Routine

The kids get up in the same order every morning: Nate, Elisabeth, Catie, then Sam. Nate usually is up at 6:15, then the rest follow in about 20-minute intervals. My routine is to go to bed at 10, so I’m up with the kids 8 hours later. M. is not a morning person, and he’s still collecting on the months I had chronic fatigue and HE was the one up before the sun.

Then it’s morning chaos with bus-catching and twin-transporting and Nate-handling. Usually there’s some SUPER CHALLENGE that God throws into our game of life. Like, walking the twins into their school wearing my pjs, and trying to disguise that. Or M. on a conference call, so the whole family silently listens to guys talking about SAP while we eat our breakfast. Or, and this one was fun, Sam comes flying down the stairs, fresh from a dream it’s his birthday. And then we have to explain it’s not. Crying ensues.

Finally everyone is gone and Nate and I settle into our well-oiled routine. And it’s beautiful. And I soak up every minute of it because he’s at the perfect age to toddle around the house with me while I clean up breakfast and the house. He loves to play outside (evidenced by the above picture). I can do dishes at the sink while he happily blows bubbles on the patio. And we chat and he’s good company, and I wonder why kids have to grow up and worry about things like SAP and wearing their pjs in public.

Then Nate takes a respectable nap. Usually a couple hours, which is long enough that I can shower but not so long that he messes with his 6:30 bedtime. And then I make lunch, and we run errands or go to the gym. And then we pick up the twins.

Which begins the SUPER CHALLENGE period of my day. The same twins who pretended they were dying if they had to go to school, feel the same way about coming home. They interrupt each other. They cry. They don’t like the snack Nate and I brought for them. I know. Huge parenting discovery that transitions are tough for four-year-olds.

But man!

So I mollify them with fruit snacks and time-outs and snuggling and bike-riding and Bitty Baby role-playing. Which is either a huge success or ends with them interrupting each other and crying.

And then the bus comes to deliver Catie. Yes, I know you’re familiar with our love for the bus. Perhaps the best part of it is that Catie does her transitioning on her way home with her friends! So perfect! By the time the Big Yellow Blessing brings her to our house, she’s well-adjusted and has emoted and interrupted and cried with her peers!

The only drawback to this is that she usually comes running with news like, “Can we go to Orange Leaf now? Because I just made plans with a bunch of people that I would!”

When I explain we’ll be doing homework, baths, and bed, she’s dumbfounded at the boring routine. And getting the other three kids inside for that can be such a struggle, it’s much easier just to stay in the beautiful Texas Spring and forget duty and routine.

Until we all start to get hungry.

And grumpy.

And tired.

And ready for bed.

So we can get up and do it all again.