The Daily Grind

My mom is coming to watch the kids next week while I go with Brian to Mexico. He will be working and I will be lounging by the pool reading. I started to type out some basic "this is our day" stuff for my mom and realized it would be cool to have a record of it. So here you go: The Daily Grind

The Morning Rush

6:45 - get Emily and Aleah up. Collen usually wakes up too but she doesn't need to.

6:50-7:15

• Get dressed (it will speed things up if you grab Aleah's clothes)
• Eat (we usually eat cold cereal because it is the fastest, but whatever you want to make is fine)
• Hair, teeth potty (this takes Much Longer than it should so keep that in mind)

7:15 Start putting on winter gear

7:20 Out the door (7:25 latest) If Aleah is having a really hard time and if you feel like it you can offer to give her a ride to school. You should leave by 7:45 to get there in good time.

Morning: 7:30 -11:30

• Kate will usually wake up on her own between 7 and 8, let her sleep as long as she needs
• Eat, dress, etc
• Feed chickens, give them scraps from the day before and check for eggs
• Errands
• Play - Colleen likes playing with dolls and play food right now. Play dough is also a favorite (I think ours is dried up, but you guys could make some)
• Snack - Colleen often asks for a snack mid morning and I am ok with that. Sometimes we even eat "lunch" at 10 and have a snack at noon.

Lunch

• favorites include mac&cheese, tortillas and cheese, apple slices, pb&j or anything that you feel like.

Afternoon

• Kate goes down for a nap between 12:30 and 1. You might want to read a few stories and then carry her upstairs and put her in bed. She should only cry for 5-10 minutes before falling asleep.
• I usually let Collen watch a video while Kate takes a nap. Dora and Angelina Ballerina on Netflix are her current favorites.
• Emily and Aleah get home at 3:30
• Check for homework, practice piano/trombone
• Snack if desired
• Send one of them out to check for eggs
• Kate should wake up by4:30 - yes, she will still be able to fall asleep at night so let her sleep until she wakes up by herself

Evening

• Dinner between 5-6pm
• Chores: Aleah usually clears and wipes the table, Emily unloads the dishwasher and Colleen feeds National and helps set the table. Sometimes they like to trade and of course whatever chores you want to assign them in addition.
• 6pm start getting ready for bed
• Teeth, Pajamas, Potty!
• Scriptures & Prayer (if we had an early dinner or if I am feeling nice we will sometimes have dessert/snack during scripture time)
• Read a few book upstairs.
• Personal prayers
• Lights out 7-7:15pm
• After the Big Girls' lights are out carry Kate to her room, snuggle her in her blanket, rock her for awhile and lay her down. Hopefully, she will go to sleep. (I usually nurse her first, eek!) If she doesn't settle down well, keep her up until she is super tired and try again.
• Kate is pretty good about sleeping through the night. She will occasionally wake up and cry for a few minutes and then fall back asleep. If she doesn't settle down you can try rocking her and laying her back down or she usually will fall right back asleep if she can snuggle next to you in bed.
• If Kate wakes up and, after all your attempts to put her back to sleep, is bright and chipper she will stay awake for a good two hours before falling back asleep - seriously, it is like clockwork, so you might as well get up and pop in a movie.