I then realized that she didn't see my constant silly joking attitude as playing, or the short moments we break out in song or dance spontaneously. Our long conversations about our days isn't playing, nor is story time before bed. And she's right. I work these moments I considered as playing into our routines so that our routine wouldn't feel like one. But I never work real "playing" into our routine and it's actually something that she made me put on my 30 Before 30 list: take time to be a kid again.
Every morning I hit my snooze twice before giving in and making the foggy walk to the coffee pot. I groggily mix my salvation in a cup and make my way to the couch to slowly sip and read email, weather, and news (and sometimes I get sucked into Pinterest). At some point during my morning coffee my daughter makes her way down to me and joins me on the couch for a ten minute cuddle.
And from then on it's a mad dash through our day. Make her breakfast, make her lunch, make my lunch (if there's time), take a quick 5-10 minute shower, get dressed (sometime this takes longer than it should), send Ava up to get herself dressed (also takes longer than it should), put on some make-up to fake looking awake, get Ava's teeth and hair brushed, mix my second (sometimes third) cup of coffee to-go, grab something quick to eat for breakfast on the go (or also throw breakfast into my lunchbox and eat it at work), rush to drop Ava at school (somehow we are always running late with this one because something is always missing, a shoe, a glove, a bunny), and finally, rush off to work where I almost always slam on the breaks in traffic as soon as I'm on the highway. (Also on my List, take better control of my mornings, also suggested by Ava).
My workday is almost always just as busy anymore. And I don't take a lunch break, I work through it so I can get home earlier (usually around 5). Because of course, there is homework to be done (my husband almost always takes on this task), dinner to be made (again, the husband), and dinner to be eaten. By the time its done and the kitchen is clean, it's time for PJs, tooth brushing and story time and then finally her bedtime. I usually crash and burn on the couch at this point but I've been using this time to blog instead lately, something I'm thankful I managed to work into our routine.
Our weekends are usually fun but they too seem to get sucked up by laundry, chores, and house work that we don't have time during the week for, or even fun things like visiting family and day trips. When she was younger and I was a stay-a-home mom it was so much easier to find time to play. And boy did we play.
Our life is modern life and we're not the only ones living with routines like this. I guess our routine isn't perfect yet but just as I managed to add blogging time I'm positive I can make more time for real, act like a kid playing again on a more routine basis.
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1 comment:
It's not a perfect routine but it's ours :)
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