Some of you may wonder what life with four little ones is like. Some of you do not as you are doing it or have done it all yourself! I just thought I'd give you a little picture into what takes up all of our time... and believe me, it takes up all of our time!
We are usually up between 5:45 and 6:00 in the morning. We have breakfast around 7 or 7:30 and then finish doing our 'morning work' which includes eating, cleaning up, dressing and usually some playing along the way. I try to beat the kids up in the morning and have my routine done, but that doesn't always work since kids are unpredictabe and sometimes get up with the sun... which can be too early here! My goal is to have everyone ready for school to start at 8:30. We start school and have Luke join us for the first half hour. Luke goes down for his nap and we continue our school work until around 10:00 when we take a short break for a snack and about 15 minutes of play. Then we continue with school until around 11:00 when Luke wakes up or we wake him up!
Then we prep lunch, practice piano, make messes, eat lunch, clean up lunch and clean up messes if possible. This is also the time we squeeze in a close errand if we can/have to. We have until about 2:00 when Leah, Luke and usually Jack take a nap. Then Anna and I do some reading time together or other little things we didn't get to in school. Around 3:00 Anna starts her 'quiet time' where she usually goes back into the school room to color or work on projects and listen to her Bible CD's or a book on CD. This is the one hour I try to keep without kids so I can clean, work on paperwork or do other projects that I have no other free time for! I don't always get this hour since schedules and kids are, as we all know, unpredictable... but I try!
If everyone sleeps the whole nap time, they are up at 4:00. Then it is time to clean up again and make supper. This is not my favorite time of day with little ones everywhere and trouble seeming to come more quickly because the day is getting long and we're all getting hungry! We eat and then clean it up (usually, sometimes this waits until after bedtime) and then move on with evening time. Sometimes Derek is home by 6ish, sometimes later so that determines our evening routine. We have various commitments on different nights of the week like the basketball league for Derek on Monday, Small Group for church on some Wednesday nights and a variety of other things.
Bedtime is at 8:00. We try to be cleaned up and in bed at 8:00, the process usually starts at 7:30. Once everyone is in bed for the LAST time, I usually start cleaning up and preparing food, school, the house and other things for the next day. I try to be in bed by 11:00, but that doesn't always work. Then we crash and do it all again!
On Monday, we have a PE class for Jack and Anna at a park from 12:30 to 1:30. On Thursday Anna has piano from 1:30 to 2:00 and we rush home for naps. Anna has ballet the same day at 4:00. Sometimes Derek is home to stay with the sleepers, sometimes I have to wake them up early after an already short nap and haul them with us. Ballet ends at 5 and we're back home again to eat supper a few minutes later. Saturdays are a little lighter with not a lot of school stuff but usually other things like birthday parties, events or commitments. The Lord's Day starts with Sunday School at 9:15. Derek and I are teaching the 4 and 5 year olds this year. Then the service and done by around 12:00, home by 12:30 if we don't go out for lunch afterwards. Then we eat and take early naps because we need to be up and have a snack and leave for night church again that starts at 5:00. We're usually back home around 7:00 to get ready for bed again.
That's my life! The longest post yet and maybe not the most interesting. I was just wondering where all the time goes so I thought I'd write it out to benefit myself :) and let you see a little picture into our life. Good night!
