the kids, serving others…There are a lot of things missing from
here and there are things here (dinner) that I wished looked differently than they do. I
sometimes do certain things (exercise, make a great meal, read great books) but I can’t
put it in my “routine” unless I do it more often than not, right? So, what you see here is
a realistic view of how I spend most days.
I don’t know where all my time goes. We haven’t watched television in over a year. None!
One of the reasons we made that choice is so that we wouldn’t allow it to suck away our
precious time. But I haven’t watched tv at all and I’m still not accomplishing my goals!
Hmm…
Anyway, it sounds like I’m being sort of down on myself, but really I still think I’m
hanging in okay. The older kids are basically potty-trained now and that alone has made
2008 so incredibly beautiful thus far! My work schedule is less chaotic this term, too.
And as the baby sleeps better and I sleep better, I’m hoping that some of those other goals
will find their way into my daily routine. I think moving will help too for a number of
reasons. More room for them to run, more safe freedom for the baby.
And I guess I have to ask myself what role laziness plays in my life. Maybe I just need
more discipline. Maybe I need to train myself to feel good with less sleep. I do think
looking at my nutritional habits will help with my energy levels as well.
Being a Mom of small kids is WONDERFUL but it’s also extremely busy. Looking
at my routine shows me that. It’s MUCH, much, much better than last year when there
was no sleep routine, 2 kids were pooping and peeing everywhere except on the potty all
day every day, and a certain sweet newborn was colicky and screamed endlessly. That
was exhausting. Compared to that, this routine is heaven!
So, what do you think? How do you view your routines?
This was extremely difficult for me to do and is even more difficult for me to share. It’s not a pretty routine, people! And it’s not what I wish I could tell you I do. However, I am willing to share it and I would love to see other people’s routines as well.
I want to learn from other women. I want to see how you manage your time and how you organize your life. I think it takes some courage for anyone to truly tell how they spend their time, but I found it to be a really good---difficult, yes, but good---experience. I also want to say that I do sometimes do “better” things than what I’ve listed here. Some days, I’m cooking new things, doing art projects, and getting up to exercise before the sun’s up. But, unfortunately, right now, those are not part of my daily, habitual routine. What follows, actually is.
Now, I tag the following people to share their routines, if they so choose!
Janelle, Tristan, Kiersta, Heather, Pam, DesMama, Erin S., Erin A, Bethany A., Bethany B..…and anyone else who wants to share.
Okay, I’m going to do this for a day I don’t work and when I’m not in the middle of moving! A typical day might go something like this.
7:00 Kids wake up. *Get baby’s diaper changed and get him in the high chair with some
“do it yourself food” like Kix.
*Help older kids get their pull-ups off (cause at least one of them is drenched with pee) and underwear on. Jammies stay on during breakfast.
*Get them breakfast. Usually waffles or cereal. Sometimes eggs.
*Start a load of laundry.
*Get baby down from high chair, cleaned up, and dressed. He starts playing.
*After breakfast, get older two dressed and ready for the day. They start playing.
*Start dishwasher, clean up from breakfast. General pick-up.
9:00 Baby goes down for nap.
*Get a dvd in for the kids and Mommy takes a shower and gets ready for the day.
*Make phone calls, pay bills, switch laundry, do something with the kids that is almost impossible to do when baby is up (read, color, play a game). Sadly, I do not do this everyday. More often than not, I’m running around with wet hair, on the phone, or doing something for work, church, or their preschool.
10:30 or so…Baby wakes up. Everyone has a snack.
*If the weather is nice, this is our “go out” time. We do a play date, go to the park, or run errands. I do not grocery shop any more, as William has totally taken that over. Those Costco runs with the three of them made me want to jump off the nearest bridge. Anyway, they are getting much better at errands, though, and we do manage to get a lot done during this time.
12:30 or thereabouts Lunch. (twice a week the kids have preschool for 2 hours here)
1:00 Baby goes down for nap.
If they are at preschool, this is my email/blog/maybe even snooze time. At other times, it is do something for work, church, or their preschool time. I may put away laundry or clean the bathrooms.
3:00 Baby wakes up (twice a week, get kids from school) Snack
If weather is nice, play outside. Baby is high maintenance at this age, so I basically follow him around and hope he doesn’t put bad stuff in his mouth! Sometimes he’ll sit and play with the toys, which is wonderful, but most often he is just exploring away! Vacuum, other housework
4:30 Start dinner.
This is a shame point for me. These days, I don’t make nice meals for my family on a daily basis. I just don’t. I’m sorry to say that I usually give the kids dino-nuggets, mac n’ cheese, or easy pasta/grilled cheese, etc. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the truth! (If William is home, there is a wonderful meal, which we all eat together)
5:00 *Bath Time.
All 3 kids get in the tub together and have a blast. Baby’s bath is quick and then I get him out and ready for bed. I put him to bed while the other 2 are still in the tub.
5:30 *Reading/Flashcards
We’ve tried to have a bit of learning time before bed. It’s not cemented into routine yet, but we’re really working on it. The kids say words in Chinese and English or they might spell a few words. Other times, I read to them or tell them a story. If it’s a week-end, William does this.
6:00 *Bed time. They don’t always stay in bed. They don’t always quiet down right away, but if they are tired (and if we’ve gone outside that day, they usually are) they do fall asleep within the hour. It took me a LONG time and lots of tears (for all of us) to get this to be our routine. I’m sure with daylight savings it will change but this is what we do most nights, for now.
6:00-7:00 I’m upstairs resting and making sure they’re not getting too crazy. I turn all lights off , keep things quiet, and wait for them to settle down. Once in awhile I’m still in bed by the time William gets home, but usually I come downstairs when I know they’re really going to sleep.
7:00 Begin preparing dinner for William and I. Lately, though, I just start the rice, defrost some meat, and he cooks when he gets home. I also read blogs or update mine, read something on the computer, and do email at this time. I also clean ---fold clothes, general pick-up, etc.
7:30 or so William comes home. We cook, eat dinner, and clean up. Then it depends. I am always just so very tired at this point of the day.
8:30 If we’ve got a lesson at church coming up or if we have something for work, we do that. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie and do little tasks for preschool/fold clothes. Often he’ll read and I’ll go take a bath. That is “my time”. Sometimes other stuff is going on. Sometimes I’m working and the babysitter is there when he gets home.
10:00 Go to Bed.
I’ll be honest. I don’t like looking at this routine. I wish there were many different
things on it. I wish I had formal daily scripture study, journal time, time set aside for working on my writing
class, exercise, teaching the kids, serving others…There are a lot of things missing from
here and there are things here (dinner) that I wished looked differently than they do. I
sometimes do certain things (exercise, make a great meal, read great books) but I can’t
put it in my “routine” unless I do it more often than not, right? So, what you see here is
a realistic view of how I spend most days.
I don’t know where all my time goes. We haven’t watched television in over a year. None!
One of the reasons we made that choice is so that we wouldn’t allow it to suck away our
precious time. But I haven’t watched tv at all and I’m still not accomplishing my goals!
Hmm…
Anyway, it sounds like I’m being sort of down on myself, but really I still think I’m
hanging in okay. The older kids are basically potty-trained now and that alone has made
2008 so incredibly beautiful thus far! My work schedule is less chaotic this term, too.
And as the baby sleeps better and I sleep better, I’m hoping that some of those other goals
will find their way into my daily routine. I think moving will help too for a number of
reasons. More room for them to run, more safe freedom for the baby.
And I guess I have to ask myself what role laziness plays in my life. Maybe I just need
more discipline. Maybe I need to train myself to feel good with less sleep. I do think
looking at my nutritional habits will help with my energy levels as well.
Being a Mom of small kids is WONDERFUL but it’s also extremely busy. Looking
at my routine shows me that. It’s MUCH, much, much better than last year when there
was no sleep routine, 2 kids were pooping and peeing everywhere except on the potty all
day every day, and a certain sweet newborn was colicky and screamed endlessly. That
was exhausting. Compared to that, this routine is heaven!
So, what do you think? How do you view your routines?
posted by Qian Jia Ting @ 6:59 PM
12 Comments:
At February 9, 2008 at 7:48 PM ,
Sara G said...
I think your routine is great! I like the 6pm bedtime...I bet kids really do need time to wind things down. I can't wait until the weather gets better and we can go outside to play. I was going to write more about my free time, but I'm embarrassed that I don't do more (i.e. scripture study, exercising, reading books, church service, etc). I do these things once in awhile, but not as a daily routine. I'm working on it and I'm sure others wish they were doing a little more as well. But I think you're doing great--thanks for sharing!
At February 9, 2008 at 9:43 PM ,
Jenny said...
It is so interesting how my schedule has changed over the months and years with the kids. Sometimes we try new things for a little while and then go back to an old routine, and then depending on the weather and seasons i'm willing to drop a lot of things to get a neat experience in (like an awesome snow day or the perfect day for swimming or if we just really need to take a break and go to the library).
I love the turning the lights off and winding down as the kids go to bed. Normally I'm frantically trying to clean up the kitchen or tidy up and it isn't very conducive to sleep in our small apt.
At February 10, 2008 at 4:35 PM ,
Janelle said...
Wow - all I can say is that you are a champ. Being a mom is a lot of work, and I am amazed that you can work on top of everything else. Way to go!
At February 10, 2008 at 8:01 PM ,
Athack77 said...
You know your life sounds a lot like mine, only with a couple more kids. I'm impressed you can get your kids to bed so early!
At February 11, 2008 at 9:38 AM ,
Bethany @ The Paper Pony said...
Where's the Lori time? Everything else sounds like normal "I'm a Mom trying to balance life with three kids" stuff... You need time alone... and that's not laziness... that's SANITY!
At February 11, 2008 at 9:42 AM ,
Qian Jia Ting said...
I agree, Bethany, and it wasn't until I put it on paper and began to hear about other people's routines that I realized it. Something is missing and I'm going to carve out some time for sure. I think it will help in many, many ways :)
At February 11, 2008 at 9:58 AM ,
Andelin said...
Lori, my point of view is that that is an awesome routine! What more can you do when your raising small children? You're doing it all when it comes to being there for them, helping, teaching, training. In my opinion that's what's important and you sound like an awesome Mom! Those children are blessed, I would love to have you as my Mom! :-)
At February 11, 2008 at 10:17 AM ,
Andelin said...
As far as my routine goes, I don't know if I'll blog about it, because honestly, anyone who knows me real well knows that I'm not routine type of person, beyond the basic skeleton of wake up in the morning, eat lunch in the afternoon, and dinner and bed at night. I do make sure the essentials are in there (most of the time) but I like to switch it up a lot. If I don't I get depressed, bored and tired really fast. I begin to feel like a worker at a factory along an assembly line and can't stand it. Healthy or not for me or my kids, it has made me very relaxed and happy and I think they are fine too. Once I let go of the restricions of trying to have a schedule I just breathed a sigh of relief because I can feel so much more relaxed at taking the day as it comes and focus on what's important to me that day. I can drop things at an instant to do something else if it takes priority and I love that, especially when it comes to helping someone else. So, maybe my blog will be about why I don't like routines. We'll see...maybe I'll just copy this comment and post it, sounds good.
At February 11, 2008 at 10:26 AM ,
Qian Jia Ting said...
Bethany A.: Thank you for your perspective! I am in awe about how we all are the same, with so many similar goals and priorities, yet with such different paths. I thought what you shared was beautiful and it gives me pause for thought. I am still trying to figure so many things out and your approach is really, really refreshing and interesting to me. I don't know to what degree that would work for me but I can already see bits of what you shared that I might incorporate---even if it's in attitude rather than action right now. You should definitely post about it because if it was that interesting to me, I'm sure others would love to read your ideas. Thank you!
At February 11, 2008 at 2:11 PM ,
The Piquant Storyteller said...
How funny that you would write about your routine and tag me about mine. I have been thinking a lot lately that I hate my routine and what it is doing to my kids which makes me anxious and ornery. I have told Heath a couple of times that I can't wait to have this baby so we can get back to our routine. But then I realize that won't ever happen so I say I want to have the baby and get back to our "new normal!" I will post soon about my routine. Thanks for sharing yours and all your insights.
At February 13, 2008 at 4:06 PM ,
Ryan & Kiersta said...
Lori, I laughed so hard reading your routine...not that it is funny but that our lives as moms no matter what our routine or lack of are so similar. Like when we are on the phone all all six of our kids combined are screaming :) I love you girl...I am going to sit down and write my routine ASAP. Kiersta
At February 13, 2008 at 7:38 PM ,
AlexisTexas said...
wow. you are supermom. it is reading things like that post that make me miss our old presidency meetings and getting off the topic chatting forever (and then not being able to get back to an appropriate time for a closing prayer...heehee)...no one's perfect-which is what i have been telling myself a lot lately-and it looks like i have a long way to go to get to your supermom status even! seriously. it's hard sometimes to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless tasks these days esp. with society encouraging moms to "outsource" for so much. i keep thanking my mom for all she did for me as a kid-and she laughs and yells to my dad, "see i told you she would thank me one day!" haha...so i tell lance the same thing now.
anyway...i'm rambling now-love you!
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