I'm not good at establishing routines. I've never been good at it, and sometimes I don't like the thought of them. It makes me feel like I get in a rut if I'm too routine oriented. But with a 5 month old I've finally learned that I need at least something that kind of resembles a routine.
The first couple weeks in California were crazy busy full of trying to get this place to look and feel livable. The next couple weeks were full of (somewhat annoying) stuff. DirecTV finally (kind of) getting it right on the 3rd time. A brand new washing machine that ran twice and broke. We've had 2 repairmen and now we've been told to call Home Depot and replace it. Some electrical problems. I could go on... but I'll just leave it at that. There were A LOT of people in and out of this place/on the roof, and they all seemed to hammer, drill and pound during nap time.
I finally felt like I was starting to feel settled, and then the visits began. I've absolutely loved every minute of it, but it does make meal/nap/exercise/laundry/cleaning time difficult to stick to. I looked at a calendar and realized that over a 25 day period we've either had/have visitors or will be visiting for 20 of those days.
The past 5 days my brother and his wife have been here and we've been going pretty much all day everyday. My little G man has done great, but yesterday I felt like he was tired of going. So today is our down day while the others are out playing.
All things considered, I've done pretty well, and so has G, at the routine process. I have a laundry day now, just once a week. For about the first month of Garrett's life I felt like I was doing laundry everyday and it kind of made me crazy. Now I do it all on Mondays and it works really well. I have a cleaning day, we have a chiropractor day, a farmers market day. We go for a walk everyday. I'm working on finding a good grocery shopping day, and we usually have a 'new adventure' day. That's where I look something up online and program an address in the GPS and G and I head out to see something new. All the rest of the time we play, nap, watch movies, read stories, etc. He has his alone time and I do too and it's working well. My goal is to keep Saturday and Sunday cleaning/laundry/work free so we can spend quality time together as a family on the weekends.
I wish I was one of those wives and moms who's house is always clean, kids clothes are perfect and new looking, a well balanced dinner is on the table every night at 5PM, beds are made, there's nothing rotten in the fridge, toys aren't strewn through every room in the house, and I want it all to look effortless. But until then, I'll continue to celebrate these small accomplishments.
4 comments:
do you know any mom that can keep her kids the put together for longer than 5 minutes? I don't. I'm glad you take time for adventures!!!! That's where you will hit the 'stellar' mom mark:D
How funny - lately I've been trying to be a little more relaxed and not stress about the days that Langdon is "off schedule." We'll survive, I tell myself. It's hard to balance giving them the routine and structure they need, while also being flexible.
And also, the type of mom you describe who is all put together doesn't exist. They're just for show on blogs. And those blogs aren't worth reading. ;) They make the rest of us feel incompetent. We all have to pick and choose our priorities and run with it - doing the best with what we've got.
...totally understand where you're coming from with routines! I don't even have kids and I can't keep our house as neat as I would like. :) Can't wait to see you guys next month!
I like your new adventure day concept! There is so much stuff to see/experience when you move somewhere new, but if you don't make a point of going, you end up in the same couple places forever. I commend you :)
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