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Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Finding Balance with Four

 

 

One thing I'm absurdly proud of is our ability to get the kids to school on time with a newborn in the house.  It's a feat that takes supreme effort and requires everyone's cooperation in a finely timed sequence of events.

The optimal time for mom to rise and start the day is 6am.  This allows me to get loaded up with coffee and breakfast before my little clan has woken up.  This does not include baby because she's usually strapped to my chest in a sling and still needs to eat or is in some form of waking or pooping because that's literally all she does these days is eat, sleep and poop.  Sometimes pooping takes an hour or more to work through - but I digress. 

At 7am I wake up the other 3 kids along with dad and they loll about on the couches while watching Odd Squad on PBS.  This takes exactly 30 minutes which allows me to make everyone's breakfast.

At 7:30am they are all ushered to the table to enjoy a lovely hotel style continental breakfast of toast, favorite toppings, juice and coffee with the occasional scrambled egg if someone has managed to hold the baby while breakfast is prepared.  Having already eaten earlier means I can immediately begin preparing lunches while simultaneously unloading the dishwasher - again this only works well if someone agrees to hold the baby. 

At 8am they rush to get ready for school and we need to work on this timing because it's a bit too tight to get them out the door by 8:10 if the start getting dressed at 8:00.  I propose less talking at the breakfast table and faster eating to finish by 7:50 going forward.

At 8:00 I begin my morning exercise routine of squats and lifts by taking the baby back into my sling and loading the dishwasher. 

At 8:30 I retire to my office with baby still comfortably asleep in the sling and prepare myself for the upcoming workday.  This could include a blog post, Facebook or jumping directly into work to make the best of every possible working minute.  Clearly I've chosen the first option today! 


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