I have had 2 separate Mommy’s email me recently, asking about our daily routine. Sounded like a future blog post to me, so here I am! 🙂
Let me start off by giving a HUGE disclaimer….
This schedule is what I strive for, and I LOVE it when we succeed, ‘cause being organized makes me happy. However, with 4 kids, I have learned to expect the unexpected! I never know when a phone call or fussy baby will throw the whole morning’s routine, you know? So, if you call me at 12:15 and I am not making lunch yet….no judgments! 🙂
This is the school schedule, but I’ll try to make notes of how it changes in the summer time:
Btwn 6:30-7 Breakfast time for all the kiddos! Destiny makes bed, gets dressed, and brushes teeth. (For the summer, this part of Destiny’s routine will all start an hour later, with the other kids.)
7:50 Destiny off to school
8 Little kids do their morning chores like make their beds, get dressed, do hair, brush teeth.
~Next, they unload the dishwasher or put away their clean laundry. If no chores need done, then they get to play in the playroom until TV time.
~I use this time to pick from my monthly menu what I want to make for dinner, lay out the necessary non-perishable ingredients and thaw meat in a cold water-filled sink.
8:30 Morning nap for Paxton, my time to check my email/blog comments.
(Did I mention I LOVE to hear from you all? Cause I do!)
9-10 1 hour of TV time (This is all they get for the day) so I can get a shower. (Or at least get my contacts in and freshen up a bit! Let’s be realistic, this is not something that always occurs!!!!!) LOL 🙂
*I’d like to think someday, as Pax gets older, I will be rested enough to set my alarm and get up to shower at 5:30 or something!!!! We’ll see how that goes!
~The good news about limiting Tv time? It’s SUCH a special treat, that they don’t budge from the couch until the show is over. I use the rest of this time to get some work done on the computer or make phone calls while all is quiet!
10 Wake up Paxton, so he’ll take an afternoon nap. (we are just starting to show signs of outgrowing morning nap, so we’ll cut it down slowly until it’s no longer necessary)
10-10:50 Play a game, do puzzles or read to the kids. If they are playing wonderfully together, I don’t always interrupt, but choose to keep working around the house.
10:50 Make lunch and call for toy clean up.
11-12:00 Lunch.
My kids are SLOOOOW eaters! I eat with them and once I have fed Pax his baby food, start working on supper or pay bills or something constructive.
Why, oh why, do little ones feel the need to dig their faces into their sandwich eating only the center, even if they know they have to eat the crust afterwards anyways?
On another note: 1 bribed the kids today with a “1 Carrot Earns You 3 Chips” Rule. Guess who got too full of carrots to want any chips? SCORE! 🙂
12:15 Required rest time for big kids. (We aim for a minimum of 1 hour.)
~Destiny must read a chapter book during this time. Tylan looks at picture books and plays quietly with cars. They both must stay in their locations the whole hour, no coming in and out of the room or minutes are added to resting time!
~This is also nap time for the two little ones (minimum of 1 1/2 hours or they are cranky!) They usually sleep 2-2 1/2 hours.
12:30 Nurse Paxton and get him to sleep.
12:30-3 Work like mad to get supper prep work done (I chop veggies, or wash lettuce, fry up my hamburger and onions; anything to make supper go faster later when the kids are STARRRRVING) then I lay out, read a book, or do something for me.
Ahhh, peace and quiet! 
After their hour is up, Destiny and Tylan can come out and play, or help me in the garden, with weeding and harvesting.
3ish Every body is awake, it’s Snack time!
*No eating past 4 or we spoil supper.
~From the time they get up from nap on, its swim time or (during the nice school days) outside play time until I call them in for supper.
5 Get supper in the oven, call Destiny in to do homework during the school year.
Eat supper anywhere from 5-7 pm depending on daddy’s schedule.
Start bedtime @ 7:00 during school year, or between 7:30-8 in the summer, it takes us a good half hour!
~First we get outdoor or indoor toys picked up, put Jammies on, get teeth brushed and unmake beds.
~Meet in the office to get online and check off Chore Charts for the day. 
~Then meet as a family in front of the fire in the winter, or either the girls room or the boy’s room the rest of the year, for Bible story, songs and prayer time.
LIGHTS OUT 7:30 during school year and between 8-8:30 in the summer!
No matter what time we go to bed, it seems they wake up around 6:15 the next day, and then we start this routine over! 🙂
After Tylan was born, and I had to really schedule his nursing’s and naps between Destiny’s preschool drop off and pick up, so I used to have this schedule written out on a piece of paper and taped up where I could see it. After a while it just flowed on its own and this is the schedule we currently aim for each day. I am sure it will change again after 3 of them are in school next year on different days in 3 different locations! 🙂
Hope this gives you a jumping point in creating your own schedule and routine. Have a good one!
~T
4 little Fergusons 