My day always involves multiple cups of coffee
I originally started to write a post about how I organise my life and time right now, but I realised I needed to set the scene first, and then the whole post was becoming so long I realised it was better to break it up.
So this is part 1, what life looks like right now on weekdays (weekends will be a separate post).
School/work commitments
My daughter (E) is in Grade 1, and my son (O) is in 3 year old kindy (preschool) in a long daycare centre. I usually go into the office 3 days a week and work from home two days. Husband Al works in his shop and does long days 2 weekdays (which are the days I work from home) and the weekend, and then heads in for a bit basically every day. But it means 3 days a week he can pick E up from school so I don't have to. So 2 days a week I pick E up from school at 2.30 and then work from home again from 3-4.30/5 pm. The other days I pick up O from daycare on the way I'm lucky that I have a lot of autonomy and flexibility in how I structure my hours, although I do have a big team of staff and students so it's quite a demanding role with a lot of moving pieces.
Day in the life- weekday mornings
I tend to go to bed early so I'm awake without an alarm usually anywhere from 4.30-5.30 am. First thing I do is make a coffee. If I'm lucky the kids will still be asleep and I can sit in the lounge in low light, drink coffee and read blogs, do Wordle, and read or even write a blog post in peace. At the moment, however, I'm lucky if I get 10 minutes before someone is awake, though if it's early they will often just curl up next to me. More trying is if they want to ask a thousand questions (E) or demand I play a puzzle or something (O). I do love this time of day, especially when the weathers nice and I can sit outside for a bit too and listen to the birds.
Current morning view
Around 6.30 I start to make the kids breakfast, usually my second coffee, and bring out my planner and make a plan for the day. I'll often also respond to any messages from family/friends then, as well as respond to emails/little tasks re the kids (permission slips, acknowledgment of a message etc). 7-8 is in full getting ready for school mode. E often does her homework up at the kitchen bench while I supervise and make the kids lunches, sometimes I'll make myself a breakfast smoothie while this is happening too (kill 3 birds with one stone!).
The work day
We are all out of the house between 8 and 8.15, and Al and I divide and conquer, with one of us taking E and one taking O. E is a 2 minute drive, O is a 10 minute drive. Kids tend to be dropped off by 8.30am, and then I'll either drive to the office listening to a podcast and be there by 9, or if working from home I'm back by 8.45. If I'm WFH I enjoy one quieter weekday to go to a local cafe and sit and spend an hour with a coffee doing some planning type work, for a change of scene. At work I usually try to do "deep work" in the morning, stopping at 12 for lunch (usually leftovers or a salad from home) and a walk outside (I try to squeeze in a 20 min walk every day no matter how busy I am), and the afternoons are usually meetings (usually on office days), and/or admin/managemeng type tasks (From home). I honestly really love the structure of my work days now, I used to be much more haphazard with meetings and found it hard to do "deep work", which was a source of stress and frustration. Just this year I've gotten into a good rhythm with this.
On office days I leave work about 4.30 to pick up O from daycare, and am home by 5.15. On home days I take a break at 2.20 to pick up E and we are back and im back at my desk by 3pm to do another couple of hours. E is pretty good these days at entertaining herself, though of course not everyday - we definitely have our moments.
The evening
We allow the kids to have some screen time while one of cooks dinner, if it's Al I'll either enjoy half an hour to myself (preferably again outside) or potter around the house doing chores. If it's me on dinner duty I'll either chat to Al or listen to a podcast. Dinner is between 6-6.30, and by 7 the TV is off and kids do some "quiet playing" before bedtime routine (of course, this is not always quiet!). Depending on the day they may have a bath or shower (or this is sometimes in the morning), and then pjs, teeth and into bed for reading by 7.45/8. They share a room so there are often shenanigans at bedtime which is where "strict mummy" comes out. They are usually asleep by 8.30. I then get 30 mins to an hour to read/blog etc before I go to sleep.
I wish I could say I was totally undisturbed until morning but alas O in particular often still wakes up and comes in to us. He'll climb in for cuddles to go back to sleep, which isn't too bad but there are nights when he wakes up multiple times and my sleep is pretty disrupted. But E is almost 7 and she basically sleeps through every night so I can see this won't be forever.
3 is still a lot of work, but gee it's cute!
So there you have it. That is my typical weekday, with both its joys and challenges (usually both in every day!). Speaking of which, better start on making the kids breakfast (I'm a bit behind schedule today!). Have a great day everyone!