Keeping it all together

One of the challenges I ran into being a new stay at home mom was keeping our family on a schedule. Being a working mom everything was very rigidly scheduled. Although I was happy to kick our feet up and kick our once rigid lifestyle to the curb I quickly realized our lives still needed to be somewhat scheduled in order to maintain a sane household! So I began my "family schedule task." I started by observing our family's patterns ex. when we woke up, when we ate, played etc. Next step, establishing a routine that worked for all of us. Here's a look at an example of a day at our house ( I apologize in advance for the lengthy explanation eeks!)

• My husband wakes up and starts his morning routine and heads to work.

• I get up shortly after him and start my morning routine. I find that getting up before my kids allows me to not only have a little time to myself but also get a head start on my daily household chores. The more I get done before the kids wake up the more time I have to dedicate to just them during the day.

• Once my kids are awake we have breakfast.We usually try to stay busy doing crafts, play dates, walks etc. until lunch.

• I try to keep lunch time at the same time everyday so my kids know about when to expect it. 

• After lunch is quiet time. Phew! We all benefit from quiet time! Although my oldest doesn't actually nap anymore this is when I allow some T.V. time and it provides him with some much needed down time. Quiet time is also known as "my time" for me. This is when I can catch up on cleaning, blogging, phone calls etc.

• After quiet time we stay busy with fun activities such as playing with toys, going outside, taking a trip to the park etc.

• Once my husband is home we try to keep that as relaxed family time. 
•  My husband usually entertains the kids while I prepare dinner (or vice verse he's actually the better cook shhh.)
• After supper it's time to clean up and RELAX we usually allow our kids to watch a show on T.V. before our bedtime routine begins.
• Bedtime consists of baths, books, and bed.

 I find that consistency not only helps our children but also helps us as parents. If everyone knows in advance what to expect I find the days (usually) run smoother! Please share with me your daily routines I would love to hear what helps smooth out the wrinkles in your day!