Sorry. No photos for this one. Just ramblins’. No cute grandkid, no very, very handsome husband. Just words. Skip to the next one if you aren’t interested in daily routines. 🙂
April 23, 2011
“So…What do you DO all day?” That’s the ultimate question that most stay at home moms get from time to time. Haley Sass’ answer would be that we all sit around and eat bon-bons and watch our shows. Well, since quitting my day job and moving to Kansas, I haven’t been hurtin’ for anything to do. Plus, we don’t have TV, so I don’t have any “shows” to watch. Here’s my typical schedule. It’s what my ideal day would be once I get all The Junk out of the way.
6am-Feed
6:40am-See Matt off to work
6:45-Breakfast
(R nap from 6:45am-10am)
7:00-10:00am-Work in house-morning workout
10:00am-Feed
(11:30-2pm R afternoon nap)
11:30-2pm Work in house-afternoon workout
2pm-Feed
3pm-4:30 play with R outside.
4:30 Start Supper
6pm-Feed R
This is the tricky part. Matt works from 7am to 7pm in the summer months (March to October). Then during planting and harvesting, the times could be from 7am to 10pm. We are currently in the beginning stages of planting and Matt is averaging 80 hours a week. It’s been a little hard determining when supper is started or when it goes on the table. However, by 9pm this is what’s going on:
9:00pm-pump, clean dishes from supper, fold clothes that haven’t been done, make Matt’s lunch for the next day.
10:oo-feed R, get her ready for bed
11:15-bed
That schedule is pretty much what we do every day except on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
On Sundays we go to Sunday School and church in the morning. Sunday night has been devoted to staying at home and having family time, since Matt isn’t home much during the week. Wednesdays are my town days. I go to a mom’s bible study in the morning, and then I do all my town business in the afternoon. I’m usually home by 4pm to start the evening chores. Thursdays are the same except on Thursday evening; I go to an exercise class. Since it is just now spring time here, they are meeting at a local park to walk the trails. During the walking sessions the women pray with their partners.
I like order and I like schedules, so I do my chores on certain days (or ideally like to do them on certain days). For instance: Monday: Mop, Tuesday: wash/dust, Wednesday: sweep/vacuum (we have all tile floors, so the floors get a good sweeping on this day) Business in town. Thursday: wash/dust Friday: bathroom Saturday: Wash/dust (it’s an old house and generates its own dust…And we live in Kansas…dirt/sand everywhere), change sheets. Sunday: off
During some the of the down time I accomplish these: feeding R, working out, and in town work. Of course I do the things that I want to do: read, study, roam the internet, read my favorite blogs, download books on my Kindle, visit Matt in the fields, etc.
Update: July 10, 2011
Above was written a couple of months ago. The Junk is not out of the way, but there is a small path through The Junk. The routine has steadily changed as The Kid has changed. Matt’s hours have gotten longer and we had to change R’s schedule around to make sure she would grow up knowing who her dad was. So our schedule is something like this now:
6am-nurse, then back down 20min later for rest of sleep
6:45-7:45 bed for mama, read, sleep, etc.
8:00-10:00 Workout
10:00-shower/eat/read/sweep
11:00 R up for the day-Nurse/Feed
11:30-1:00pm R time: visit Wooster, outside time, play time, sweep floor, swing time
1:00pm-R down for nap
1:00-3:00 Workout
3:00-Computer time/read/blog/tv time
4:00-Eat/sweep—if R wakes up early, swift walk around block for 15 min (in the carrier…not stroller…WHOLE ‘nother story there)
4:30-nurse/feed
5:00-7:00 R time: visit Wooster, outside, walk on Thursdays in town, bake, clothes
7:00-9:00-make supper/R 30 min nap sometime during that time/dishes
9:00-9:30 Eat
10:00 Nurse/Feed
10:30 Wooster’s lunch for next day/clean up/sweep
11:00-bedtime/read
Midnight-lights out!
Workout Monday through Thursday from 8-10am, 1-3pm
Clean/organize/decorate-Friday/Saturday from 8-10am, 1-3pm
Off on Sunday
Not every day is on schedule, but it is really close to it. Right now, Wooster is getting home around 8:45-10pm. He likes to feed R her last meal of the day, so I stretch her if he’s close, if not, I feed her. Her bedtime gets pushed back a little to accommodate him and his time with her. I can handle her being ill because her time with him is VERY important more than me having quiet. It’ll be quiet later on. As I’m writing this, he left out at midnight to shut a pump off and won’t be back for about 45 minutes. He’ll be back up tomorrow morning around 5am or 6am to get things checked before church tomorrow morning. Last week we didn’t make it to church because of some pivot problems that didn’t get him back to the house until 11:15am. By the time he had changed, and we were headed down the road it was near noon. So, we missed church. Do we get bored?? Big nope to that one. Wooster doesn’t have time to get bored. R and I are busy and find other things to do if we get bogged down with conditioned air. So the Ultimate Question is still asked by people that don’t understand what goes on here in rual Kansas. Sometimes my answer is “I get to do what you wish you could do during the week when your job gets in the way.” But that sounds a bit snippish, so I’m selective to who I say it to.
