Today in Our Home: A Schedule Story

So, I'm always interested in how other moms are scheduling their days with their children. I'm just always wondering what I could be doing better or more efficiently. I think I first became interested when Kilee was a newborn and I heard an experienced mom at my church's Mom 2 Mom group say, "You need to consider your role as a wife and mother your job, and you need to strive to become an expert in your field." Since then, I've really tried to continually evaluate my mothering in light of the Word of God and try to educate myself as much as I can. And before I start to sound too lofty, let me just tell you -- on the days that I "get it right" it's only because the Lord ran my day, and the days I get it wrong it's because I tried to do everything myself.

So, in an effort to walk alongside other moms as we raise our kids together, I've decided to document our day today in text and pictures. To be honest, this is really convicting for me in many ways because it is an example of how I waste time in some instances, and it's really healthy for me to view how our day went. Plus, it's just stinkin' fun to take pics of my kids doing stuff and blog about them. So here we go . . .

6:00 am - Josiah wakes up, Scott and I wake up too. I feed Josiah quietly so as not to wake up Kilee. Kilee wakes up anyway. Scott leaves for work as I put Josiah back to sleep. Kilee climbs in bed with me to "rest". We have candles hanging over our bed in a decorative display. At one point during our "resting" Kilee is standing over me and drops two of the candles on my head. :) Time to get up!

7:00 am -Josiah's awake for the morning now. I put my feet on the floor, take a deep breath and ask God to direct my day. Make breakfast for Kilee, turn on Disney channel. Josiah plays underneath Kilee's feet while I check email. He pulls up on Kilee's table and knocks her yogurt on the carpet. :) After Kilee finishes breakfast, they go play in Josiah's room.

8:00 am - Get kids dressed. Kilee puts on her ballet outfit to get ready for ballet class later. While she plays in her room, I decide this is a golden opportunity for my shower. I bring Josiah's high chair into the bathroom and give him some puffs to eat for a morning snack while I take a quick shower. Before I was a mother, I was told that moms never get to be in the bathroom alone with little ones in the house. This is so true! But hey, I've got to be able to see/hear the kid while he's eating in case he chokes, right?

8:30 am - Josiah goes down for his morning nap. I get ready for the day. Kilee helps me with my makeup.

9:00 am - Kilee helps me pick up her room and I also throw in some laundry. We straighten the house a bit and get our diaper bag ready for ballet class.

10:00 am - On the road to ballet! We have a meeting after ballet class to discuss Kilee's upcoming recital as well. So much fun! I feed Josiah another bottle while we watch sister dance.

Noon - Back home for lunch. Kilee has a turkey dog and some pickles (not exactly the most nutritious meal ever), and Josiah eats pears and rice cereal. Then, we play "Hi Ho Cherry O" and Kilee wins both times.

1:00 pm - Kilee and Josiah play blocks in Kilee's room. Kilee builds, Josiah knocks down. Kilee is getting frustrated! I decide to take Josiah out of her room for some goofy time with me before Kilee throws him out herself.

1:30 pm - Turn on our naptime movie. (Usually 30 min of a movie to get the kiddos wound down for naptime.) Today's flick: Milo and Otis. Kilee's eyes start to get heavy 20 minutes in and we turn it off and go read a library book before nap. Josiah is gated-in in the living room while we're away.

2:00 pm - One kid napping, one to go. Josiah takes his naptime bottle, gets a quick diaper change and a naptime book and he's off to dreamland. Which means . . . . MOMMY TIME!




2:00-4:00 pm- Work on paying bills, making grocery list, printing/clipping coupons, watering flowers outside. So nice to have time to do this! We play "The Grocery Game" when shopping for our groceries. Basically it's a service that tracks sales trends for you so that you are buying items when they are at their "rock bottom" price and stockpiling them for future needs. It has worked very well for us and has saved us a lot of money, but it takes SO much time to plan for.

4:00 pm - Josiah wakes up and takes another bottle. He's a growing boy! In the meantime, Scott calls and lets me know he has to work late. This is more common as we get closer to camp season -- no big deal. We decide to scrap the home dinner plan for the evening in favor of me taking the kids to McDonald's. Sounds good to me!

4:30 pm - Kilee wakes up and is thrilled to hear of our dinner plans. Since Daddy will be a little later coming in, I will end up doing the grocery run with the kids in tow. This is gonna be interesting . . .

5:00 pm - Mickey D's here we come! When we go to McDonald's I always let Kilee play in the Playplace after we eat. I've found that it's much easier to get our food in the Drive-Thru and then park and bring it in rather than handle both kids while waiting in line to order with tons of other people. We get settled in Playland and Kilee eats and then makes some new friends. Josiah eats some butternut squash while we're there. After everyone's finished, I psych myself up for a trip to Kroger. I recall my Lamaze skills -- cleansing breath in . . .and out. . . :o) Ok, let's go.

6:30 pm - Out of Kroger with just a shred of sanity remaining. The kids did great, just naturally got a little tired at the end. Mama got tired too! Now we're headed home to see Daddy! Whew, I'm exhausted.

7:00 pm - Home sweet home. We unload groceries and go inside. Josiah's hungry again so I fix another bottle. Kilee says that she's hungry too. I put away the perishable groceries. Scott calls and says he's five minutes away. Yay!

7:15-8:00 - Playtime with Daddy and then bedtime. Scott and I hang out for awhile, we both have our quiet time with God, and then we go to bed too. Gotta get some good sleep -- tomorrow is another day!