Friday, April 20, 2012

Divide and Conquer



Divide and Conquer!


A day in the life of... us!

So in this whole idea of doing it all, like I have said before, I don’t! It may seem like I do partly because I do it little by little one day at a time but mainly I have help.  I have two wonderful men in my life that help me do it all! I have my lovely boyfriend, Robert and my amazing brother, Jr.  Robert and I live together and he helps out a great deal.  I know that I am extremely lucky to have a guy like him.  I know from past experiences that there are not many men out there who help out.  So now that I have him around I do appreciate him a lot more.
We divide and conquer every day.  My mornings start off by waking up and feeding the baby.  As I am feeding the baby he wakes up and showers.  When he gets out of the shower and gets dressed I wake up my older son, put out his clothes so he can dress himself and then put his Eggos in the toaster.  While I get dressed and put my makeup on, he changes the baby.  We split the kitchen duties by helping one another get bottles ready for the day, putting together lunches, make a quick breakfast to go and take out what is needed  for dinner.  He puts the baby into the carseat while I put all the bags that go along with the baby and a working mom into the car. My oldest is at the age that he is pretty much self sufficient with just a little direction needed.  While we are getting things done he is brushing his teeth, putting his shoes on and getting his last minute things in his book bag.   I take the baby to daycare and my boyfriend takes my oldest to school.  

After work is another divide and conquer mission however this time we have another player in the game.  In comes my older brother Jr, have I mentioned, he is amazing?  He usually picks up my oldest from school and 3 days out of the week he takes him to MMA, Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing lessons along with his own son.  When I get out of work I either pick him up from his house, meet him at the lessons or he drops him off at home for me.  He is also there for me whenever I need him. 

Robert usually picks up the baby from day care. As you may have noticed, my schedule at work is not always  reliable to leave at a decent hour.  Whoever gets home first, which it is usually Robert now a days, he starts dinner.  When I get home, I start washing bottles the baby used at daycare and fill them for the next day ( I pump during the day at work). I do homework with Brandon while Robert is finishing up dinner.  We all eat together, usually in front of the TV.  I know, I wish we had dinners at the table more often in order to talk but since our schedules are so hectic this is usually the only time my son gets to watch TV with us, so we usually watch a recorded show of Wipe Out.  After dinner, Brandon goes to shower and I wash the dishes while Robert is with the baby, usually he puts in a load of laundry if needed at this time.  When Brandon is finished and ready for bed, I go with him to his room and we read together.  (This is our “special one on one time” which also helps with school, multitasking at its finest!) After that, I feed and bathe the baby while Robert folds laundry or relaxes. If we are lucky we usually get about half an hour to sit on the couch together and watch a show or a game. Then he gives the baby the last bottle for the night and he goes to sleep while I take a shower.  Usually, I am sleeping by midnight just to wake up intermittently throughout the night to feed the baby.

Then we do it all over again in the morning!


So we do eventually “do it all” but it is definitely a group effort.  I was a single mom for about 5 years so I know that doing it all alone is not an easy task and you just do not do it all, at all!   I read other moms blogs all the time and I take advice from the ones that also “do it all”.  I feel that whether you are a single mom, a working mom, a stay at home mom or any other combination it is a hard job and trying out things that work for others may just work for you.  There are actually some things that I do not do and I will like to figure out how to fit it into my already packed schedule, for instance, exercise.


Later on, I will talk about how I managed to get my 7 year old to do most of his things on his own.  I will also share how I do my groceries and my very laxed dinner menu plan.  If there is anything else you all would like to know about how I do things please ask away.  I would also love to know if you have any tried and tested routines that you would love to share with the rest of us moms who are trying to do it all.  

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