Christmas Dreaming

Well, I am quickly learning how much more work having two kids is than having just one.  I’m trying to establish a morning and evening routine in my household to manage my two kids and my husband and school, sports, dinner, bedtime, etc.  Wow, it is a workout!  My daughter just started back to school (1st Grade) the week before last, and I have a 4 month old baby, so now I have to drive three places in the morning –school, my Mom’s and work.  Now I get up a half-hour earlier than the kids to start packing lunches (my daughter’s and mine; I’m trying to eat healthier and spend less on lunches).  Then I have to pack up my breast pump, my daughter’s bookbag, the baby’s diaper bag, etc.  I also have to work in brushing my teeth and hair, getting my daughter to brush her teeth and hair and get dressed, get her breakfast, try to eat some breakfast myself, nurse the baby, changes his diaper and clothes, and keep him happy with silly little happy dances and funny faces as I rush in and out of the living room where he lays swinging to and fro in his baby swing.  Then I pack them all up and deliver them off to school and Nanny’s and head to work.  Then at 5:30 (I go in at 8:30 because of my daughter’s school time), I leave work, drive a half hour or more home (depending on traffic), and take my daughter to Cheerleading or Gymnastics 3 nights a week, then have to go home and get dinner ready, get both kids baths/showers, clean pj’s, brushed teeth, brushed hair, bedtime reading, etc.  Phew!  Must be nice to be my husband, his morning routine consists of: Wake up, get a shower, get dressed, go to work.  In the evening, he picks the kids up from my Mom’s and has to take care of them from about 4:15 till about 6:00.  Then I get home and mostly take over.  How great that must be for him…sigh…I know I could pack all of this stuff up the night before, and that is ALWAYS my intention, but by the time 9:00 comes around and I’m laying in bed with my daughter, listening to her read before she goes to sleep, I am so exhausted myself that I usually end up just staying in there and falling asleep, myself!  And I also know I could ask my husband to help, and he would, but I don’t feel like listening to the grumbling and complaining that I know would come from that, and I also feel like I should not have to ask…so I just do the Mommy thing and take it all on my shoulders and keep on going with a smile on my face.  I’m sure eventually I will have a meltdown and that’s when he’ll realize he should have just offered a long time ago! lol  So anyway, I’m trying to find new ways to organize and smooth out my routines, and I get so excited and gung-ho about them, but they always end up falling flat in the end.  But I want my kids to have consistency, to know what to expect each day, so I’m trying out a mix of a few different organizational plans I have found on the internet, and I will try this out for a while and see how it goes.  Hopefully better than any past tries!  My main goal is to establish a daily routine for the kids and myself (and my husband!) that will allow me to keep my house clean (or fairly clean, at least), have a planned menu for a ”SIT DOWN” dinner AT THE TABLE each night, have a consistent nightly bedtime for my daughter, and have some time for me to spend with her before then.  I’ll let you all know how this fiasco goes!   Anyway, I hope to have a nice clean house and have gifts, dinners, cookies and treats and all planned out for Christmastime this year.  I’m integrating parts of the Houseworks Holiday Plan and the Holiday Grand Plan into my routine and plans this year, and I’m very excited to be doing something involving my Christmas planning right now.  I’m really excited about making cookies!!  I know, silly to get so excited over something so mundane…but it’s exciting to me! lol  Anyway, I want to make cookies with my daughter this year.  In years past, my older sister and I tried to uphold a tradition that our Mom and Aunt had started with a friend of theirs.  Each year, the three of them would get together for one night and just make a HUGE amount of all different kinds of cookies.  It would be just them, no kids, and they always had so much fun.  Well, we’ve tried this a couple times, usually we just let the kids stick around (which we never minded), but she’s just not into it as much as I am, she would rather have a couple friends over and sit and drink and have fun while I do all the baking…so I decided that this year, my daughter and I are going to start a new tradition with just the two of us (and if my DS wants to when he gets older, we’ll include him, too!).  So I’ve been looking up recipes for ALL kinds of cookies, and I’m working on a plan!  Well, I’m off to Cheerleading practice!  (For my daughter, not for me, SILLY!)  And so begins my hectic evening…