With the new year, we have a new flow to our day. It's pretty similar to what we were doing before, but I've tweaked some things and added a few habits to help me reach my goals for the year.
Ben and I have started going to be at 10 pm and waking up at 6:30 am together. We give ourselves about ten minutes to wake up, use the bathroom, drink water, etc. Then we do ten to fifteen minutes of yoga together. We find a video on YouTube to follow along with and love it. It's easy enough that it's not hard to get out of bed to do it, but we always feel so good afterwards and it really sets the tone for my morning.
After we finish our yoga, we have lemon water. I say prayers and plan my day, then write in my journal while I drink it. Then I write in my novel for about half an hour, until I get the girls, while I eat a balance bar.
I get the girls around 7:30 and get them something to eat (usually fruit and a balance bar) and turn on nursery rhymes for Rylee. Then I exercise. I do hit exercises, so I'll do an exercise and then work on clearing out the dishwasher until I can breathe easily again and then do another exercise. I usually do four to six rounds. Sometimes I do arms (with things like push ups), lower (jumping squats and lunges), abs, cardio, or practice Irish dance. It depends on what I feel like doing that day and how sore I am from previous exercises.
Once I'm done with exercising and dishes, I make eggs for Ben and I and get the girls more food. I eat and then get ready for the day (and shower if needed), while the girls finish eating and are still watching nursery rhymes.
Once I'm ready for the day, we turn off the nursery rhymes and I get the girls going on getting themselves ready for the day while I finish cleaning the kitchen. Then I do the girls' hair and we're all ready for the day in a clean house.
We usually finish this around 9:30 or 10:00. Then we start our homeschool. We keep things really simple so that we can be consistent with it. We focus on reading. I pick a book Rylee will like, one that Parker wants, and we read out of The Friend magazine. Then Ashtyn reads me a book. Right now we're focusing on pre-level 1 and Dr. Seuss books. After she reads to me for five to ten minutes, I pull out the chapter book I'm currently reading to them (currently, we're reading the first Harry Potter book).
After reading, we do journals (I write as they dictate what they want to say and then they can draw a picture in their journal if they want) and a homeschool activity. Our activity varies widely from day to day. I have a couple places online where I collect activity ideas (email and Pinterest) to choose sometimes. These might be things like making trails out of pillows we try to balance on or throwing pom poms into cups. Sometimes we do worksheets or crafts. Sometimes, the girls simply want to draw or play, which I'm totally fine with. On Fridays, our activity is chores.
We then hang out until lunch. A lot of times the girls will ask for different music to dance to (Parker loves ballet music, Ashtyn loves What Does the Fox Say), or just do independent play.
We do lunch around noon. We've been doing sandwiches for the girls lately and salads for Ben and I. This is also when we do supplements. After lunch, it's nap time. I take Parker and Rylee up to put them down and Ashtyn has a quiet time doing something like a puzzle or perler beads. I try to take the chance to read while they are napping, but I'll also do things that are hard to do while Rylee is awake (like chores where I need to go outside or in the basement).
On Wednesdays, I have a presidency meeting for my new calling in Young Women's and Ashtyn comes to that while the younger girls are napping.
Parker doesn't usually sleep anymore (unless she's sick), and I get her at 2:30. Then Ashtyn and Parker play outside if it's not too cold. When they come in, I let them watch Fancy Nancy, their newest favorite show. Rylee usually wakes up around 3:00 or 3:30 and I get her a snack when she wakes up.
This is the hardest part of the day for me. Because I take the break to read and the girls are just watching their show, it's really hard for me to get up and be productive again. I'm not sure how to solve this problem yet.
This is when I'm supposed to get up and make dinner though. We do dinner around five or five thirty and then we do Come Follow Me (our current scripture study manual) right after.
After dinner, lately we've just been hanging out. If Ben and I are having a hard time, we turn on a movie or a Spider-Man cartoon for the girls. If not, we might draw together, get a tea party (with water) for the girls, do play dough, or just hang out. A lot of days, Ben will do perler beads with Ashtyn, and sometimes he plays a video game like Untitled Goose Game or Let's Go Pikachu. Sometimes we go visit Melissa, but we don't go to Ben's parents' very often in the evenings anymore because it's so hard to keep Rylee contained and entertained there.
On Wednesdays, I go to mutual at seven and Ben puts the girls down himself. On Fridays, we do family movie night, so we choose a movie we think everyone will enjoy (rather than something to simply entertain the girls) and have pizza.
We start getting the girls ready at 7:45 and they're all in bed by 8:30. After we put the girls down, we usually just get ready for bed and then read in bed together. We try to be going to sleep around 10:00, 10:30 at the latest. On Tuesdays, we do writing group from 8:30 to 9:30 and it's usually closer to 10:30 before we're going to sleep.
On Fridays, we don't have to go to bed early, so we usually watch something with popcorn after we put the girls down. We go to sleep by 11 most Fridays.
Saturday mornings are Ben's day to sleep in. I get up and get the girls food, and let them watch a movie while I read. After they're done, I clip their nails and then they get to play. We try to keep our Saturdays free and relaxed. Ben and I usually do our date night on Saturday; sometimes we do it during naps or after we put the girls down, sometimes we get a babysitter. It depends totally on what we have planned and how we're feeling. We finish Saturday with a bath for the girls before bed.
Sunday, Ben gets up with the girls and makes breakfast to give me a break, which I love. I stay in bed and plan my week. It's really nice to start off on the right foot and it gets me motivated to get up and get ready for church. We get everyone ready, get our lesson ready if we have one, and do our family scripture study in the morning. Now that we have church at noon, we try to get the girls some lunch before leaving for church. Then we survive church with three kids (during Rylee's nap) and get home as fast as possible to get Rylee down for her nap.
We put Parker and Rylee down, get Ashtyn doing her quiet time, and then Ben and I snuggle together for our own quiet time. After naps, we talk with my mom on video chat and then go to Ben's parents' house for a family dinner. We usually stay at the dinner until it's time to get the girls to bed. Once they're in bed, we get ourselves ready for bed and usually go to bed early after staying up just a little later over the weekend.
It's been a great routine that has really helped me reach a lot of my goals. Ben obviously has work and we have to try to keep up with Rylee (who loves to climb and get into anything she can right now). I also have a lot of projects I'm assigned as YW secretary and I also am currently keeping up a BookTube channel and an Bookstagram account. We definitely keep busy, but we're loving what we do and feel like we're building the life we want.
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