I've never really done one of these posts, but my reality has changed so much in the past two months that I felt a strong need to write down what my days actually look like these days.
4:30am - Alarm goes off
5:30 am - wake up and fly out of bed because I have just lost an hour I desperately needed. Turn on the lamps in the girls rooms and lay out their clothes for them. Since I started letting them play on the tablet if they get themselves ready - they actually get up right away. Before the tablet bribe - I would sleep dress them before we left.
5:45am - Shower
6am - Dry and straighten hair, do makeup
6:15am - Get twins off tablet and on to getting jackets and shoes on. I then get dressed
6:20am - rush to make snacks for school, pack backpacks
6:25am - let dog out for one last potty break before he is left alone for 13 hours, send girls out to car to get themselves buckled in.
6:30am - Pick up bin by the door containing all things needed for day, load car and check twins are buckled in properly
6:35am - Everyone is in the car and we are on our way to the dayhome
6:45am - Dayhome dropoff
6:55am - Me and Hubby hit the highway for the long commute. Scream at idiots in big black trucks who left 10 mins late for work and didn't have to deal with dayhome dropoffs
7:15am - held up in traffic at 16th Ave and 52nd street. Make last minute decision to just take 52nd to memorial to get into downtown.
7:35am - Drop hubby off at office downtown and head south to my office
8:10am - pull into parkade at my office, grab everything and bolt into the building for my start time of 8:15
8:15-11:30am - Make web magic and drink coffee
11:30am-12:30pm - Lunch...otherwise known as "try to accomplish everything I need to accomplish that I can't because of my 3 hour a day commute and kindergarten twins" also known as "time to exercise if I remember my gear" These days alternate as necessary.
12:30-4:30pm - Make more web magic and drink tea
4:30pm - dash to parkade
4:35pm - enroute to Hubby's office downtown
5:10pm - pickup Hubby
5:15pm - start long commute home. Yell road ragey swears at other motorists.
5:50pm - arrive in Langdon. Rush to get to mailbox in case of parcel cards because post office closes at 6pm
6pm - Drop hubby off at grocery store to get dinner ingredients
6:05pm - pick up kids and try to make sure everything is in their backpacks before we head home
6:10pm - pickup hubby at grocery store
6:20pm - get home and let out dog
6:30pm - simultaneously start dinner and unload bin from car.
6:45pm - Read notes from teacher and find out what we need to have in place in two days time (which amounts to about 5 hours usable time in the full-time worker - out of town commuting momma's life - thereby eating lunch hour the next day to accomplish). Feed dog.
7pm - Family sits down to dinner. Try to do daily homework assignments with the twins while eating (unless it is something we need to separate them for)
7:20pm - Do separate homework assignments while getting ready for bed
7:30pm - Bedtime story
7:45pm - Tucking in, kisses and I love yous.
8pm - Parents head downstairs
8:15pm - collapsed on sofa smacking forehead while trying to find energy to do all of the things that need to be done so the household will continue to function the next day. Realize house can't possibly be as messy as eyes tell us it is because if it was, the house wouldn't be habitable by humans.
8:45pm - do minimum necessary to ensure household continuance.
9pm - rush to try to work on hobbies
9:30pm - head upstairs to get ready for bed. Smack forehead again when realizing lunches weren't packed yet and vow to get up early the next day to do it because I am simply too tired at that point.
9:40pm - get ready for bed
10pm - fall into bed exhausted and lament fact that I didn't go to bed at 9 because 4:30am comes really early and I REALLY need to actually get up with my alarm tomorrow...
So, that is my typical weekday. I wish I was exaggerating but this is actually a fairly modest account of it.
For the record:
Time spent in company of my kids: 3 hours
Time spent commuting: approx 3 hours
Time spent in office: 7.75 hours
Time spent scrambling: 24 hours
Lather rinse repeat.
And I have yet to figure out how I actually do it. Coffee. It's got to be coffee.