Routine - Part 1
Routine is key during these dog days of summer among the fear of leaving the house lest you contract covid-19. Summer is sometimes more free wheeling. Schedules can go out the window to go for a trip to the pool or the park on a whim. No longer do we have that joy.
It is even harder if you have kids. Instead of Camp “I don’t know what this camp is for and it doesn’t really matter as long as you keep my kid entertained and safe for a few hours so I can get some time away and perhaps do the dished” we have Camp “From the moment the kids wakes up until the kid is asleep we have to entertain you while still trying to do the dishes”. Trust me, the second camp is much more stressful than the first.
Since I am nothing if not a creature of habit, I thought I would present to you my daily schedule. I’m lucky that I have a job that makes it easy to adjust my schedule. Don’t confuse that with thinking that I can just stand up and walk away from my computer on a whim. That is not at all what I mean. I have to have a schedule. I’m just lucky because I can make my own schedule. However, if that schedule has to change it is a major adjustment for me and I don’t take it well.
5:05am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:10am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:15am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:20am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:25am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:30am - My alarm goes off. I set a five minute snooze then go back to sleep.
5:35am - I finally roll out of bed and trudge my way to the bathroom for my morning constitutional. I’m nothing if not regular. I’m sure you wanted to know this. An act that shouldn’t take too long is significantly lengthened as I read my daily post from The Intellectual Devotional and see what the headlines are in the Washington Post.
5:47am - After washing my hands and face I finally head downstairs to take Ellie out for her morning constitutional. I set my alarm early with the hopes of waking up and getting everything I need to get done so I can have some time in the morning to perhaps read a bit. It never works and I almost always end up hitting the snooze a few dozen times.
6:07am - I’ve finally got Ellie walked and all the animals fed so I can get to my morning responsibilities. That mainly means making coffee (or else you will feel my wrath) and doing the dishes. If your house is anything like mine then there is never a time that the dishwasher isn’t either running or needing to be emptied. Dishes are the new laundry. Or is laundry the new dishes? I can’t tell anymore.
6:21am - It is likely that Quentin has been up for 15 minutes or so before he actually gets downstairs at this time. He does a good job of just hanging out and reading books in his room until someone makes it in to get him ready in the morning. Most of the time this is Rizzo. She will get him up, dressed, and downstairs to me before she does her morning routine. Rizzo is a morning exercise person (like some sort of psycho) so after wrangling Q she will workout and shower or just go straight to the shower for her off days.
6:31am - Quentin will be starting to eat his breakfast that varies from day to day. Some of our favorites are omelets and fruit, or yogurt and fruit, or eggs and fruit, or sausage and fruit. Basically, it is a protein and fruit. While Q is eating he will insist that I read several hundred books or just one book several hundred times. This lasts about 7 minutes before he has lost interest and must get down and play (while continuing to eat).
7:00am - Q and I have been eating and playing when Cece comes downstairs around now. We are very lucky now that Cece just gets up, gets dressed, and comes down all by herself. Q and I take a break from playing so I can make Cece her breakfast. This is also usually the time that Quentin will have his second breakfast depending on what Cece decides to have. If Cece would like something different than what Q had then Q will demand he has that as well. It doesn’t bother me too much because more often than not he eats it all.
7:45am - It is about time to start the work day. Rizzo will be ready to take the reins while I grab my second (or third) cup of coffee to lock myself away for an hour of work. I used to work in an office that is in our basement but I just couldn’t do that anymore. The old office was a dungeon of a room with no windows and temperatures that maxed out between 50-60 degrees. So I took it upon myself to move my office up to the guest bedroom. By that I mean I moved an old folding table into the guest bedroom and worked from that room.
The current office situation.
When quarantine struck we rearranged the room a bit and added a second table for Rizzo. We have grand plans of having a proper office upstairs but that is on hold until Quentin is in a “big kid” bed. The nursery will make a perfect office once he moves out of that room and probably into the current office/bedroom. Then the guest room will move down into the basement which will be excellent since a guest can then have access to their own bathroom. For now, this room is working out pretty well.
9:00am - This is when the true routine comes into play especially in the summer. This is Cece’s work time. We are continuing to do some “school” work over the summer to keep Cece engaged and hopefully growing a bit (or at least not backsliding over the summer). During Cece’s work time, Quentin and I try to get out of the house to play when it is possible. Our most frequent adventure is a bike ride to the trails behind our house to the “wawa” so Quentin can see the water and throw some rocks in the water. It is easy to get him there but it isn’t as easy to get him back. 75% of the time he ends up riding on my shoulders while I carry him and his bike back to the house. I usually don’t mind as it is some good bonus exercise for me but the last month has been torture since the temperature hasn’t been below 90 degrees.
10:00am - Back to the office for another hour of work. I’ll usually do some calls at this time as I have some flexibility on my stop time for the next part of the routine. Of course, my office buddy is almost always supervising me to make sure I am working hard and not hardly working.
Supervisor
11:00am - Now it is time for brunch. Since I’ve started intermittent fasting (which is pretty easy for the most part but there are some days I want to destroy breakfast when I wake up) I don’t eat breakfast anymore. So this is the time I finally get to eat some food. While I don’t eat breakfast at a traditional time any more, I still keep my first meal routine that I have had more or less every day for the last five years; oatmeal and eggs. The protein is good for staving off hunger, the oatmeal is good for my heart and for filling me up, and the copious amounts of spicy seasoning makes it delicious.
I have made some modifications to the recipe since I wrote the linked blog. I have replaced one of the eggs with egg whites. I still want to have one egg in order to keep the creamy yolk. However, I have egg whites for my second egg in order to keep down some of the cholesterol.
My daily meal
I’ve also replaced the red pepper flakes with Tony Chachere’s More Spice. While I love red pepper flakes, especially on pizza, I find this spice mixture to provide significantly more flavor than the basic red pepper.
I’m not the only one that has lunch around this time. Quentin will be having his typical lunch of “ham-cheese”. “Ham-cheese” is any lunch meat and cheese. This will be accompanied by a fruit or vegetable.
Cece will be having her computer time about now. This is 20-30 minutes where she can choose from a variety of computer based games, videos, websites, etc. This is usually a PBS Kids or a Storyline Online type of site. Something that is educational but entertaining.
Rizzo will also be having her brunch (she has been intermittent fasting with me) so we all get some nourishment.
12:00pm - Now it is time to suffer through the attempted nap. Since we have moved Quentin from a crip to a toddler bed the naptime has gone right out the window. For the first week of this change it wasn’t so bad. I would go through our typical nap time routine; change his diaper, read a book, sing Twinkle Twinkle, then off to bed. However, with the new bed he would lose his mind and tear the room apart.
So we added a step of sitting in the rocking chair in his room until he fell asleep. For the first week this was about 30 - 40 minutes. I didn’t mind this one bit since I could bring in my phone and Kindle to do a combination of work and reading. I’d reply to various emails while I was waiting and then take a few minutes to read a few pages of a book.
However, the last week has changed this completely. The little jerk refuses to take a nap at all. He will just roll around and fight sleep the entire time we are in the room. Then as soon as you leave he screams bloody murder for about 20 minutes before resigning himself to spending an hour or two in his room playing with books. I’m not ready to give up a nap for a 2 ½ year old kid. GO TO SLEEP!
To be continued…
