My routine with 3 boys - 5 years, 3 years, almost 8 months old

Most recent photo of all my boys. It's obvious to see who dislikes having his photo taken

I thought I should write a short post on what my life looks like now. If anything, it'd be a great way for me to document my life so that I can look back in the future and remember what it was like to be taking care of 3 young kids.

Samuel and Gabriel go to kindergarten from Monday to Friday. Hubby usually brings them there around 8.30am, depending on what time the children wake up. He packs their snack boxes for them and they usually stay in Kindi until 1.30pm.

Mondays:

I sometimes go for English playgroups with Liam in the morning. It's from 10-12noon and the group of ladies are the best to hang out with. But I don't go there often because depending on what our weekend was like, I'm either exhausted or there's much clearing up to be done in our house.

Sam's and Gabriel's kindergarten does not have lunch, so after I pick them up, I bring them to this place called the "Family centre". This is my little refuge where we get freshly-cooked healthy food for a meagre price of 3.50€. I usually order two portions and split the 2nd portion between two plates. While the boys are eating, I would feed myself and the baby.

Liam has started having babyfood for lunch. So far, he has tried pumpkins, potatoes, rice, carrots, bananas, melons, bread and bits and pieces of what we eat.

After they finish eating, they would play at the Family Centre for a bit before we head home. Usually when its not raining or snowing, I would get the balancing bike for Gabriel and the scooter for Samuel. We would make our way to their favourite playground where all three boys go on their favourite swing and swing forever. Liam is always laughing the entire time.

Sometimes I meet some other Moms at the playground, sometimes I don't. Gabriel has a fear of dogs (long story), so I got to be careful that no dogs get too close to him. We get home and I prepare dinner.

Because of the fact that I don't have to cook lunch, I have the motivation to cook dinner and I only have to cook once a day.

Tuesdays:

I signed myself up for Zumba course from 9.30am to 10.30am. There is free babysitting service for Liam so I bring him along. We haven't been very consistent because I haven't been able to get out of the house early enough, but we're working on that.

The usual happens at 1.30pm when I pick the kids up and we go for lunch at the Family Centre.

At 2pm, there is usually craft time at the centre, so I help the children with their craft. Samuel is pretty independent so he doesn't need much help. I get to focus on Gabriel, but this can be a bit of a hassle too if Liam is not napping or if he's cranky.

Depending on the weather, we either hang outside with the children on their bicycles or we head home.

At 5.15pm, Samuel and Gabriel have their childrens' gym so I bring them there. It takes about one hour, during which I either go for a walk with Liam in his stroller or I get home and try to put something in the oven / prepare dinner.

I pick the kids up at 6.15pm, walk home and try to get dinner ready / children bathed and the whole she-bang before the hub hopefully comes home around 7-7.30pm.

Wednesdays: 

I do pilates course from 10.45-11.45am. I bring Liam along and he just plays on the playmat while I do my core exercises.

Usually the grandparents come over to either hang out with the boys on Wednesdays or the grandfather picks up the older ones and brings them to their house.

Assuming that the older boys are taken care of, I tend to do stuff for myself in town on this day. I either meet up with a fellow Mum for lunch at a nice restaurant or I just go to town to run errands, hang out.

Winter being winter though, the grandparents have been sick / people have been sick so my me-and-Liam time on Wednesdays has been far and few between.

Last Wednesday I decided to brave the cold and brought all 3 boys to town for lunch while meeting up with a fellow Mom and her baby. I think it was really brave cool of her to agree to meet up with me and my 3 boys in town.

My best shot of 3 boys at the Christmas market

It turned out to be such a great time though! The boys cooperated relatively well (ie. no tantrums that we couldn't deal with) and they were SO amazed at all the Christmas decorations! The Stuttgart Christmas market has started and its so beautiful. I got the 10x ticket card for the steam train and the ferris-wheel so the kids have something to look forward to.

When my friend went home, I brought the kids to a shoe store to look for some shoes for Samuel. There's a TV with kids' cartoon there, so I could look for shoes relaxedly. The boys even followed me to an Asian grocery store to get some stuff and they were so well-behaved that we could even hang out in town for some sushi for dinner.

Hub took the opportunity to work later and came home around 8pm since we were out and about. I think it was such a successful time in town that we'll probably do it again sometime next week.

Thursdays: 

Thursday mornings are my only free mornings. I take the opportunity to sleep in for as long as Liam allows me to. The good thing about Liam still boobing through the night?

He doesn't wake up early! YAY! Hahah. If I keep offering him the boob in the morning, that boy would cat-nap until noon. Ok, I'm exaggerating there. But he's definitely not an early riser.

Thursday afternoons we have English playgroup from 3-5pm. The kids enjoy this routine since I've been bringing them to this playgroup since Sam was one. We have a singing session - which is the only time they get to sing English songs in a group. The other songs they learn in kindergarten are obviously only German. We have some craft, snack and story time. Great afternoon every Thursday.

I drive the kids home by 5.30pm and go for my cell group from 6.30-8.30/9pm.

Hubby takes the kids so that I can have some me time with the ladies, worshipping the Lord and reading our Bibles. Can you tell Thursday is one of my favourite days of the week?

Fridays:

My cleaning lady comes in the morning from 10am-1pm. While she cleans, I pack up and organise the house. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way my house looks at 1pm on Fridays.

The kids come home from kindergarten around 1.30pm and 10 mins later, the house looks like the cleaning lady hasn't been there.

I cook lunch on Fridays because the Family Centre does fish meals on Fridays and honestly, the fish portions are too little. I can understand that 3.50€ is not much and fish is expensive so they can't give much. So I would rather cook lunch on Fridays.

I usually cook fish for lunch on Fridays though. The drawback of having the cleaning lady there on Fridays mean that I can usually only cook when the kids come home. I try to make something fast / already do the preparation work while the cleaning lady is still there.

We have lunch and try to figure out what to do. I try not to plan a program for everyday since I believe children need some down time too.

Hub sometimes comes home earlier on Fridays (6pm) so we try to be at home when he's there. Once a fortnight he has cellgroup at 8pm, so bedtime routine is on me on Fridays.

Saturdays:

The children are learning how to swim, so we bring them to the pool by 11am. Gabriel has his swim course first, followed by Sam's one at 12pm - 1pm. We try not to plan much social activities on Saturdays since the children tend to be tired after swimming.

Once we tried to go to Ikea after swimming and it was a badddd decision. Gabriel got so cranky until he fell asleep in the Ikea stroller - an hour after we were inside.

Sundays:

We go to church usually at 4pm. We have a leisurely breakfast in the morning, hang out and go to church in the afternoon.

....................................

If you have read until here, great for you! I found it so therapeutic to write about my life!

I tell my hub that I sometimes feel my SAHM life gets so boring / monotonous. But writing about it reminds me that it's the little things that count. And actually I do love being a SAHM.

The activities might be the same but the days are definitely so different because these 3 human beings will always behave differently one day from the next. And it's not what I do, but WHO I get to do my SAHM life with.

Just today, Gabriel happily decided that he wanted to play with chilli flakes! Those very fine and VERY spicy chilli flakes! I didn't even know he was playing with the chilli until I heard him sneezing and I saw him rubbing his eyes immediately afterwards! I could not shout "STOP!" fast enough, so my poor baby was screaming his lungs out.

I tried to wash his eyes until running water (fail), put cold water bag on his cheeks (big fail) before going for my last resort of putting him in the bath tub for a full-body shower. He was crying and screaming the entire time! OH boy!

That was truly a painful lesson learnt! All that time, I had no idea if I should laugh or cry cos his face and even his ears (!!!) turned bright red!

Yeah, there's never a dull moment as a Mom.

So cherish this life I will. Enjoy these days I will. And document it I should do so more often!

How's your life with your children? I would love to hear about your life too!