This year Mother’s Day falls on the same day as one of my good friends and colleague’s birthday, who will go unnamed here, just because…reasons… You know who you are!
This guy was (and still is) very meticulous in his work. If he said he would do something, that was a guarantee that it would be done, no matter the cost to him. In short, he is just one of the most dependable guys I know.
So in honor of him, and because some people have asked, here’s my approximate daily schedule:
4:30 – 5:30: Wake up, disturbed at the lack of electricity (we usually have electricity at night and it cuts at this time in the morning, variable) and I have my morning devotions and then spend the rest of the time until my boys wake up filling in logs, making to-do lists, writing in general.
6 – 6:30: My boys wake up, one usually waking the other. On some rare occasions, one will sleep in until 7am because of a rough night.
6:30 – 7: Directing my boys in getting ready for the day. The youngest is nearly 3 years old, so he still needs some help. Sometimes I switch up with my husband and he gets the kids ready while I make breakfast.
7 – 7:30: Breakfast and dishes. Yes, the kids clear their things, wash their dishes, dry them, and put them away. If everyone finishes at the same time, I wash all the dishes, my oldest boy dries them, and the two youngest put things away.
7:30 – 8:15: I give my boys their morning devotions and memory and review time. I start with a simple Bible story for the youngest (while he’s still fresh) and then if he gets tired of the reading and discussion with the older boys, he’s free to play quietly. The older boys are six and nine, so their comprehension, as well as application of what we’re reading, goes much deeper than the two-year-old.
8:15 – whenever: School time. I homeschool my kids and I give them a little bit of every subject, for various reasons. One main one is to not overwhelm them (a half hour max on each topic). Another reason is because there’s so much to cover and not enough time. They do the 3Rs and the 3Gs: reading, writing, ‘rithmetic, general science, general social studies, general history and geography. I will do a deeper dive into the kids’ schooling material that I use and why I use it and for what ages, etc. Since I’ve been asked about it a lot. The ‘whenever’ mentioned above in the time slot is because sometimes they are inspired to move really fast through the work and sometimes they have a harder time. But I allow them to free play whenever they are done with their work, and they can decide for themselves if they want to spend the whole morning doing their academic work or not.
12 – 12:30 – Lunch and dishes.
12:30 – 1 – The youngest one still naps until 3pm or so, and he likes me to sit with him while he falls asleep. I use this opportunity to catch up on social media.
1 – 1:30 – I rest my eyes while listening to a yoga nidra audio, sometimes it’s a binaural audio with a gong at the end to wake me up IF I have fallen asleep.
1:30 – 3 – I work on the JcNuggets, blog-related writing and maintenance, and the 12 Foundation Stones course related work, while my youngest still sleeps and the older two read books from off their shelf.
3 – 3:30 – My boys have a smoothie or an orange for a snack, so that’s prep, eat, and clean up.
3:30 – 4:30 – My boys have free play time (train tracks, Legos, cars, puzzles, etc) together or apart, while I catch up on their school records, school planning, and prep for anything coming up.
4:30 – 6 – They have outside playtime. We start with running (because if they don’t burn off some energy… well, they’re boys). I’m training for a 5K (without the race at the end), just to build up some stamina, and they come along with me as best they can. Then they ride their bicycles, build an obstacle course out of buckets and planks of wood and whatever else we have on hand, kick around a football, play with the dogs, feed the chickens, help with the weeding or other outside clean-up jobs that need to be done.
6 – 6:30 – Dinner. My two older boys are developing larger appetites so it takes them longer to eat.
6:30 – 7 – Dishes and kitchen clean up, making yogurt for the next day, etc.
7 – 8 – The boys shower, and then play and/or watch a video while I shower.
8pm – The lights are out while the boys listen to some audio that will quiet them and give them something positive to think about while they drift off, most times it’s Bible-based.
The boys all drop off to sleep sometime between 8 and 9:30 depending on how active they were mentally and physically during the day. I again use this time to catch up on social media and research different topics that I wanted to look into. If I get a proofreading job (my side hustle), this is the time I work on it.
9:30 – whenever – I spend time with my husband and what we do during that time is none of your business! 😉
So there’s my general schedule in a nutshell. There is always a give and take because of the Nigerian factor. A lot of my schedule revolves around electricity or lack thereof.
Hope you found it interesting. I’d like to hear different people’s schedules too and how they manage to get done what they get done. Share yours, if you’d like, in the comments below or in the ‘contact’ form. Will be happy to hear from you!