As with most parents, my life goes from one crazy day to the next, and before you know it, a year has passed, and you’re exhausted, yet still still fully loving parent life! Every day starts the same and ends the same for me. However, the bits in between are completely different, depending on seasons, month, timings, etc.

A normal day for me starts at 5am when Jonas wakes up for a milk feed. Depending on him, then depends on whether it is morning, or whether I can hit the snooze button for another hour! I’ll try and stay in bed for as long as possible, even if he is awake just by watching the television in bed so as not to rouse the other boys, as Hamish has a tendency of waking early too. By 7am it is definitely time to get out of bed and we will then get dressed straight away. I will go into the bathroom first to wash my face, brush my hair etc and the boys will follow afterwards, to brush their teeth. We will then head downstairs and have breakfast, which means by 8am we are all ready for the day to proceed. By this point, I will make sure that the dishwasher is on, a load of laundry has started, all of the curtains are open throughout the house and the beds are all made, by this point.

If it’s a school day we set off around 8:15am for the drop-offs and then depending which day it is effects what we will do. For example, Mondays are for Seth and he has his swimming lesson in the morning. Usually both Seth and Jonas will have their naps straight after lunch whilst I potter around the house. Tuesdays can either be playgroup or a visit to a park if the weather is nice, followed by heading home to do chores like cleaning or life admin. Wednesday means Seth is at preschool, so it’s just me and Jonas for the day and that is when Jonas has his hartbeeps class. Which he tends to sleep straight after, for at least two hours. Thursdays are currently a home day and we tend to venture out onto the farm for a walk. These days will return to being Grandma Days, hopefully by the end of this year. Fridays, again, are just for me and Jonas, and we tend to go to our local playgroup, closely followed by a visit to Grandad Dave and then whilst Jonas sleeps through the afternoon I can get on with jobs around the house.

Before I know it 3pm comes round very fast and it’s time to do the whole pick up from school shenanigans. Tobias has after-school club on a Monday and Tuesday so I have two school pick ups on those days. For the hour in between, I tend to head to the local shop to be able to get a special tea for the boys that evening. Fridays are for Tobias and Hamish’s swimming lessons so we’re always late home on that night as well. Bath nights are taken alternately, Wednesdays and Fridays are for Jonas and Seth whilst Tuesdays and Thursdays are for Tobias and Hamish. Every other night is a reading night. Sometimes I read to them and sometimes they read to me. I like to do some kind of ‘homework’ every night with all the boys, which tends to be speech practice with Hamish and Seth, whilst Tobias will focus on mathematics or writing.

Bedtimes, every night, start at 7pm for Jonas, Seth and Hamish. Tobias gets to stay up till 8:30pm to have a little bit of one to one time and to make him feel like a ‘big boy’. We tend to try and do games with Tobias on an evening, or he gets the chance to play educational games on the iPad.

Weekends are a little bit different, they’re not as structured and depending on what is going on (if I’m working for example) then dictates what we’re going to be doing. I like to get to church at least once a month, we have a lot of gardening jobs and DIY around the house that I try and get Gavin to catch up on during the weekends, but I also like to try and get some family time in, where we go out on an excursion.

Come, the summer, I plan on getting out more for walks. Especially with the light nights, it means I can go out with the boys after tea instead of sitting watching telly trying to stay warm, LOL! The countdown is on…

Much love Rebecca