Our New Monday Routine....which just might kill me!

2YO wakes up by watching old episodes of 'Big Comfy Couch'

I cannot believe how much we cram into our first day of every week! It looks as if this will be our schedule for awhile:

6:00 a.m: Wake up. Wake 12YO so she can get in the shower. Walk out to the kitchen, let the dog out, and get some hot water going for my morning tea. Fold the load of clothes in the dryer and put away. By then, 5YO is awake. (Or she should be.) We argue about whether or not it's actually morning (she thinks I'm lying and waking her up when it's still nighttime!) and I talk her through getting dressed. She can totally dress herself, but isn't 'all there' when she first wakes up in the morning.

6:30 a.m: 5YO is usually dressed, shoes and all, and I'm doing her hair and cleaning her earrings. Then, she goes out and eats a bowl of cereal while I make lunches. She sits and talks with me, which helps her wake up, while I make the sandwiches. In between all of this, I am running to the bedroom to look for a pair of earrings for 12YO or helping her with some other special request that she can't seem to do on her own. These requests vary by the day.

7:10 a.m: I send 5YO in to brush her teeth. She has to be out at the bus stop at 7:15. David walks her out there and I usually grab my cup of tea and throw on some flip flops and a pair of sunglasses and head down to the bus stop to wait with them.

By 7:20 a.m, the bus has usually come and gone and we all head back into the house to tie up any loose ends that 12YO and David have before they head out the door. (Basically, I help them find all the crap they mislplaced the night before!)

David and 12YO leave just before 8:00. The rest of the morning is a little quiet. I'm just dealing with 2YO and whatever she's in the mood to argue about. That's also when I take my shower and try to blog something before we have to go the library at 11:00. We are almost always a few minutes late, but at least we make it.

By 12:30 or 1:00, we leave the library and head to the store. I pick up whatever I want to make for dinner that night (which makes Monday the only day when I feel truly prepared for dinner!) and get whatever groceries we'll need to get by until I do my major shopping, which is usually on Friday. After that, we head home and try to grab a quick lunch before it's time to pick the kids up from school at 2:30. (This won't be in the routine for long, as their little butts will be on the bus once we get more settled in our school thang!)

By the time we get back, it's almost 3:00. I then have two hours to check backpacks, help with any home work that needs to be completed, clean out lunch bags and have dinner ready and on the table before cheer practice. Then, we have just enough time to eat, put the food away, put hair up in pony tails, get dressed in the right clothes, fill water bottles and grab a snack and something for 2YO to do before we pile into the car and get to cheer practice by 6:00. Cheer practice is one hour for 5YO and B5YO and two hours for 12YO. We usually get out of there by 8:15 or so. We take 12YO's coach home and are home by around 8:30. I help 5YO get showered and into her PJs and we pick out her outfit to wear the next day, clean her earrings, take her vitamins and brush her teeth. She's in bed snoring by 9:00. I wish it could be earlier, but I don't see how! 2YO actually fell asleep yesterday on our way home from cheer practice. She had already had dinner, but she never got to see her daddy! I put her in her PJs and gave her medicine and had in her bed just a few minutes after David got home. Even though he helped hold her while I pulled her shirt over her head and gave her medicine, she slept through the whole process.

12YO finishes up homework or goes to bed early and reads for awhile. I reheat a plate of dinner for David and sit down on the couch to watch tv with him. It only takes a few minutes before I realize that I will fall asleep soon and might as well be in bed when it happens. David didn't get home from work last night until 9:30. I was headed to bed by 10:00.

Sooo...that is what I love and hate about Mondays.

I have a new game plan today. I have a lot of things to get done around here (notice there was no cleaning in Monday's routine!) and I don't actually need to leave the house until we head to cheer practice tonight. With the new demands of an early dinner and still having to either keep warm or reheat David's dinner when he gets home (which is almost always around 7:30 or 8:00) I have found a new HERO: A Year of Crockpotting. This woman has vowed to make something in her crockpot every day for the entire year of 2008. I am going to start visiting her blog quite often, I think. I need to worry about dinner earlier in the day rather than later when all the kids are around and there is so much more to do. Tonight, I am making THIS. The only mozzarella cheese I had on hand was string cheese, but that totally worked for me. (I'm not sure how different 'Italian Cheese' is from plain mozzarella, but don't Italians pretty much put mozzarella on pretty much everything anyway?) I didn't put many veggies in mine either, but I plan to serve green beans on the side. I was also out of actual spaghetti sauce (which is a total shock to me, by the way!) and ended up using a can of pizza sauce and a can of diced tomatoes. I also didn't have any ricotta cheese on hand, but instead mixed some Parmesean cheese in with some cottage cheese and used that. I think it'll work out nicely.

And the best part? Dinner is already cooking! I might try to whip up some bread or other side dish for it later, but it's pretty much done if I want to call it done! I can clean my kitchen and call it 'done' too. And I've timed it perfectly so it should be done by 4:00 or so. I'll turn it down then and feed it to the kids around 4:30. I'm so excited, because my family loves lasagna and it's never been so simple to make!

I'll let you know how it all turns out. For now, me needs to do these dishes, sweep and mop my kitchen and change the sheets on my bed. We'll see what else I can possibly get accomplished today, but I'm not making myself any promises! I'm still pretty exhausted from yesterday and might just try to squeeze in a nap or something! I would also like to finish knitting that hat and get some more reading done from the new Jennifer Weiner book. I love her!

But a nap sounds the bestest of all!