ToT: A Day in the Life of Ziggy Q.

 This week on  ToT we are describing the following: A day in the life: what is a typical day in your life? How do weekdays differ from weekends? How do you balance out life’s “chores” from the better, more enticing things such as spending time with friends, family, hobbies, or recreation? How do you fit it all in to make sure everything gets done (get up early, stay up late, recruit help from hubby/other family, hire it out, etc.)? At the end of (most) days, do you go to bed feeling like you accomplished the majority of what needed to be done, or do you think of all the things you’ve had to let roll over to be done another day?

Well, I know for me personally, the beginning of my day goes something like this: "Wake up in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy. Grab my glasses, I'm out the door-I'm gonna hit this city...."

Seriously, not so much. Usually I'm  woken up by my kids anywhere between 7 and 7:30 am.  Since I am a stay at home mom with two children not yet in school, I'm able to take advantage of using them as an alarm clock.  I know this will change once my oldest starts school in August.  I used to have this grand plan of getting up before my kids to get some "Mommy" time in the mornings, but those plans always went up in smoke for two reasons. 1. I am not a morning person.  If I get up early, I usually spend all my free time being grumpy about getting up early, or hitting the snooze button.  2. My kids have a Mommy Radar.  Whenever I get up, no matter how quiet I am, they can sense it internally, and are up with in five minutes. This never happens for any overnight guests we have or my husband.  Only me. Lucky me.

Anyhow, after we wake up, I get both kids dressed. Teeth and hair get brushed.  If I don't get this done before either one goes down stairs, we run the risk of being in our PJ's until lunch. Which is fun sometimes, but depressing if it happens every day. Then we have breakfast.  This means, I make them their breakfast and meet all food demands before attending to my own (COFFEE!!) needs. They usually wolf down their food by the time I'm sitting down at the table to start having my breakfast.  This used to be bad-because like most parents know, once the kids leave the table, you have about two minutes to inhale your food before some crisis comes up, or one of them is sitting in your lap "helping" you eat your food. Now, it's a different story.  My kids play together and are able to entertain themselves, so I take advantage of actually having a few minutes to chew my cereal and drink my coffee while it's still hot.  This is also a great time for me to be able to look over the paper or listen to the news and wake up a little bit.  Trust me-I need a little wake up time in the mornings, so I do not take this for granted.

After breakfast is over, and the dishes are cleaned up, we get our day started.  Sometimes I go for a run (if the hubby is around) and then shower and get dressed.  During this time, the kids play with Daddy, watch a TV show (gasp!), or just play together.  This is their free time.  If Daddy is not home, we use the time between breakfast and lunch to take care of our errands.  Errands include grocery shopping, doctor's appointments, visits to the library, or other various stores.  We always have to make it back in time for lunch (right at noon).  After lunch, we do some sort of activity together such as a craft or outside play time until it's time for Mia's nap.  Mia naps around 2 or 3pm for two hours (on a good day).  During Mia's nap time, Sam usually has some down time watching a show on TV or playing his video game.  Someitmes he likes to work on little projects he comes up with or color.  While he's doing these things, I myself relax a bit, or try to get a run in on the treadmill.  Our schedule used to be a little more strict when Sam was in preschool.  He was at school MWF from 12:30-2:45.  So, we used to do our group activities in the morning, and Mia and I would run errands while Sam was in school.  Now that I have them both all day, I find I have more energy and patience if I can get out in the morning to get my errands done. 

After nap time, it's usually time for me to start making dinner.  After dinner the kids play while I clean up, and then we try to get some more time outside.  I like to have them get some energy out before it's time to go to bed.  Our bedtime routine consists of a bath, a couple of books, some prayers, and then each of them going to sleep in their own rooms, in their own beds. Once they have been told good night, my husband and I usually have to check on them a number of times before they actually fall asleep.  Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it does not.  It's not a great time for anyone when it does not go well. 

Our routine can vary pretty widely depending on one thing-if Daddy is at home or traveling.  If he is at home, then I have help, and it easy for one of us to take care of cooking or cleaning and one of us to take care of the kids.  When it's just me, it's hard.  Period.  I'm able to make it less hard by sticking with a pretty regular routine.  If my kids know what to expect, it makes life easier on all of us.  So while we do get to mix it up by going out for lunch, or going to the zoo, park or children's museum every now again, for the most part we stick to the routine.  It just works for us.  When it's just me, I really, really, really look forward to some "me" time at the end of the day.  When the kids don't want to go to sleep, I can get a little bit grouchy if my "me" time gets cut short or becomes non-existent because by the time they are asleep, I have to be in bed. Such is life though, and tomorrow is another day.  I have to tell myself that a lot.

Wow, I really have not answered a lot of the questions so far.  Okay, short and sweet.  I struggle with finding balance between the necessary and the fun.  I think everyone does.  I really rely on my husband to help me stop doing the chores, and go out and live life...or at least, help me finish the chores and go out and live life. My weekends differ greatly than the week because they are not as planned out as far as sticking to our routine.  We still try to stick with the same meal times, nap time, and bed times, but if we are off schedule, we just go with the flow.  We usually try to get out of the house as much as possible on the weekends, too.  We like to play outside and go explore new things.

At the end of the day, I try hard not to think about what didn't get done, or what needs to be done tomorrow.  If I dwell on that too much, I will never go to sleep at night.  I'm pretty hard on myself, so I always feel there are things I should have done better, could have done differently, or what have you. So, I try to shut down that line of thinking before it gets started, or else I'm just mentally beating myself down for a while before I finally fall asleep.  Also, I'm a night owl, so I stay up pretty late working on my own recreational hobbies such as blogging, checking email, or working on some type of craft project.  I go to sleep feeling like I've really accomplished something if I do that instead of sitting on the couch watching TV.  If my husband is home, when the kids go to bed, then sometimes we sit outside with our dear friends and neighbors talking about our day or what's going on in our worlds, and I love that, too.  It's nice to get that adult interaction after spending all day with the kiddos.  Don't get me wrong. I love my kids.  I don't want this post to sound flippant about that at all.  I think I have the best job in the world, and I am so fortunate to be able to stay home with them. 

Well, that was definitely not short, but I hope it was sweet for you readers.  Don't forget to check out how the other ladies of ToT are living their lives.