My Routine: Ready for Prime Time

A month ago, I talked about my efforts to create and try out a routine for my new life as a homemaker. After a month of running my routine pilot, I'm happy to say that it's now in production!

The core of my routine is almost identical to the original, with a few tweaks. The biggest change was in my morning routine. I'm a YMCA member, and had an epiphany a couple weeks ago:

a) As a Y member, I get free child care
b) The Y has some nice showers and changing areas
c) The Y has tasty free coffee
d) The nice Y child care ladies will watch Annabel for me, allowing her to have fun with some other kiddos while I work out, take a shower, maybe even dry my hair!!!, and grab some coffee.
e) NICE

As a result, the routine now looks like this:

Morning routine

• 6:00 Wake up time – Em
• Get dressed for YMCA
• Coffee + breakfast
• Start a load of laundry
• Make Zach's lunch
• 7:15 Wake up time – Annabel
• 8:00 Breakfast - Annabel
• Switch laundry to dryer
• YMCA
• Errands OR fun time

Afternoon routine

• 11:30 Lunch – Annabel
• 11:45 Nap – Annabel
• Fold laundry
• Clean up kitchen
• Straighten bathrooms & bedrooms
• Cleaning task
• 2:00 Wake up – Annabel
• Fun time!

Evening routine

• 5:30 Dinner
• Clean up kitchen
• 7:30 Bed time – Annabel
• 10-minute house pickup
• Scoop kitty litter
• Read
• 10:00 Bed time – Em

And I keep reminding myself that (as Crystal from MoneySavingMom.com says) the routine "is not a regimented schedule with detailed time blocks for how you’re supposed to spend every minute of every day." This is pretty critical for maintaining sanity, since things do not always flow according to my nicely bulleted list. :)