Our normal daily schedule at the moment looks something like this....
7:20 - 8:20 am - take kids to school & Kindergarten on foot. (Scott to work)
8:30-10 - Grocery shopping or teach my exercise classes.
10-12 - Cora nap. (shower, housework, prep dinner or things for Sunday callings, journaling/photo blogging)
12-2- Eat lunch and feed Cora, play with Cora and try to do chores at the same time, usually with her in the backpack or playing with toys on the floor...and the garbage cans!
2:00 - pick up the kids from school & Kindergarten (mostly by car).
3:00 - 4:30 - Cora 2nd nap. (boys usually need a lot of attention in this time)
4:30 - 5:30 Usually busy trying to keep all 3 kids happy while I try to make dinner, set the table, clean up the apartment, and "listen" to their stories with one ear and glances at their eyes.
5:30 - family dinner
6:00 - 7 Bedtime (jammies, brush teeth, scriptures study, prayers....and the kids always manage to finagle some kind of playing in here whether it's wrestling with dad, goofing off with each other, or getting out an art project all-of-a-sudden.)
7:15 - FREEDOM!.......to clean up dinner, get the laundry in the dryer, answer emails, and prep for the next day. :)
Of course, we fit visiting teaching, home teaching, occasional evening meetings and activities in there also. Play dates with other kids, swim lessons, speech therapy, dental appointments, school Christmas parties, birthday parties, parent teacher conferences, and service to those who need a listening ear, a helper, a temple recommend interview, etc. All these things push the naptimes and cooking and other chores around, so there is often much left undone, and lots waiting for me to "catch up" on.
I will forget how busy life was when I am 50. I know I will. So, this is to remind me what life was like with 3 little kids.
Sometimes I dream of when things will get easier, but I know that they always say around here "Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems." But things do change quickly with kids. One year to the next often has very different activities and schedules. My life changed drastically when the 2 boys stopped napping....and then again drastically when I had a napping baby again.
I hope when Aaron goes to school in the same building as Timmy that that will help cut down a bit of the pick up and drop off time that we have with two buildings. Also, Timmy will be big enough that he should be able to walk with Aaron alone to school, which would be SO nice. Of course, Aaron will also have homework.
We also long to fit in more exercise in our day, more time cooking really healthy meals, more family downtime, more meaningful discussions together, date nights as a couple, more meaningful service to others....it's hard to know if you are balancing & prioritizing things right.
This is our general schedule and life for this moment; it won't be forever. So, here is a "snapshot" in this moment for me to remember, whatever that might be worth later.
Timmy beim Weihnachts Basteln
Aaron building a Thomas train
Aaron's "Mensch" that he thought up and made all by himself.
Cora on daddy's shoulders
**I'll add that (a week later), I am up on Saturday night at 11:45, because living in Germany as an LDS woman means that you have to prepare music time, sharing time and a sunday school lesson for the 8-11 year olds for Sunday meetings.
Everyone had a great time. I was the one who was mostly disappointed. I wrote to Aquana though, and they were nice and apologized for not calling (or really getting my information so that they could have called) when they decided to close for cleaning for several days. They invited us all to come for free in January together. So, we will enjoy that.
