Routine - Part 2
And we continue our daily routine.
12:30pm - This time is slightly flexible, but around this time I’ll leave Quentin’s room and then head down for Daddy/Cece time. I’ll take an hour to play with Cece so Rizzo can get some time to herself. Granted, that time is usually spent doing laundry, cooking meals, making phone calls/sending emails for various household business (and yes, running a household is work just like a business), or washing dishes. It isn’t as if she is just sitting alone reading a book or relaxing. That isn’t the point. The point is to have 60 minutes without a voice of a person under the age of 7 asking for something or screaming about something or saying “Mom” or interacting with her at all.
I think this is very important for both of us. I get lots of “free” time with work because I’m basically locked in a room alone. That isn’t to say I’m sitting back and relaxing. I like to think I work pretty hard at my job. However, I’m not having to deal with small children that entire time. That doesn’t make the stress less, it just makes the stress different.
I think it also sets a good example in the house to show that both Mom and Dad are working together. We are sharing work and kid responsibility. Sure, right now Rizzo has more of the kid responsibility but that is simply the nature of being a teacher so she isn’t in the classroom (and teaching virtually counts as being in the classroom) over the summer. But I think we do a good job working together so we both take time with kid responsibilities and work responsibilities.
1:30pm - Back to the boring part of the routine. This is when I get the bulk of my work done during the day. I’ll be in this hot box of a room (I really have to figure out how to make this more comfortable) for 2 ½ to 3 ½ more hours.
Coffee and computers
For anyone that works for themselves it is imperative to be good at staying organized and keeping to a schedule. I have a task list that I have created that tells me everything I need to do in a given day and on what day. That is vital especially for those clients of mine that have payroll that needs processing. I can only imagine how awful it would be if I didn’t get payroll processed.
5:00pm - Now it is time to end the work day and spend time with the family. I consider this part of the day the home stretch. Basically, the goal is to keep everyone alive and relatively happy until bedtime. That’s right, starting as early as 5pm all we are in the “shut your face and try to leave me alone until we have dinner” mode. I’m tired from working most of the day. Rizzo is tired from doing her best rodeo impression with kids all day. Kids are never tired because they have endless energy reserves and even if they are tired the refuse to admit it because somehow they think that going to bed is the devil because they will miss out on something amazing that only happens after they go to sleep (how do you like that run-on sentence?)
What we do here depends on the day. We may go for a bike ride. We may take Ellie for a walk. We may spend time playing in the backyard. Mostly we have spent time inside since it has been like living on the surface of the sun for the last month. Whatever it is, we are just killing time until dinner.
5:45pm - Dinner time. Occasionally we will put on a TV show to watch as a family. This is usually a cooking show. We started this with the Disney+ show Be Our Chef which is great. Most of the time we put on a record and just try to make it through dinner more food making it into mouths than on the floor.
6:15pm - Dinner is usually over and it is time for some playtime before getting ready for bed. We are trying to make this “calm” playtime instead of the usual playtime. I say that because the usual playtime consists of kids running around and jumping on adults, jumping on couches into piles of pillows, jumping off of workout benches onto gymnastic mats, or just jumping. If we can take 30-45 minutes of calm playtime to get the nutjobs to settle down before bed we hope it will make bedtime better. I’ll let you know if it ever works.
6:30pm - Clean up time. This is when the entire family works together to clean up all the toys that have been systematically removed from the designated location and placed on every square inch of floor throughout the house.
Of course, by the entire family I mean that Rizzo takes one kid and I take the other and we fight over cleaning up the toys. Some days this can be easy but most days this is like fighting a great white shark with a rubber band and some paper clips. Usually we have some mental breakdowns; first on the part of a kid for not wanting to clean up and then on the part of an adult because the kid is not cleaning up. Isn’t parenting fun?
7:00pm - Bedtime. This process can vary depending on the kid but here is the general idea.
Bath time
Dry off and jammies
Brush teeth
Comb hair
Kindle time (if time allows and only for Cece)
Books
Bed
Seems pretty straight forward but it hardly ever works out that way. It used to be Quentin was the easier of the two for bedtime. In one way he still is. Before the toddler bed you would finish up the books then sing Twinkle Twinkle twice then run out the door and he would be asleep in 37 seconds. Now, you have to sit in the room for awhile until he is asleep. At least you can take a book or a phone and get in some entertainment but it isn’t nearly as easy.
Cece takes more time but the older she gets the easier it is. After the books part of bedtime there is 5 minutes of snuggles where she is typically asking me questions to learn everything about everything. Most recently she wants to know how “insert anything here” is made such as lamps, dresses, rain, blood, etc. After that you leave the room for 5 minutes then go back to check on her. At this point you cover her up, kiss her goodnight, ignore the continued bombardment of questions, and run like hell. Most nights she will stay in her room. Some nights she will complain that it is too dark even though literally every light in the house is on with the exception of her bedroom light. I don’t think I have slept in a dark room in six years.
8:20pm - This is about the time we can get downstairs to take care of more household chores. This usually entails doing the dishes for the second, third, or fourth time of the day or doing something associated with laundry. I really need that Star Trek invention of the replicator to be a reality. That way we won’t have to have dishes to wash or clothes to wash, Just go to the replicator and say “Computer, today I’d like to wear some brown cargo shorts and a blue checkered button up shirt” and poof, there it is. That would be the life.
9:00pm - Now it is time to watch a TV show. Rizzo and I usually stick to 30 minute comedies just to make it easier. She is listening to podcasts that are rewatching (1) The Office and (2) Scrubs. So, when a podcast is released and she has listened to it we will watch the related show. Otherwise, we try new things on the various streaming platforms but when all else fails we fall back on Parks & Rec.
9:30pm - Time to take Ellie outside and head upstairs to read. Sometimes it devolves into watching videos on Instagram but we do try really hard to read a little bit each night.
Books on the nightstand
10:00pm - Lights out so we can do it all again tomorrow.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
