What a Life!

Well, we seem to be doing pretty well with our daily routine. We made supper, washed the dishes, and did baths before Steve got home from work. The house wasn’t as tidy as I wanted it to be, but it was a far more peaceful evening than usual. We were able to spend the evening enjoying being together as a family instead of the usual mayhem. The only glitch was when Steve told Ben to go get his jammies and he couldn’t because they were put away instead of laying on his bed as they usually are – they had actually been folded by Ben and put away by me (their dresser drawers are pretty hard for him to open still).

My morning routine seems to be working very well also, except that when I when I finish it, I need to schedule “crash” for about an hour afterwards. Ben made his bed by himself this morning (well, it wasn’t perfect, but I only had to coach him a little), and he has also started to take initiative and at least start the morning getting-dressed process by himself. But by the time I do all the little things, including my morning walk, I’m beat. As in, don’t ask me to do anything productive. Perhaps this is why I usually find myself at the computer, checking email, surfing blogs, and finally posting in my own blog around this time.

Homeschoolers talk about starting school stuff immediately after breakfast (before everyone disappears and starts doing their own thing). That makes sense, but I’m thinking that’s not going to work for us, at least not right now. Ben seems to be able to best entertain himself after breakfast. He’ll either play with Joey, read his favorite books (which he’s doing right now) or go play outside for a while. I’m thinking that needs to continue. Then when he starts to get bored and turn into a pesky fly, I’ll switch gears and do some activities that directly involve him, like baking or cleaning or whatever else I have up my sleeve.

One thing I’m stuck on is when to shop groceries. Starting next week, we’ll be going to the library for story time on Tuesday mornings. Shopping groceries after that (instead of after playgroup on Fridays as is our usual custom) might work well. The thing is, I hate shopping for groceries and getting all this nice produce and then not getting it cooked up before it’s no longer nice. One might think I’d have more time to cook on the weekend, but now I’m thinking that might not be so. If I’m going to be cooking during the week to keep Ben busy and Ben likes to help Steve on the weekends (he’s tired of me, I guess), the weekends might be the best time for my “break” so to say.

Regardless, we need to go to the grocery store in one shape or form today as I am out of bread and I don’t think I’ll be making any myself (though that is an option). I need to at least make a menu for the rest of the week so I can make some kind of decision on that. Going to town is easy entertainment for the boys, but I don’t like doing it every day as Steve complains if we make too many trips and going every day would wear me out anyway. Two or three trips a week seems to be enough.

Now I’m off to cook some rice for supper. [Yes, I already know what we’re having for supper and it’s not 5:17 p.m. yet – imagine!]