Mod Apron

All the hours in the day

Lately, we’ve been experiencing some scheduling challenges here at Chez Apron. More accurately, our schedule has been in flux and I’m having some difficulty managing our time.

I am one of those mothers who firmly believes that kids thrive when they’re kept to a solid, predictable daily schedule. I’m not so militant that we can’t roll with the surprises that come up along the way, but I am pretty strict when I can be.

Henry is at an odd stage where he probably should be taking two naps a day, but will often take only one. The result is a kid with a seriously cranky disposition for much of the afternoon and evening. And, after a whole summer of attending day camp from 9:00am to 1:00pm every day, Maya is starting her second year of preschool at the end of the month and her new school schedule will be 1:15pm to 4:15pm. Basically, her day is turned upside down. We are a family in transition.

To top it all off, I’ve been making it a point to get to the gym almost daily. Which is great for my ass, but bad for our schedule. This means that somehow, I’ve got to fit an entire hour of gym time into a day that never feels quite long enough to get everything done in the first place. This has resulted in my dropping the ball somewhere - typically the laundry, the chores, my photography practice, or my blogging.

What’s a busy mama to do?

I wrote out a daily schedule today, which has helped to give me a picture of what an ideal day should look like. It goes something like this:

—————

6:30am - Mama wakes up, makes breakfast for Dennis

7:00am - Mama showers, gets dressed

7:30am - Mama wakes up the kiddos, gets them washed and dressed for the day

8:00am - Breakfast time for the kiddos (and coffee for mama)

9:00am - Kiddo activity (i.e. trip to the park, playdate, library, walk, or project at home)

9:45am - Kiddo snack time

10:00am - Henry’s first nap (approx. 1.5 hours)

12:00pm - Lunch time for mama and the kiddos

1:10pm - Walk Maya to school

2:15pm - Henry’s snack time

2:30pm - Henry’s second nap (approx. 1 hour) / Mama cleans, household chores

4:10pm - Pick Maya up from school

4:30pm - Prep dinner

5:30pm - Dennis arrives home; Family dinner time

6:30pm - Mama cleans up from dinner, Dennis plays with kids

7:00pm - Henry’s bath time, bedtime routine

7:30pm - Maya’s bathtime, bedrime routine

8:00pm - Adult time (reading, blogging, gym time, movie, etc.)

10:00pm - Bedtime

—————

I’d like to start implementing this schedule as soon as Monday. I hope it works as well in reality as it does on paper. The kids really need it. I really need it. Family life is so much easier (and everyone’s so much calmer and happier) when our time is well managed.

All the days in the week

Further to my last post, I thought it made good sense to set out a weekly schedule is well. Why stop at a daily schedule? Let’s look at an ideal week! You know I just love to be splendiferously organized!

Maya’s preschool schedule this year is a little funky. That is, she’s only in preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she’ll be taking part in some extra-curricular activities (soccer and ballet/tap). Additionally, Henry is enrolled in a baby music and baby gym class once or twice a week as well.

Also, I’ve recently discovered that our local library has a ton of free activities that both Maya and Henry can attend together. The library schedule is posted the previous week and features activities such as puppet shows, story time, rhyme time, family movies and more. Most activities happen before lunch, and there is a delicious park behind the library so we can pack a picnic and have lunch in the park before preschool. Ideally, we’ll fit a couple of library mornings into our week as well.

All this, coupled with my housekeeping schedule, means that I’ve had to move my grocery shopping day to Sunday (instead of Monday) for the foreseeable future. Our family’s weekly schedule is looking like this:

—————

Mondays:

• Maya - preschool
• Henry - gym class
• Mama - cleans kitchen

Tuesdays:

• Maya - soccer
• Mama - cleans bathrooms

Wednesdays:

• Maya - preschool
• Henry - music class (either Wed or Fri)
• Mama - cleanse kids’ bedrooms

Thursdays:

• Maya - ballet/tap
• Henry - gym class
• Mama - cleans master bedroom

Fridays:

• Maya - preschool
• Henry - music class (either Wed or Fri)
• Mama - cleans dining room/living room/hallway

Saturdays:

• No scheduled plans

Sundays:

• No scheduled plans
• Mama - grocery shopping

This schedule will be implemented starting tomorrow. Which means that, going forward, you can expect to see my weekly meal plans posted on Sundays from now on.

If it seems like I am a little too crazy militant enthusiastic about keeping us on a tight schedule, I’d agree that you’re probably right. But, as far as I can see, it’s the best and only way to keep an organized framework in place. My family seems to thrive on routine and honestly, it makes my life a lot easier too. There will always be days where the schedule falls apart, and that’s okay; it’s to be expected. But, maintaining a schedule is my only hope to keep this machine running smoothly. And more often than not, the day flows effortlessly and naturally through our scheduled activities and when that happens, it certainly makes for a peaceful and happy existence for everyone.

Keeping a schedule like this is certainly not glamorous, but it’s real and it’s a slice of our lives right now. And it keeps this mama (somewhat) sane and balanced.

Love affair

Shhh. Don’t tell my husband. I’m having a love affair.

It’s wildly passionate and makes makes me feel happier than I have ever been in my life.

I’m madly in love. I love our home. I love our neighbors. I love our neighborhood. I love this city.

I love my family. I love my friends. I love being a mama. I love my job.

Moving to San Francisco has been a game changer. Maybe it’s the blue skies. There is something so magical about this city, it’s hard not to be deliciously happy here all the time. And when we bought our townhouse in February, that’s when everything really fell into place. We found the loveliest little corner of SF to call our very own and we planted our family and our roots right here, and dug them in nice and deep.

I count myself extremely EXTREMELY lucky that I am able to stay at home with my kids. I never really had any real career aspirations, but the moment I decided I wanted to be a mama was the first time I ever felt passionate about something that I really wanted to do. And since having my kids, that passion has intensified. I take such incredible pleasure in spending my days with them. There is so much joy in the milestones and even more in quiet, ordinary moments, like tying little shoes and goodnight kisses. I am truly living my dream.

I’m already thinking about the holidays. I cannot wait to celebrate our first Christmas with my whole family in our new home, in our new community, in the most amazing city on earth. I’m thrilled that my kids will get to grow up here, with neighbors, parks, shops and bustling tree-lined sidewalks right at their front door. I’m excited for visits from dear friends and family, opening our doors wide and sharing this magical place with everyone we love. There is just so much to be happy about. Every day.

I called my mom a few days ago just to tell her how happy I am. I told her that while I miss having her and dad so close, moving to San Francisco is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I told her how Maya is thriving at school, Dennis is enjoying his work, and how life feels pretty perfect these days. She said she misses us, but knows that moving was the right thing to do.

Every morning I wake up so excited to spend another day living this life. I don’t know what I ever did to be so lucky as to end up here. I am truly grateful for every precious minute. This is the good stuff. I am head over heels in love.

<3 <3 <3

On keeping house

Now that Henry is old enough to join his big sister in destroying order around the house, I really need to step up my game to maximize efficiency. Some days I feel like I could literally clean morning, noon and night and never feel caught up.

At one point a few months ago, I came up with a “chores schedule”. It worked - sort of - but it was kinda complicated. I had everything divided up into daily, weekly, monthly, and “as needed” tasks, and it was loosely based on this method. My intentions were honorable, but admittedly, I found this housekeeping routine to be slightly too laborious. That, plus our variable schedule and my littlest one suddenly becoming super mobile, has forced me to rethink how I should spend my cleaning time.

When it was just little Maya (long before Henry came along), I would bomb around the house first thing in the morning, doing all my chores before she woke up. This worked well, and it was lovely to have everything completed before the day really got started. Flash forward a few years and another kid later, and now I feel like I can barely keep up. I swear on all that is holy that my kids seem to follow me around, immediately undoing at least 85% of my cleaning progress as I complete it. So I run around in circles re-doing chores whilst constantly trying to keep on top of the scattered Cheerios on the kitchen floor before somebody steps on them.

Efficiency? Uh, not so much.

I think at this stage of my life (and the kids’ lives), there will always be some element of constant clean-up. I will likely never get to sit back and bask in the glory of my perfectly clean house, at least not for more than 5-10 minutes at best. The laundry never ends. The dishes never stop. And oh, the Cheerios. Please don’t get me started on the Cheerios.

Currently, I run around cleaning up little messes all day, and then I do a major clean-up on the weekend when Dennis is home to help wrangle the kiddos. Yes, this approach gets the job done, but it means that I’m ALWAYS cleaning. Every single day. And in my opinion, that’s just not fair!

So how does a busy mama manage?

Simplicity. And acceptance. I’m realizing these concepts go hand-in-hand, are the keys to keeping an organized home. Simplicity and acceptance are paramount for survival.

THEREFORE.

I have divided my chores into very general categories, based on each room/area. For each room listed, I will complete a basic, no-frills clean-up. This means declutter, wipe, dust, polish, mop, sweep, vacuum, etc. I will also choose ONE drawer, cabinet, closet, etc. at my discretion, from that room, to thoroughly clean.

For example, if it’s Monday and “Kitchen” is my room for the day, then I will likely:

• remove any toys, books, mail, etc. from countertops
• wipe counters, stove, windowsills, windows
• polish stainless steel appliances
• mop floor
• and ALSO perhaps clean out the cutlery drawer

The idea is that each room/area gets my attention once a week, and most long-term cleaning projects will be negated as they are always constantly, slowly in progress. So something like a major kitchen cupboard re-org will happen, but probably take several weeks to fully complete. Make sense?

Also, I have one rule: When my room of the day is complete, I AM NOT ALLOWED TO CLEAN ANYTHING FURTHER. No exceptions. I’m all done for the day (except for the ongoing daily chores listed below, no escaping those, I’m afraid.)

So this is what my housekeeping schedule will look like going forward:

• Mondays: Kitchen
• Tuesdays: Bathrooms
• Wednesdays: Kids’ Bedrooms
• Thursdays: Master Bedroom
• Fridays: Dining Room/Living Room/Hallway
• Saturdays & Sundays: Weekends OFF!
• Ongoing Daily Chores: Make beds, laundry, dishes, toy clean-up, garbage/recycling/compost, Cheerio management.

I like this cleaning schedule. It’ll keep each room looking tidy while simultaneously allowing for the completion of larger-scale tasks. Plus, I get weekends off from cleaning! Sounds awesome to me!

Likely there will always be a few chores that I will need to schedule separate time for. These will probably be “one-offs” and I’ll have to tackle them as needed. For example, at some point, I’d like to organize our storage locker down in the garage and this might just have to be a weekend thing.

As for acceptance, I’ve just come to the realization that messes are a part of my life right now. We don’t live in a museum. We have real lives and little kids. My inner neat freak just has to let go and unclench. Some days are just going to be messy and that’s OK. Years from now, I probably won’t remember that the Toy Story toys got mixed in with the Barbies, or the night I left some dishes in the sink. But time with my young family is precious, fleeting and indelible.