A New Day, A New Routine

At the beginning of each school year, I'm in a bit of a different position than the year before. Either I have a new baby, or a grown kid is gone, or someone is starting school, or I am newly pregnant. Regardless of what the change is, there is always a change. Some people loathe change, and love rigid schedules and routines. Others love to live life on a whim, always changing, always spontaneous. I'm the latter type, but I love routines, too, so maybe I'm right in the middle somewhere.

For this reason, I will now share with you my daily weekday routine. Just warning you, it could be really boring, and if you want, you can leave....

7:00 AM: Get up, take my thyroid pill, get dressed

7:10 AM: Change three diapers

7:15 AM: Put Baby Hippo in his play toy, then fix the twins breakfast, and put them in their high chairs to eat it

7:20 AM: Unload the dishwasher, then take the 10-year-old boy to band (He will have gotten ready for school and eaten breakfast on his own.)

7:35 AM: Return home and make my breakfast, which consists of a Medifast Chocolate Mint bar and half of a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat, with a glass of water (Yes, it's the same every day.)

7:45 AM: Take the 15- and 14-year-old kids to school, picking up a friend and a cousin along the way

8:00 AM: Clean up the high chairs, continue cleaning the kitchen, help the 8-year-old girl fix her hair, then after a few minutes, take her to school

8:20 AM: Suggest to the 4-year-old boy and the twins that they should go play upstairs while I feed Baby Hippo his rice cereal, then clean him up and continue to work on the kitchen and other areas of the house while the baby sits and plays with toys

9:00 AM: Pick out an outfit for the 4-year-old boy and have him get dressed, brush his teeth and hair, have him pack his backpack with a bottle of water, then off to preschool

9:30 AM: Return home, change the twins diapers, tell the twins it's movie time and turn on their fave movie, which happens to be Monster Vs. Aliens (I feel guilty about this part of my day, but I haven't figured out how to get around it. There is so much I have to get done and it's just so convenient that the kids will sit still and not topple over Baby Hippo or make messes or bite each other when their movie is on. Any other ideas?)

9:40 AM: Change Baby Hippo, then nurse him and put him down for a nap

10:00 AM: Put on my makeup, then the serious housework begins, sweeping, laundry, etc. Sometimes if I don't want to do this, I will photograph things I'm selling on Ebay in a effort to earn money and declutter my home. It's too fun.

11:00 AM: Baby Hippo is usually awake by this time, so I nurse him again, then sit him on his blanket with some toys and begin lunch preparation

A little before noon: Leave the house to pick up the 4-, 8-, and 10-year-olds from school

12:10 PM: Assign baby and twin babysitters and continue with lunch prep

12:25 PM (when the 14- and 15-year-olds return home for lunch, and thank goodness the afore-mentioned cousin's mother drives them!): Eat lunch together

A little before one: Take the 8- and 10-year-olds back to school, then return home to finish lunch clean up with older kids

A little after one: See the 14- and 15-year-olds off to school (and again, sister-in-law drives, thanks be to heaven)

1:20 PM: Change 3 diapers, tell the twins we are racing to bed, race them down the hall as I carry Baby Hippo, scoot them into bed, sit Baby Hippo in Twin A's crib, give them water, read them a story, turn out the lights, tuck them in, hold each twins' hand while I say a prayer, get two kisses on each hand from each twin (and yes, it's always two kisses each)

1:30 PM: Nurse Baby Hippo (Wait didn't we just do this? Oh yes, we did.) and put him to bed

1:50 PM: Let the 4-year-old boy pick a movie (again, some mom-guilt here), then..... Ahhhh, quiet.... :)

1:55 PM: Pick out the skirt and blouse I'll wear to play the piano for the chorus at the Academy and put them in the dryer with other wet clothes so I won't have to iron them

2:00 PM: Make my lunch, take it to my room, and eat it while I read my current novel, which is the series I mentioned in yesterday's post, which is, by the way, one of my all-time favorite things to do, in the world, ever

2:35 PM: Take my clothes out of the dryer and hang them up, get out of my housework clothes, and take a 20-minute power nap

3:00 PM: Alarm goes off, then I get dressed and greet the babysitter at the door as I'm walking out. But first I grab my music folder, a glass of ice water and another Medi-fast Bar

3:10 PM: Arrive at the school and accompany the choir for an hour

4:00 PM: Pick up the 8-, 10- and 15-year-olds from school and leave the the 14-year-old at the Academy for football practice

4:10 PM: Arrive home and encourage the kids to make their after-school snacks, then start on homework and/or chores

4:30 PM: Today I gave piano lessons, but on any other day, depending on who didn't have any homework, I would choose that person to babysit for 30 minutes while I do laundry

5:00 PM: Today I was fortunate enough to get a visit from my Visiting Teachers (If you don't know what those are, go HERE.) It was an awesome break in a hectic day.

6:00 PM: Today I ran the 15-year-old girl and her friend to school again, but normally I would continue trying to keep the house clean and the kids alive

6:30 PM: Remind the 15-year-old girl that it's her turn to make dinner, then pick up the 14-year-old boy and said cousin from football. Even with the windows rolled down, the stench is something to behold (Acutally today sister-in-law picked up the boys while I gave the 8-year-old girl her piano lesson.)

7:00 PM: After the 14-year-old boy showers, eat dinner as a family, then encourage the kids to do their dinner chores

(All of the afore-mentioned activities are usually done with 21-pound Baby Hippo on my hip.)

7:45 PM: Give Baby Hippo a bath (and I know I nursed him more times than were mentioned, but it happened so often it was too difficult to account), then dress him in his sleeper

8:00 PM: Ask the 14- and 15-year-olds to each pick a twin and change his diaper and brush his teeth, then Nurse Baby Hippo to sleep

8:20 PM: Do scripture study, then put the twins and 4-year-old to bed, using the previously explained method

8:30 PM: Go to the seating area in the kitchen, call the older kids in who want to listen, and read the series I mentioned yesterday for twenty minutes

9:00 PM: Encourage the 8- and 10-year-olds to go to bed, then sit with the 14- and 15-year-olds as they work on the computer or do their homework in work books. It is then that I will usually begin my blog post, intermittently stopping to help the 14-year-old boy with math or listen to a new song the 15-year-old girl wants to learn on the piano

10:00 PM: Hopefully by this time all of the kids are done with homework and can go to bed, so I can shut down the computers. If so, I usually fix a Medi-fast chocolate shake, go back to my bedroom, read my scriptures while I floss my teeth, finish blogging, then read my book until I can't keep my eyes open anymore....

Between 12:00 and 1:00 AM: Fall into bed

2:00 and/or 3:30 and/or 4:20 and/or 5:45 AM: Nurse Baby Hippo

7:00 AM: Repeat

And why didn't I mention Dear John in this post? He is usually out of town.

Thanks for listening.

PSSST! To find great deals on fun stuff to do in your area, go HERE!