Q & A with MC

Not Enough Hours in the Day

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Rachel (who has been reading my blog practically since it began…) asked me a question this week about how we balance our schedules around the house. I answered her in the above Q&A section, but as I was writing, I was thinking of so many more details I could include so I thought I’d just do a whole darn blog post about our family schedule.

Having two full-time working parents, a small business, a toddler, and one on the way makes for an active household. Add to that mix two loud, barking dogs and, I’m not gonna lie, it can be a bit of a circus around our house. For us, I think the key to success (if you want to call it success) is routine. We’re all creatures of habit and that really helps keep things normal for us. While we certainly get off schedule at times and we understand that flexibility has to be built into any schedule, our same basic routine goes something like this every weekday:

5:45AM – I get up, shower, dress, do my make up, and get ready for the day.

6:45AM – I head out into the living room and start a load of laundry or fold the load I washed the night before.

7:00AM – Bean wakes up. Like a clock. I change him and get him dressed for the day. Then we go into the kitchen and I fix him breakfast (whole wheat waffle, fruit, and milk). Bean eats breakfast while he watches Sesame Street. I pack my lunch and Bean’s school bag.

7:15AM – Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Chris wakes up and lets the dogs out. Then he sits with Bean while he has his coffee and Bean eats breakfast.

7:30AM – Chris helps me and Bean out to the car. Bean and I head out to school and Chris goes inside to get ready for his day.

8:00AM – I drop Bean at daycare and head to my school.

8:15AM – I get to school and start my workday.

4:00PM – School is out for me and so I head over to the daycare to pick Bean up. (Unless there’s a lot going on at school and then I stay until 5:00 or so…)

5:00PM – Bean and I get home from school and play for a while.

5:30PM – Chris gets home from work and he and Bean play while I check my blog comments, emails, Twitter, and Facebook.

6:00PM – Chris and I cook dinner – he cooks for us and I cook for Bean.

6:30PM – Dinner

7:00PM – We all hang out in the living room, watching Jeopardy and playing with Bean.

7:30PM – Chris takes Bean and gives him a bath while I do the dishes.

8:00PM – I brush Bean’s teeth with him, get him in his jammies, and read him two books. Then it’s lights out for him and I go sit with Chris in the living room where we watch TV and I blog. Sometimes I do laundry in between blog posts.

10:00PM – I start to get tired and so I head back to get ready for bed.

10:30PM – Chris helps me get in bed (not a small task given my awful back and the 1,000 pillows it takes to keep me comfy at night…) and then kisses me goodnight. He goes back out to the living room and watches TV or plays on the computer. I read in bed until I get tired.

11:00PM – Usually Chris comes to bed between 11:00 and 11:30, so I put my book away and turn out the light.

And then we do it all again the next morning!

It’s busy, but probably no busier than your day. I think we all adjust as we have to in order to make sure we stay true to our priorities.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of the day is Bean’s bedtime. I love that he’s all soft and clean and smells good. And he gets cuddly. And Chris and I sit down together with him and tell him how much we love him. Then Chris kisses him goodnight and it’s just me and Bean. We read books and I tell him how proud I am of what a good boy he was that day. And then I kiss him goodnight and tell him one more time that I love him and he says he loves me and blows me a kiss.

When your day includes things like that, how bad can your schedule really be?

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