A New Routine

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.

We have now finished the third week of school and we are starting to settle in to our new school year routine.  With John David starting kindergarten our whole daily routine has changed.  Everything from what time the alarm goes off to lunchtime, nap time, how long of a nap everyone gets, everything, has changed.  We have gone from preschool that started at 8:30, was not more than 3 minutes from our house, and where if you were late it was no big deal, to  big school that starts at 7:50, is at least 20 minutes from the house, and being tardy is a bigger deal.  My alarm now goes off at 5:30 YIKES and the boys, aka husband and John David, are out of the house by 7:15 each morning.  It has been an adjustment but I have to say I am enjoying the extra time in the mornings to get things accomplished.  I seem to be the most productive in the mornings and late at night so the extra time in the morning has been great.

The hardest part of our new school year routine (other than getting up at 5:30 in the morning) has been nap time.  I have been blessed to have four children that are good sleepers, including taking good naps. Even John David who is 6 will still take a nap most of the time.  Last year everyone usually went down for a nap around 1 or 1:30 (depending on how things were going that day) and took a good 2 to 3 hour nap.  Those were a great couple of hours for me to get some things accomplished around the house and get all the prep work for dinner done.  With school starting I now have to wake everyone up from their naps no later than 2:30 in order to get everyone around and loaded in the car to make it to carpool for John David.  I have moved nap time up in the day but Ava and the twins have not completely adjusted to this switch.  It is taking them much longer than usual to fall asleep and as a result they are not getting a good long nap in each day.  It has made for some very cranky children lately.

Of course, now that we are starting to settle in to our new routine, it is time to change things up some more.  The twins will start school on Tuesday adding more complexities to our daily schedule.  More places to be, more appointments to keep up with, more driving around town for me.  But we are ready! The twins are so excited and can't wait for school to start.  The last three weeks with John David already in school have been hard for them.  They want to be "big" and go to school too.  We have been to open house and seen our teacher, Ms. Bonnie.  We are so blessed to be in Ms. Bonnie's class this year.  John David was in Ms. Bonnie's class when he was 4 and to say that he adored her would be a huge understatement.  The twins are already in love with Ms. Bonnie and are so excited they get to have Ms. Bonnie as their teacher just like big brother did.

In all of this change I also went back to work....sort of, a little.  I started teaching ballet classes one night a week and I have been having so much fun.  I adored being back in the studio and didn't realize how much I had missed it.  Of course, my "working" means I have to be more organized and all the ball than usually, especially on Wednesday nights (the night I teach) since I am not home for dinner or bed time.

I think all this "routine" is good for us.  It makes our days and nights easier.  It makes sure we don't miss fun or important stuff in the chaos that is our life.  But at times I do worry that my children are going to grow up being too scheduled, too rigid, and will miss out on the impromptu, spur of the moment fun things that life is all about.  Finding that balance is always a challenge.  But for now, I am glad we are settling into our school year routine.