Our at-home routines

After sharing about each of our days from our San Diego trip, Allison commented on a post and ask if I could share what our routines look like when we're at home.

I don't know about you guys, but I love reading about what other mamas do with their days- schedules, routines, adventures, etc. It gives me new ideas to try with our own crew.

So today I'm going to share what our typical days look like.

This, by the way, is NOT what a typical day looks like 😂

Our Weekday Routine:

5-6:30ish - Me time
Workout, quiet time, coffee time. This is also when I take care of daily household/personal chores like empty the dishwasher, fold laundry, bills, email, etc.

6:30-7:00 - Kids wake up

7:00-9:00 - Morning time
Breakfast, play room time, reading time, watching a show, and getting everyone dressed for the day.



9:00 - Head out for our morning activity
We are out of the house between 9:00-9:15 every day unless we are hosting a play date. So  every day at this time, I load our kids in the car and do a mad dash through the house cleaning up toys, loading the dishwasher with breakfast dishes, and making myself a smoothie to go. This is usually a 5-10 minute stretch. The kids either look at toys/books in their carseats, or watch a little show in the car.



The first look when we get back into the house has always been a big deal to me, so I try to have it look as picked up as possible for when we return for naps. This doesn't always happen, but it's what I prefer.

9:00/9:30 - 1:00/1:30 - Morning Activity & Lunch 
In warm weather this includes parks, playgrounds, zoo, splash pad, or pool.
In cold or rainy weather, this includes the mall, Ikea, the library, an indoor play place like Catch Air or Hippo Hop, the Children's Museum, or a playdate at a friend's house.

My goal before getting in the car to drive home for naps is to have everyone full, changed or recently pottied, and with clean hands and faces.

1:30-3:00/3:30 - Naps/Dinner Prep
This is when I pick back up wherever I left off in the morning with laundry, dishes, bills, etc. Often times, I also prep dinner during nap time. If it's a casserole, I can make the whole thing and put in the in the refrigerator so it's ready to pop in the oven later. Otherwise, I make a sauce and leave it on simmer or at least chop all of the veggies and take care of other prep work that will make the dinner-making process faster when it's time.

3:30-5:30 - Fill time until Matt gets home- ha!
I'll be totally honest. This time of day varies so much for us because of the ages of our kids. Sometimes this looks like Ryan watching a show after nap, while I play with Natalie and Emily, and then all of us either play in the play room or go outside and play in the driveway. Sometimes we walk through the neighborhood or walk to the park. Sometimes we go down to the pool and swim. And other times our kids are eating dinner and taking baths before Matt even gets home because they're just having a more-tired-than-normal day.



5:30-7:30- Play, dinner, bath and bed
Matt is home most days by 5:45 (more on that below). When he gets home, we play with the kids until around 7:00 when we start the bath and bed routine. If we are eating all together (more on that below), we'll play first, then eat and head up for bath. We try to be out of everyone's rooms by 7:30/8:00.

8:00-10:00 - Us time
We try not to do any work during these hours, and this includes multi-tasking work like folding laundry while watching a show. I try to take care of all of that stuff during morning hours and nap-time hours so we can both have chill time together at the end of each day. Often times we'll eat on the porch or sit out there with a glass of wine and talk about the day and whatever else we're planning at the time (it seems like there always something to talk through calendar-wise in this stage of life!) Just being 2 feet from the kitchen and actually outside feels like such good separation from the endless "stuff" there is to do inside the house. I so look forward to this time!

This was us the night before we left for our San Diego trip- I can't even handle the amount of pollen that was on the table in this pic, but that didn't keep us from getting outside and relaxing for a bit after the kids were asleep!

Additional Notes:

Lunch:
I almost always pack our lunches, unless part of our morning activity involves the Chick-Fil-A playground. And I'll tell you, it is not abnormal for us to spend 2 hours in a Chick-Fil-A: playing, coming to the table for the lunch, playing more, coming back to the table for ice-cream (and in case it's not common knowledge: kid's meal toys can be exchanged for a kid's ice-cream). So sometimes, Chick-Fil-A IS the morning activity. :)

In my car:
I keep diapers, wipes, disinfecting wet wipes, and hand sanitizer. I really don't like putting dirty kids in bed for naps! So clean diapers, clean hands, and clean faces are what we shoot for before heading home for naps.

Naps:
It is not uncommon for all 3 of our kids to fall asleep on the drive home for naps, so when we get home, I carry each one upstairs and put them in their cribs/beds for the rest of nap time. They do wake up as I carry them upstairs, but they fall back asleep in their cribs. I know not all kids transfer, but ours always have, so that's how we roll if they fall asleep in the car.



When Matt gets home:
Matt has worked his schedule around so that he can be home most days by 5:45. And some days he's home even earlier.
This. is. everything.



But for real. I realize this isn't a possibility for every family, but if there is any flexibility with your husband's hours and you feel like you need that extra support earlier than you are getting it, speak up and then appreciate! Having him home early every day has been so so helpful since adding Emily to our family. And I'll add quickly that he's always been good about being home early by typical work standards, but he bumped this up even more after Emily, and I really couldn't appreciate it more. We all love having him home early to play before the nighttime routine begins! I and think everyone welcomes a new face for entertainment by the time the 5 o'clock hour hits. ;)

Sometimes we'll walk to the park after Matt gets home and have a picnic dinner. The beauty of this stage is picnic food totally qualifies as dinner for little people. In fact, they prefer it. ;)

Dinner prep:
Prepping dinner during nap was a big change I made when we added Emily, and it has made the evening hours before Matt gets home SO much smoother! I think it totally depends on the ages and personalities of your kids though. If you're kids are happy to have some independent down-time during dinner-making time, I definitely don't think this is a necessary step. And some nights, we eat later, and Matt will take the kids outside to play or down to the basement to play while I cook. This is a super sweet setup I highly recommend. ;)

When one sneaks back upstairs to help me finish prepping dinner :)

Eating all together:
This is obviously our goal when our kids are older, but it happens probably 2 times/week in this stage. It is SO much easier for me to have the kids fed before Matt gets home than try to eat together as a family once he gets home. So some nights Matt and I will eat after the kids are down which gives us good time to talk and enjoy a meal together, and other nights I'll have a plate ready for him when he walks in the door and we'll both eat while we play with the kids.

"eating" all together

Bedtime routine:
When Matt and I went away for our ski trip back in February, I was preparing a schedule for my parents while we were gone, and literally almost wrote "crap shoot" for the 5-8 hours. I am happy to say we are in a much better groove these days with just 3 more months of growing up under our belts. Hah!

Emily was 6 weeks old in this pic- it was 9:00pm and everyone was in our bed

With three young kids, the bedtime routine part of the day can be a little crazy, but what seems to work best for us now is doing a bath with all three kids, then separating tasks: one of us takes Emily to her room for her bottle, pjs, stories and bed, while the other takes the big kids to Ryan's room for pjs, potty, teeth and stories.

Once Emily is down, the four of us usually read one story in Ryan's bed before I take Natalie to her room, and then Matt and I read one more story with Ryan before he goes to sleep. This whole stretch after bath is about 20-30 minutes.



So by now, you either feel totally overwhelmed or have some new ideas to try out with your own family! Hahah, hopefully it's the latter. I am clearly not an expert on scheduling, and have used a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best for us, so if you don't feel like you're in a groove with your days right now, either change it or embrace it.



I did a whole lot of embracing it for the first several months of being at home with 3. There's really only so much organizing and planning ahead for ideal scenarios when you're momming little people. So instead of feeling like you're failing, accept that tomorrow's a new day and try to highlight in your mind as much of the sweetness of little-people-life as you can. You are doing a good job, mama!!