My Little Men and our home rhythm

I'm loving this current phase of motherhood. Loving it and being completely exhausted by it at the same time. This is how our day often begins: -I wake up and teach English to kids in China until about 6 AM. Often I go back to sleep. We try to convince Patrick to stay in bed until 7 and between 6:45 and 7:15 Maxwell usually wakes up. -Scott leaves for work at 7:15 and the boys sometimes play with eachother but often wind up in bed with me. I call it snuggle time but often it's just the boys jumping on top of me and demanding that I get up to make breakfast. -I put on a pot of water to boil for coffee and begin making the boys some breakfast. Sometimes I can convince them to eat eggs-that's the healthiest breakfast I can come up with most mornings. The second most healthy breakfast I typically attempt is oatmeal and that seems to be a favorite. Chocolate oatmeal with peanut butter is the oatmeal of choice in our home...though two weeks ago we had bagles frequently and Patch seemed quite fond of them. [I'm realizing as I document all of this that it feels really silly and mundane but, maybe someone will care one day. Maybe my posterity will be grateful to get a glimpse into our every day. Maybe not. Either way, here it is] -After breakfast we typically launch into online school work for Patrick and Max typically bobbles about carrying his teddy bear that he's named "Lolo". Patrick made him originally and named him "Farso" but, "Lolo" is stuck now. Anyway, school lasts all of 20-30 minutes typically while I do dishes/ tidy/ sometimes attempt to get dressed (I'll be real though, often these days I'm in my pajamas/ whatever it was I wore to bed until after lunch. Some days, I wear exercise clothes to bed and tell myself I'm going to work out. When we had Patrick in in person school I worked out every day. Now that he's back at home...yeah...it's happened either SUPER early in the morning or late at night...so the workout clothes to bed is wishful thinking) -Patrick often earns screen time after school and chooses to watch a couple of hours of a TV show (I'm trying to pair this down as I'm reading in most of the parenting books that screen time isn't good for kiddos) and Max goes down for his nap. I often convince Patrick to participate in some tidying, getting dressed, and making his bed before show time happens. He's become a lot more compliant when it comes to housework. I'm learning to show more joy in housework and to insist that he get more involved more often. It's slow progress but he's doing a good job and setting an example for Maxwell. When we're putting laundry away I can ususally tell Max "bring this to your room" and he grabs a small stack of clothes and brings them right back. Cute little butt waddling down the hallway. -Typically show time and nap time last about 2 hours during which time I'm either finishing getting ready, cleaning, or trying to squeeze some work into the middle of the day. If I'm lucky and nap time lasts longer, I squeeze in some "quiet time" with Patrick. I'll continue working while he finds a quiet activity like blocks, drawing, playdough, etc. Sometimes we shorten TV time and put this quiet hour before TV time. Either way, we try to get that additional quiet time in and lately, I've allowed Patrick to hang close to me while he engages in whatever activity. I read in "Heaven on Earth" that kiddos sometimes just crave close proximity to parents and that while there is value in learning to play independently, it's ok to indulge their desire to be nearby so, I've stopped insisting that he have quiet time in his room. I think it's made things a lot more harmonious. -In the late afternoon we'll often begin a project, go on a walk or bike ride, or run an errand or two. These days, the errands I run with the boys are extremely limited. They've gone into the grocery store with me twice since the beginning of the Pandemic. One of those times was when the power was out for 4 days and we needed ice so our food didn't go bad. The other time was when I needed a large quantity of sour cream to make meals for some friends families when they were out of town and the dads were flying solo with their 4 kids. Anywho, we run very few errands and it's mostly in the car to pick up things/ drop off things- bank deposits, grocery pickup, drive through to get food, and dropping items off to donate. -Scott gets home around 6 and plays games with the kids/ encourage tidying up of the living room and their bedrooms while I make dinner and by 7:00 we are getting ready for 7:30 bedtime. -After bed I try to get toys tidied off the floor and dishes out of the sink. I have also spent some time reading my parenting books and lately I've been trying to add in exercise during that time. This is our simple home "rhythm" and it's brought me a lot of peace to slow the crap down over the last few months and not worry so much about leaving the house and doing "things" because...well...we can't and that's a good thing. :)