Here is what my typical day looks like and what works very well for me:
My kids sleep in until anywhere from 8:30 am- 9:30 am (occasionally 10 or 10:30 am if they were up later the night before than usual) on any given morning that they do not have preschool. The mornings they have preschool, my husband drops them off at 8:15 am on the way to work and so he gets them up about 7:45 am and gets them ready quickly and feeds them breakfast and out the door they go (their preschool is literally less than five minutes from our house). So for the mornings they are home with me, they wake up between 8:30 am- 9:30 am and I feed them breakfast while I make my bagel and coffee. They do not eat a ton right away in the morning, so usually by the time by bagel and coffee is ready, they are already done. I then send them to their playroom for their morning alone playtime. I have done this with my 4 1/2 year old daughter since she was 18 months and with my 2 year old son since he was 15 months or so. It really is so valuable!
I cannot stress enough to moms who do not currently do this with their children to start doing it! Start out at 15/20 minutes that they HAVE to stay in their playroom or their bedroom and play independently and gradually work your way up to an hour or an hour and a half. If they are not used to it, yes, they will come out! This is normal and to be expected. So long as you stay consistent and keep sending them right back in there (if they continue to come out, then treat it as direct disobedience and punish as you would for any other form of direct disobedience), they will eventually get the point that they have to stay in there and play and they will do so.
So back to our morning routine…
I send them in their playroom to play (they usually play in there for an hour and a half or two hours), and I go sit down in the living room and drink my coffee and eat my bagel. This is my quiet time to do whatever. I often utilize this time to read my Bible or if there is an episode of something that I missed from the night before, I may watch it for free on abc.com, etc. Afterwards (kids are still playing in their playroom), I put my dishes in the dishwasher, make sure my kitchen is clean (clean countertops, sweep/mop floor), and then do any laundry that I need to do. If I am going to wash anyone's sheets that day, I go ahead and put those in, so they will be done in a timely manner (particularly by nap time if they are the kids'). If I have any clothes in the dryer from any laundry I did last night, I put those away at this time. I then go jump in the shower and get ready.
Right about now my 2 year old may be coming to check on me and see what I am doing. I redirect him to go play with his sister for a little longer and then I go see what I am going to make them for lunch. After lunch, I let them play together for a little longer or sit with me and read a few books, etc. and then I have them both go make sure the playroom is clean (I am very big on them picking up their own toys and they both have a toy organizer with the cubbies that they put all their toys away in. This ensures that they put things back where they go and do not just throw them all together somewhere with no rhyme or reason.), and then I send my daughter to her bed to lie down for a nap (occasionally I will let her lie on the couch in the playroom and watch a movie for quiet time if she does not appear tired to me) and I take my son to his room and lay him down in his bed (both of my kids sleep in their own queen sized beds in their own rooms and so they can obviously get in and out of bed and come in and out of their room by their own accord). My daughter knows she can come out of her room to go to the bathroom and that's it and my son knows not to come out and if he does, he gets one warning and after that, it is a spanking.
Now that the kids are both in their beds, I finish up anything else I need to do, whether it be switching laundry or running the vacuum in the living room (the living room is our only room in the house with carpet- the rest is all hardwood floors and so it all just gets swept and mopped). I then sit down and eat my own lunch if I did not already eat it with the kids and do anything small like pay bills, file away statements, etc. Now is the time that it is acceptable if I want to lie down for a little bit while the kids are still down. I usually have thought of what I want to do for dinner by now and if it is something that does not require any a head of time prep (spaghetti, cheesy BBQ pasta, alfredo tilapia, etc.), I do not have to worry about dinner until about 4 pm. If it something that does require a little extra prep then I may go ahead and get that out of the way before I lie down (boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes, boiling raw vegetables that I am going to put in a stew or soup of some sort, etc.)
If I am not just exhausted this day (pre pregnancy particularly I never really nap and the second trimester of pregnancy I am usually not too tired either), then I just take this time to go sit down and read my Bible if I have not yet already, watch anything I may have been wanting to watch, call my grandma or my sister, call and see how my husband's day is going, etc. Once again, after my obligations are met, this is some extra me time.
The kids usually wake up anywhere between 4 pm- 5 pm, depending on how tired they were. My husband gets home a little after 5. We try to eat right about the time he gets home or 15/20 minutes after. I begin cooking typically about 4 pm and if my kids wake up while I am right in the middle of a hands on part of my meal, I either give them a light snack (applesauce, yogurt, cheese stick, etc.) or send them with a drink to the playroom to play until Mommy gets done. I then, if I am at a part in the meal where I am not required to be right there in the kitchen, go check on laundry if necessary, and then go hang out with kids until my husband gets home. Once my husband gets home, we eat, and then have our own laid back evening routine as a family.
Some additional tips for cleaning and it not wearing you out:
Laundry: Do laundry every day! A load of darks one day, lights the next, towels the next, darks the next (there are usually way more darks in a week than there are lights!), your bed sheets the next day, etc. (I wash our sheets every week and the kids' sheets every 2 weeks. I also only wash towels once a week because my kids use their two towels all week, we just hang up after use, and my husband and I each have a towel that we use for 4-5 days each before putting in the laundry. If you think about it, you are all clean when you get out of the shower and use your towel, so as long as you hang it up to dry, there is no reason that you cannot use it for multiple days at a time!)
Another laundry tip… take care of your kids' clothes (and your husband's if he spills things on his clothing too LOL). If you notice something has gotten on a piece of clothing that day, when that person takes it off at the end of the day, immediately take it to the laundry room and go ahead and spray it with something. Even if you are not doing laundry that second, just go ahead and spray it and set it on top of the washer, so you will see it and remember to check on it after it has been sitting. Clothes are too expensive to let them get stained because you forgot to pretreat something. Also, never put something in the dryer if the stain did not come all the way out. Lay it on top of the dryer and treat the stain again and throw it in with another load. Once you dry an item that has a stain, it is so much harder to get the stain out.
Cleaning: Sweep/mop kitchen every day. This does not take much time, but really is so necessary with kids. Sweep/mop other floors once a week or twice if needed. Vacuum once a week or twice if needed. Clean kitchen countertops every night after dinner or every morning after breakfast. Vacuum stairs once a week if you have stairs (stairs really do get SO dirty!). Clean all mirrors and storm doors once a week. Dust biweekly. Clean bathrooms once a week.
This really is so doable if you get yourself on some sort of a system (certain days you do certain things).
Kids: Make children pick up after themselves! This is so important for multiple reasons. For starters, it teaches personal responsibility and also teaches them to be clean and tidy and do their part. Secondly, it takes a load off of you and is one less thing you have to worry about.
Take it from me, you WILL feel better and more relaxed when your house is clean. It takes a load off you as a mother and wife knowing your home is clean and taken care of. Your husband will appreciate coming home to a nice, clean house and I honestly think kids behave better in a clean, organized environment than they tend to do in a messy environment.
It is so easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of all you have to do, but try not to. Keep yourself accountable and tell yourself these things need to get done and they will! You can be a great mom and keep your home clean as well. I hate that our generation has been told otherwise, but trust me, not only can it be done, it is very easy to stick to a routine that allows it to get done. :)
