Life these days

Having been accused of becoming a bit repetitive in my blogging recently (can you believe it?... Don't answer!) I've taken it onboard and today's post will be something completely a bit different.

Your photos this week come from my kitchen, rather than the garden, since a person can take too many photos of trees and flowers.  Apparently.

Lemon slice and cup of tea

The fact is, I write this blog mainly as a record for myself (but also to keep faraway family and friends up to date because I loathe talking on the phone).  So, for posterity, here is a snapshot of how my days go, these days.  Kind of a time capsule to look back on in years to come.

If that sounds ineffably dull, I won't blame you for clicking away now.  Otherwise, pull up a pew.

Ham and cheese mini quiches

So, let's begin!  We'll start at the time my alarm goes off every morning: 7am.  Although I can't actually remember the last time I was woken by the alarm.  We're normally up (or awake, at least) long before.

Right - at 7am my alarm goes off.  A is usually in our bed already, indulging in the hitting, eye gouging and fish hooking that only a very small child can get away with.  When the alarm goes it's my cue to get J up.  She comes into our bed too for her morning milk (I know, controversial at her age) and the whole family snuggles in for a few minutes before the fights break out and it's clearly time to get up.

Get dressed, stoke fire, turn heaters off in girls' rooms and open their windows.  Let the cat out.  Get some toys out, make breakfasts, change nappies.

Before 8am: everyone's eaten breakfast and is hopefully dressed for the day.  Empty and re-stack dishwasher, pack J's backpack and make her lunch if it's a kindy day, then everyone into the car for coffee run/kindy drop off.

My signature tomato and cheese pasta.  I'm fasting as I write this and I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow

We're home again by 9am, then it's time for morning snacks for the girls while I make up A's bottles for the day (she's down to three at this stage).  Play time, maybe an errand or outing, another nappy or two, maybe a short nap for A if she started her day very early, then lunch for them about 11.30am, followed by milk for A, into jammies (B made a rod for my back months ago when he put J in her pyjamas for her midday sleep.  She is a stickler for correctness and now insists on pyjamas for all sleeps), clean nappies, and bed for both by 12 noon.

I then tidy up (I can't relax with mess all about the place so have accepted that I will be tidying up several times a day), have lunch, make calls or do tasks that can't be done with kids underfoot, then read or scroll my phone until A wakes up.  I feel no compunction about doing basically nothing during naptime.  The rest of the day - and night - is busy enough.

Oh man

A usually wakes sometime between 1 and 2pm, but if not I wake both girls at 2.30pm.  If it's a kindy day, this is when we go to pick up J.  Home for snacks, some quiet play inside, maybe another errand or trip to the park if the weather's fine.  Unless the weather is terrible we always spend some time outside at home in the late afternoon, looking at the flowers, bringing in firewood, checking the letterbox and generally pottering about.

Light the fire, turn heaters on and draw the curtains in the girls' rooms, bring nappies and pyjamas to warm by the fire, prepare girls' dinner.  They eat by 5pm.  Clean up while they have quiet play.

Had to sneak one flower photo in on you.  It is still my blog after all

Run the bath.  A goes first with J sitting on my lap "helping".  Then J entertains herself while I give A her bottle and put her to bed by 6pm.  Then J has her bath while I tidy up the last of the toys and pour her milk.  J has her milk, then a couple of books, and bed by 6.30pm.  I pop back into her room after a few minutes to "check" - she started resisting bedtime and this little ritual helps her to go down happily.

Dinner prep is an equal opportunity task shared between me and B, we eat sometime before 7.30pm, shower, watch some tv, read some blogs, lock the cat in and feed him, then to bed at around 9.30pm.  A usually wakes anywhere from twice to a dozen times (I wish I was exaggerating) overnight.  I give her a bottle sometime between 2am and 5am, whenever she can't/won't settle back quickly.  She's up for the day anywhere from 4.30 to 6.30am.

Rinse and repeat until the end of time.



Thanks for reading along.  Hopefully this wasn't too tedious for those of you who made it this far.

How long do you reckon I can keep the 6/6.30pm bedtimes going for?