routine Archives - Nesting Story

5 Tips on how to create a routine for your family – Part two of a two part series

This post was created in partnership with Kids & Company.

Read part one of this series here.

Creating a routine came out of necessity when I first became a mom. I was a new stay-at-home mom, and the routine-less life was starting to get to me. In fact, there were days that my husband would come home from work and I’d be anxiously pacing the halls.

I truly believe that some people thrive off of constantly switching it up and living life freely. Others need a set routine to feel grounded and happy. I am a routine person, through and through.

So when I was finding myself floundering as a routine-free mom, I knew I needed to make some big changes. Over the years I have found ways to create a routine for myself when a job outside of my home wasn’t doing it for me.

Today I am a full-time, work-at-home mom, which leaves my daily routine’s structure up to me. Having childcare has been a huge game-changer for my routine, as well as some other tricks on how to create a routine I have learned along the way…

1.Set your alarm. This may sound like a no-brainer, but not having a job outside my home makes it very tempting to sleep in and race around just before sending my kids to school and Kids & Company (child care and early learning). Before my kids were in school it was even harder setting an alarm and sticking to it.

The days I actually do set my alarm and stick to it are typically great days. I am able to eat breakfast before my kids, feel more in control of my day and tend to have more patience. When do I wake up? I find 6:00 A.M. is the sweet spot… one hour before my family wakes up.

2. Use an agenda. I don’t know what I’d do without my agenda. I’m talking about an old-school paper and pen agenda. Everything from our four kids’ appointments to work deadlines and weekly meal planning goes in there.

On the days that I feel a little anxious about what is on my plate, just sitting in front my agenda book and planning right down to the detail, makes my stress melt away.

3. Embrace a to-do list. My to-do lists go hand-in-hand with my agenda. What I do is write a list each week full of must-dos and back-burner items (you know, those tasks that aren’t urgent, but hanging over your head), which include deadlines, shopping lists, chores… you name it. Then each week I hack away as best I can.

Some weeks I cross off my entire list and others I am just able to get the mandatory tasks done. On the weeks that I haven’t tackled my back-burner items, I carry them over to the next week and try again.

4. Keep track of how you feel during different times of the day. Something I learned when I first created my own routine was how much more efficient I am in the morning than in the afternoon. In fact, most days I have to stop and have a little rest right after lunch.

Tuning into how I felt each day has helped me manage my energy levels and workload. I tackle big projects, must-dos and deadlines in the morning, and then leave my back-burner items until after lunch. So on those days that I am dragging my heels because I have been up all night with a sick kid, I can take the afternoon off, (well, as “off” as you can when you have a sick child at home).

5. Do laundry on the weekend. Can I tell you a secret? I don’t hate doing laundry. I know, I know, am I even human? Don’t worry, I detest doing dishes. But when it comes to laundry, I always schedule around it on the weekends. Being so protective of my “laundry time” on the weekend has dramatically changed my relationship with this weekly chore.

Every Saturday we (and I say we because my husband helps) wash all of our kids’ laundry and on Sunday afternoons I fold it. Because I have built my laundry-folding marathon into each Sunday afternoon, my kids expect it and I make it as pleasant as possible, while watching a movie on my iPad.

Whether a stay-at-home mom, a work-outside- the-home mom, or a work-at-home mom, routines can not only change your mood and help you complete your to-do list, it can help you complete more each week than you thought possible and even love some weekly tasks more than ever before.

Finding a childcare that not only gives me time to build my career, but that my kids also love, has been such a wonderful aspect to having more of a work/life balance. Kids & Company has the flexibility I need with my schedule, but also the unique programming, learning opportunities, from-scratch meals and sense of community they provide fills me with such confidence in my choice in childcare.

With locations all across Canada, Kids & Company is a high-quality care and early development centre that parents can trust and kids will love. It started under the leadership of two moms (one with 8 children!), who felt there was a need for flexible care options in a setting with amazing teachers, community, proven development programs and an understanding of today’s families.

Whether it’s their Grab ‘n’Go snacks, parent workshops, or their complimentary care for date nights and shopping days outside of regular hours, nothing has been forgotten.

Here’s where it gets exciting… right now Kids and Company is waiving the registration fee (a $150 value) for Nesting Story readers! Just email amcnaught@kidsandcompany.com to access this exclusive offer.
One waved registration per family for a newly registering child before December 31, 2018. Subject to availability.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kids & Company. While compensation was provided, all opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily indicative of the opinions of Kids & Company.

5 Reasons why having a routine is so good for our family – Part one of a two part series

This post was created in partnership with Kids & Company.

Routine. It’s the holy grail of motherhood. At least in my eyes it is. Routine for me was something that I found during a low point as a stay-at-home, first time mom. When your kids are in school, or you work outside of your home, a routine tends to be born out of necessity. But as a stay-at-home mom, or a work-from-home mom, (which I currently am), creating a routine and sticking to it must be an intentional decision.

Sticking to a routine is not only something that our family of six benefits from, but I do as well. Having our twins in daycare at Kids and Company has been a game changer for rounding out our family’s routine. Here are five reasons why…

1. Our kids are happier. All kids are different and thrive off of different environments and schedules. I’m not sure if it depends on their parents, or just how they are. But from very early on, when our first child, Holden was just over a year old, I realized that he craved a routine. It was at this time, while exhausted and pregnant with our second child, that I started putting Holden into part-time daycare. Using those few three hour breaks a week I created a daily schedule for our family and our kids thrived.
Today our kids thrive on routine. They are generally happier on weekdays when we have a strict routine. It’s predictable, it’s segmented, and it’s exactly what our kids need.

2. Easier to parent four kids. Four kids is a lot of kids. Jumping from two to four kids when we had our twins was a big transition for our whole family. One thing that I have found helps is doing daily tasks in large quantities. Snacks, meals, baths, getting dressed and brushing teeth, are each less time consuming and easier to remember to do when everyone does it at once and at the same time each day.

3. There are fewer complaints. When you do many of the same tasks every day around the same time, everyone becomes accustomed to it and there is very little push back. On weekdays, after breakfast when I ask our kids to go get dressed, there is rarely a complaint. But on weekends, when we’ve slept in a little and had a slower morning, the moment I ask our kids to switch gears and get themselves dressed I hear excuses and complaining. I have often implemented a routine on holidays and seasonal breaks from school just to avoid this problem.

4. Helps control my weight. Having a routine makes it much easier to keep track of what and how much I am eating. Having a schedule leaves room for meal planning, which I try to take full advantage of. Also, I find I am more likely to work out regularly if I choose a specific time each day and stick to it.

5. I am happier. I am. I thrive on a routine. I was raised on a routine and I come from a long line of routine-driven people. It’s in my blood. When I stick to a routine I feel happier, clearer, more levelheaded, more ambitious and more energetic. What more could I ask for?

Finding a childcare that not only gives me time to build my career, but that my kids also love, has been such a wonderful aspect to having more of a work/life balance. Kids & Company not only has the flexibility I have needed with my unique schedule, but the incredible fresh, from-scratch meals they provide for my kids each day (which they actually eat), fills me with such confidence with my choice in childcare.

With locations all across Canada, Kids & Company is a high-quality childcare and early development centre that parents can trust and kids will love. It started under the leadership of two moms (one with 8 children!), who felt there was a need for flexible care options in a setting with amazing teachers, community, proven development programs and an understanding of today’s families.

Whether it’s their Grab ‘n’Go snacks, parent workshops, or their complimentary care for date nights and shopping days outside of regular hours, no detail has been forgotten.

I won’t let winter swallow me

What is the temperature where you live? Here, just outside of Toronto its the kind of cold that the air hurts your face. I barely venture outside, and even driving somewhere makes me groan. But I am refusing to let winter take me down with it.

Last week I wrote a post about how I was actually enjoying Christmas break. In fact the next day when I re-read it I annoyed myself. Because the next day I unravelled. Actually I unravelled the day after that too. I hit my wall, because doing multiple activities a day with my family left zero time for my introverted side to go into a quiet place and recharge. I was burnt out, peopled out and just done.

I didn’t cry though, which is a big improvement. I more just started stressing audibly about messes in our home and saying loudly, “I need school to start.”

Actually, random fact… I learned last week from my lovely husband that apparently I talk to myself… all the time. According to him I narrate my day. A habit I am assuming I picked up over the past couple years of working from home with kids in school and daycare.

So when Mike would yell, “pardon?” every five minutes from the other room and I had to yell back, “I wasn’t talking to you!” It didn’t help my fraying nerves.

Last year the winter won. I always start fighting seasonal depression each fall, but between having a bad case of strep throat in January of 2017 and immersing myself in the red hot political world of news, I fell into a black hole of despair. It took me a couple months and some big changes to pull myself out, but I finally did.

So by the end of the day on Saturday I had a choice to make. Was I going to let the winter swallow me like it did last year? No I wouldn’t allow it.

So what I am I doing about it? I am taking control. On Sunday I put my foot down and slowed down. I sent my family out of the house and enjoyed three hours of silence. I am still standing up for what works for me.

But the two biggest things of all…

I am hanging onto a routine while life is routine-less. That means setting my alarm for 6:45pm and doing our typical routine to get our twins to daycare, despite our big kids still being off for the holidays. And I am hanging onto my typical grocery shopping and meal planning routines.

I am being careful about what I watch and consume. Whether it’s a disturbing movie, the news, or even too much crappy food. I know that it is tempting to let it all in when you are mostly homebound, but I have finally learned that all of those things have a big impact on my mental state.

How do you feel this time of year? Is there a certain time of year that triggers you? Do you have any tips on how to beat the winter blues?

Here is a look back at some of our family’s summer routine videos that I created for Baby Center. Maybe we can all take a little motivation from these routines.

I’m actually enjoying Christmas vacation… well, so far

I am a routine freak. I don’t try to hide it. I need my routine. When pulled out of it, even for a weekend, I unravel.

But here I am, Thursday December 28th, and I am intact, mentally sound, and have not crumbled. Not even during the three straight days of family events, (some with two events per day). Nope, I’m as cool as a cucumber over here.

At least for now.

Maybe this is the sign of the times. I have emerged from the baby haze and can actually cope with life. Okay, okay, our twins went back to full-time daycare yesterday, so maybe I am cheating just a little. But hey, I have learned what works for our family, and I am taking full advantage of childcare so that Mike and I can spend some rare one-on-one time with our big kids.

Despite the plethora of toys our kids were given for Christmas, I have still heard, “I’m bored,” already at least ten times. My response… saying you’re bored buys you a ticket to play in the mounds of snow in our backyard. This redirects them pretty quickly, especially since it is -23° C outside here in Canada.

So, I survived Christmas. It was pretty great actually, despite some kids getting over colds, and Beau having a bad fall on Christmas morning. It was mostly magical. I’ve added our last couple vlogs below in case you want to catch up on our Christmas vacation.

Fingers crossed I keep going with the flow, and can survive the next week. But for now I am going to enjoy the all-day pj rule, the midday movie outings (we saw Wonder today, it was incredible), and Mike and my evening movie dates enjoying our new basement home theatre.

I hope you are surviving the holidays too, and are finding the unstructured days manageable. Fingers crossed!

How To Help Your Kids Become More Independent And Get Them On A Schedule (Free Download)

There tends to be so much focus on getting babies onto a schedule that we sometimes forget that older kids need structure too. This became very apparent when our twins were born and my two older kids, (ages five and three), were having meltdowns, forgetting to brush their teeth, having way too much screen time and getting constipated all of the time. Not to mention my husband and I were starting to bicker as a result of the chaos. I knew that something had to change!

I decided to make a tailored schedule for our older kids, complete with pictures, so they could go to the schedule and understand it themselves. This particularly worked well with my son who used to pester and start an argument with me right after school everyday. I always knew that he was hungry and needed a snack first, but we would start into it everyday. Once I had the schedule up, I would just say, “well, let’s check what the schedule says,” knowing the schedule said to wash hands and have a snack. We never argued after school again.

Let me explain the constipation part. My kids would typically hold it in and not want to stop what they were doing to have a bathroom break. With the schedule, I just built it into our day. I also made sure I built in hand washing, especially with newborns in the house.

This schedule may seem a little rigid but it was a sanity saver. We aren’t currently using the schedule, but I am planning on updating ours for September to get everyone back on track when the new school year starts. This type of schedule may work better for some kids, more than others.

Another way I have been able to help our kids be more independent, was by adding signs around the house to remind them of what they should be doing. For example, in their rooms I added a sign reminding them to clean their rooms, which I stuck near the light switch. In the bathrooms I added signs to remind them to wash their hands, and in the kid’s bathroom, I added a sign reminding them to brush their teeth. Each of these signs have a picture illustrating the task, so even Beau, who can’t read yet, can understand the message.Thank-you to our friends at Firefly for giving us these awesome toothbrushes and mouthwash!

I have included a FREE download of our schedule below. I encourage you to customize it to your day and add photos of your kids doing each activity!

FREE DOWNLOAD> Kid’s Daily Schedule – Nesting Story

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