Sometimes I think back to when Alice was a baby and wonder what 'daily life' was like with just her and I. Thus, I decided I should blog about what our daily life looks like.
Daily Happenings:
6:30 Jameson's alarm clock starts going off
6:45 Alice comes wondering in our room, Jameson and I (reluctantly) get up.
Jameson showers and gets ready for work. I pack his breakfast, lunch, and coffee.
Alice and I tell Daddy good-bye and Jameson is off to work for the day
7-7:30 Alice and I read books on the recliner. (Most likely my favorite part of the day!)
7:30 Anna wakes up and I nurse Anna.
Alice, Anna, and I eat breakfast, usually cheerios or raisin bran.
After breakfast I go through catechism for young children questions or a scripture memory verse and a hymn or song of the week. At this point, this is as much for my benefit as Alice's, but hopefully it's forming good habits.
Girls and I get dressed (and bathed depending on the day).
Hopefully all this is done by about 8:30.
8:30-9:30 'Intentional Playtime / Learning time' with the girls. This is the time of day where I try to forget about any cooking and cleaning responsibilities I have and focus solely on the girls. I really enjoy this time although it is surprisingly hard for me as I find myself easily distracted by other tasks that pop into my mind. I try to think of fun learning activities we can do such as puzzles, make simple foods to work on stirring and pouring skills, color pictures, make cards, learn songs with actions or sounds (Old McDonald is Alice's favorite right now), etc.
9:30 Anna goes down for her morning nap.
9:30-10 Alice watches Sesame Street while I have devotions and check e-mail. I started trying to read through the Bible in a year (chronologically) last January and made it about 1/2 way by the time Anna was born. I've resumed my efforts and my goal is to finish by the end of August. Weekends seem to be my biggest challenge.
10-10:30/11 Cleaning tasks of the day (vacuum, dust, sweep, mop, clean windows, bathrooms, misc.)
Play / Misc. until Anna gets up between 11 and 11:30.
11:30-12:15 I nurse Anna and then the girls and I have lunch. Most days we have peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwich, fruit and veggie or yogurt. If there are more leftovers than Jameson can eat for lunch, then we have leftovers. Occasionally we have ham or turkey sandwich. After lunch I read from 'Training Hearts, Teaching Minds' by Starr Meade. The content is above Alice, but I find it very profitable and once again it is teaching her the habit of devotions / Bible reading after each meal.
12:15-12:45 Play / Misc then clean-up toys and Alice goes down for a nap till about 3:00.
Anna stays up with me until she goes down for a nap at 2:00 till about 3:30/4.
1:00-3:00 Mondays- Fold laundry that I've been cycling through the wash and dryer all morning, plan menu for the week, make grocery list. Read or computer time if time allows.
Tuesdays- Tutor Rachel and Lydia
Wednesdays- Tutor Aaron and Alan
Thursdays- Tutor Melissa and then a little down time if the girls are still sleeping :)
Fridays- Go through the mail from the week, pay bills, prepare for Sunday School, misc.
Read or computer time if time allows.
3:00-4:30 When Alice gets up she and I have a snack. When Anna wakes up I nurse her. Otherwise we play, read, work on supper, etc. until daddy gets home, usually between 4:30 and 5.
5/5:30-6/6:30 Supper
After supper, Jameson gets some time with the girls while I clean up and do dishes.
7:30/8-8:30 Get PJs on the girls, brush Alice's teeth. I nurse Anna and put her to bed. One of us reads to Alice, say prayers with her, and she goes to sleep.
8:30-10/11 It's just Jameson and I! :) We spend time on the computer, read, watch TV, play a game, call family, work out, whatever till about 10 or 11 and then go to bed. Alice usually sleeps all night without waking up. Anna usually wakes up once (although when company is here it seems to be twice) to eat, sometime between 1 and 5. This middle of the night feeding is actually another favorite part of my day (as long as there is only one). It's the only feeding where is just Anna and me and she is so snuggly! She eats and then falls sound asleep back it my arms. It is so quiet and peaceful I just enjoy her for a few minutes before putting her back to bed. She always goes right back to sleep in bed and I usually fall back to sleep very quickly myself.
Weekly Events:
Grocery Store Monday afternoon (after lunch of after nap time)
Bible Study Wednesday morning 10-12
Library Fridays 9-9:45
Writing this all out makes our days sound much more rigid than they probably are, but this is our general guideline schedule. I've found by taking time for reading and intentional playtime in the morning, I can make sure it happens. Otherwise, I easily get caught up in cleaning and misc. things and before I know it I'm tucking Alice into bed an wishing I'd spent more quality time with her during the day. I'm also trying to keep cleaning at a set time each day so I so a little each day instead of getting to Friday and still needing to do all my cleaning for the week.
