i’ve decided i’m just routine challenged. i think i’m just too ADD to consistantly keep a regular routine. doesn’t mean i’m going to completely quit and not ever even try and just let our day go where the wind blows…just means that i’m going to stop beating myself up for not being able to do what my enki curriculum says that i need to do for my children.
yes, i do agree that both of my children would benefit greatly from a consistant routine. but the fact of the matter is that they have a mom that struggles so greatly with trying to maintain a routine that it constantly stresses me out and is making me so grumpy all the time. that’s not healthy either. i think that might actually be worse than no consistant routine.
so i’m going to hack up my routine again and make it very loose…i mean everyone does SOME routine in their day…we all eat 3 meals and go to sleep at nite…so at the very least they can count on that…in our family we do have more than that that can be counted on too…our mornings are going pretty well…we get up, we watch a little tv to wake up (i’ll eventually try to eliminate this but frankly i need it right now to entertain the kiddos so i can run around and do a few things that i see need doing and start breakfast…its much more peaceful right now if they watch a little pbs while i do that)…i change tyren’s diaper (another reason i need the tv on because he nearly always pitches a fit for diaper changes and the tv can often distract him)…i read my email and start breakfast. that’s pretty consistant and i can make a concerted effort to make it more consistant. say, have a specific time that the tv goes off…so like let them watch one 30min show or something and then it goes off. (otherwise maeven will sit there all morning in front of the damn thing if i let her).
after breakfast we try to tidy the kitchen a little…at the very least, clean our spaces at the breakfast table and sweep tyren’s throwings. and then we get dressed, put tyren on my back, and we go for a walk. that’s something new the past couple months and its going really well. especially now that its cooling off finally. yesterday maeven asked to ride her bike and that went really well so i think i’m going to encourage her to do that every day…she needs the practice and exercise. (she WHINES if i make her walk the whole short walk…usually rides in the wagon and that defeats the whole purpose of getting exercise…i mean i’m getting exercise but she needs it too…especially since she complains so much about her legs hurting if we walk just a short distance!)
after our walk we come back home and that’s where i need a little work. yesterday we had a snack as soon as we got in and that worked out well…on our schedule we are supposed to have a circle time (which we haven’t done yet because i haven’t gotten it ready yet) and then maeven is supposed to have some creative play time while tyren and i shower…but we had such a late walk yesterday that i decided we could all use a snack right away and so we did that and i read her a couple bobbsey twin chapters during snack and that really was nice. nice and relaxed. i think i like that a lot better than coming home and splitting up right away.
and i don’t think i’m going to have circle time ready for awhile still…actually, my curriculum says it might not work for some families to have a formal circle, but instead do the songs/movements throughout the day…i wanted to really try doing the circle but just haven’t had time to sort through it so for now i’m going to try to just learn one new movement song and add it to our day. then once we get that down, i’ll add another. that might work better for us. maeven’s never enjoyed circle times anyway…although i was thinking that when its circle with just her, me and tyren she might not fight it so much. with other kids she tends to not want to participate.
at that point in the morning, i need some work…because what i have on my chart i haven’t been doing…then pretty soon the morning is over and its lunch. time flies! so i think i have far too much crammed onto the schedule between bfast and lunch. i do need to find time in there for my shower and maeven’s project. but tyren goes down for a nap before lunch often…so i think what i’ll do is hold off on the project until tyren is asleep. maybe even hold off on lunch til then…it seems to happen that way anyway. its not unusual for us to have a fairly late lunch because it can sometimes take awhile to get tyren down. he will be cranky and obviously sleepy but he will FIGHT going to sleep! so i spend a lot of time rocking and nursing while maeven does her own thing. not a bad thing, because she needs alone play time. but it just wasn’t working with the routine i had on paper because it threw everything off. so i need to work that in somehow.
after lunch the afternoon has pretty much been just falling where it goes…but we do have different things for our afternoon “adventure time” that have dictated the days…mondays we have errands/shopping, tuesdays nana/bompa time (my folks come from about 2-4 to play w/the kids so i can catch up on housework)…wednesdays are maeven’s art class and baking day. we try to get the baking supplies on monday shopping day then do baking before her 3:30 class. thursdays we take a nature adventure…this week we packed up a picnic lunch and ate at woodward park and fed the ducks…and fridays we go to jen’s house and maeven gets to play with the girls for the afternoon on margaret hudson’s beautiful property…social time for all of us! so the afternoon adventure time has been going quite well!
maybe i’m not doing so bad afterall….LOL
i do need some work on getting dinner ready consistantly cuz evenings just sort of happen without structure…daddy’s home and we just play/relax…dinner is often very late. bedtime routine for maeven is very set though…9pm starts pjs, teeth brushing, stories. adam makes sure of that.
well i’ll have to get all this on paper later today because it really doesn’t look all that bad now that i detailed it out. LOL
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