Reclaiming Routine
Pulling Team Huffman back together
The past 7 months have been…well, different. I won’t say awful, because there are definitely benefits to moving in with grandparents when you have three small children who can’t be left alone at home. Namely: free babysitting. Jarrod and I have been on more date nights over the past year than we have probably since Ambrose was born. Woof.
But there have also been struggles. Life has just felt a bit disjointed since we moved in with Jarrod’s parents. We just don’t feel quite like the family unit we once did when we lived in Vegas, cleaning up the kitchen after dinner while we listened to a Disney playlist, or taking family walks around the neighborhood in the War Wagon. We’ve seriously been slacking on evening prayers.
The good news is, our time here is nearly over. But the bad news is…our time here is nearly over.
Okay, not bad. It just means that I’ll have to start putting a lot more work back into the making sure our family is running smoothly. Yeah, I’ve been slacking too. We’re about to move from a situation with four available adults, only one of whom had a full-time job (hello, me) to a situation with half the available adults, one of whom will still have her full-time job and the other of whom will be a full-time, too-busy-to-sleep student. Oh, and we’ll be moving into a space roughly the size of the upstairs floor of the house we’ve been inhabiting.
Things will be tight, and they will be busy. We will be living on top of each other, trying not to get in each others’ way as we go about our new normal.
How to tame the chaos that’s bound to ensue? Enter…routine!
I recently finished reading The Soul of Discipline by Kim John Payne. I’ve read his book Simplicity Parenting a couple times (and I’m bound for a re-read, honestly) and love listening to his soothing voice on his podcast, The Simplicity Diaries. Dude is just a force of calmness.
Dude is also huge into establishing rhythm and routine for daily life, as a means of helping kids understand what’s happening day-to-day, hour-to-hour. After school we do homework and rest, then we play while Mom makes dinner, then we eat and clean up after dinner…etc. It’s the force that keeps the train moving. I’m sure I can find a good quote to go here too. Ok, here’s one: “When you get rhythm in a house, it’s almost like you’ve got another parent.” Boom.
Obviously I have no idea what the rhythm of our days will look like now, but hey, that doesn’t stop me from grasping at whatever I can and attempting to come up with a routine. This is, after all, Emily’s Notebook. And so this is my scratch Daily Rhythm for the days to come:
Ideal Daily Rhythm for After School*
2:30 – Pick kids up from school
3:00 – After-school snack, kids rest and play while I finish work + any homework help needed
5:00 – Cook dinner, clean up toys and set table for dinner
5:30 – Eat dinner, clear table
6:00 – Clean up kitchen & house once-over
6:30 – Walk/outside time
7:00 – Inside, change into PJ’s & brush teeth, bathe if needed or read books
7:30 – Liesl in bed, more reading
8:00 – Big kids in bed
*all times are approximate because RHYTHM.
Friday Evening Rhythm (read: Movie Night!)
2:30 – Pick kids up from school
3:00 – After-school snack, kids rest and play while I finish work + any homework help needed
5:00 – Make or order pizza
5:30 – Watch movie on Mom & dad’s bed using projector and cozy corner to prevent stains
As for Saturday and Sunday rhythms, that’s as-yet undetermined — I think we’ll just have to wait and see what things are like in our new situation. Jarrod will try to take Saturdays off of schoolwork, as long as I let him sleep in, and I’m happy to make a nice breakfast for the kids on Saturday mornings, or have Saturdays be bagel mornings or something.
About That Projector Thing
You, astute reader, may have noticed that at 5:30 on Fridays I designated movie nights to be watched on our bed, via projector. This is because I’m trying out something that may, in retrospect, be very very dumb: we’re not taking the TV with us. Or, probably, the iPad. (Maybe the iPad. I haven’t decided yet.)
I’m done with TV. I want to see what life is like — what my kids actually do, and what I do — when TV isn’t our “I’m boredddddd” fallback option. Will I go bananas? Maybe. Probably. Will we learn and grow and probably be better for it? Also probably. You can guarantee that you’ll be hearing about the joys and pains involved over the next several months or years.
Anyway, those are my current thoughts on rhythm. Meanwhile, seminary approaches. I’m scared. But we can do this. Right? Right.
mins
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