The Opposite of Routine

I've never been one that must have routine. I don't follow the same schedule daily. I was never strict when the girls were small with their day-to-day routines. Sure I made sure they ate every two hours or so and bedtime was consistently 7:30 for as long as I can remember but it ended there. Routine isn't something I thought I needed, until now. 

Tomorrow is our last day without child care and I can’t tell you what a relief we are feeling. It’s been three weeks of splitting days with my husband, working from home with the kids, taking phone calls while scooping baby frogs out of the pool and wiping butts---no lie! These three weeks have been tiring, interesting, and the farthest thing from routine.

It has been tough in ways I didn’t expect. During the first week I really tried to work in the mornings with the girls. I would set them up with Playdoh or paint and then sneak off to my laptop for twenty minutes or so until the next activity was needed. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was not only unproductive for me but the girls were getting bored and feeling neglected as I would just set them up and run off, not to mention the five interruptions I’d get within those twenty minutes. After this realization, I tried my best to make sure we did something for entertainment each day. We went to the pool or the library, anything to get them out of the house and out from in front of the TV. This helped a ton! They were less bored, still not as stimulated as they are at school, but I saw a difference. My work suffered but something had to give.

One area I'm felt the most strain was the lack of time to myself. During my work day, I spend my lunch break running errands or going to the gym, taking time to catch up on reading blogs or writing a post. I didn’t get any of this time during these three weeks and I am feeling it. I feel tired and empty in regards to my energy. After my time with the girls, I went to work where I spent the afternoon catching up on emails and following up with my team; meetings filling almost every block of time I had. I feel I have nothing left to give. I have sat down, with at least one child glued to my side, a few times to write a blog post or an essay or really just anything but nothing comes. It’s been frustrating from that point, I know how good I’d feel if I could get something out onto paper. I look forward to time to myself once again, even if it’s just in small increments.

These three weeks haven’t been all bad. I have had more time with my girls than ever before. We’ve spent time as if I were a stay-at-home mama. We’ve been to open gym and the library, Target in the middle of the day. We’ve played dress-up and makeup, we’ve made cupcakes and painted. So while I am feeling tired at the end of this, I have a lot of moments to be thankful for. It’s hard to remain grateful in situations of inconvenience but looking back I’m grateful for every morning we snuggled in bed watching movies. I’m grateful I have a husband that was able to be home for half of the day with them. I’m grateful for every laugh and funny story I have to tell during this. I’m grateful for an employer and team that is understanding and flexible.

With all of this said, I’m looking forward to routine!! Daycare drop off and pick up, lunch time gym and being on top of my work. Also I can’t wait to hear how the girls like their new building. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for being patient with my lack of posting lately. I’m hoping there will be more "routine" soon!!