All day, every day

Hello, hello! I hope you are all doing well during week 738395 of quarantine! 🤣

I thought I’d hop on here and share what we like to do during these long days. I know y'all are probably getting tired of being cooped up, we sure are! Hopefully this will give you some new ideas to keep you and your littles busy!

First and foremost, I try to wake up before the kids! When I can get a few minutes of alone time I tend to be in a better mood for the rest of the day. It took me a couple weeks to figure that out but once I did I stuck to it! I get up, change clothes, and fix my coffee. Really I like to finish my coffee before the girls wake up but that doesn't always happen. (They are early birds!)

While I'm enjoying my coffee I check all my stuff...facebook, instagram, snapchat, tiktok- if I have time. I try to let that be the only time I'm on my phone during the morning. It's really easy to get sucked into social media but I TRY not to let it distract me while the girls are awake. I TRY to remember that all this extra time with them is a huge blessing and I need to take advantage of it while I can.

Now, with that being said, I'm only human and some days I need a break and some days I have to do a few things for work. For those days, I will let Mackenzie pick a Disney movie to watch while she eats her breakfast. She has been obsessed with all the princess movies lately so I don't mind her watching them. (It takes me back to my childhood. :)) Madison is pretty good about playing on her own after she eats her breakfast. IF they are both fed and happy, I'll play around on my phone/work a little longer. But I have to remind myself that there is nothing wrong with a little down time every once in a while!

So, if it's a day where I'm not on my phone and I don't have any work to do I try to keep them as busy as possible in the morning!

We will....

get out some toys:

play with play-doh:

color some pictures:

which I don’t have a single picture of 🤣

cut some paper... ⚠️ this will make your floor a mess! 🤪 but this will keep Mackenzie occupied for an hour so it’s totally worth it!

build things with legos:

Blow bubbles:

Water the plants:

or anything that will keep their attention and keep them clean. (I'm a freak about being dirty and getting into bed...so we do all of our, "this will get you dirty," activities in the afternoon...AFTER nap time).

So....wake up, eat breakfast, play, and then we like to go on a walk. We are very blessed to live in a great neighborhood where we can walk for about 45 minutes and feel completely safe. They LOVE to be outside so this is always good for us. Mackenzie loves to climb the hills (they are tiny lol) and look for deer. We see some quite often actually. She thinks they are Santa's reindeer and that they are watching her to tell Santa if she's being good or not! I will not tell her any differently! 🤣

By the time we get back from our walk it's usually lunch time. Now we all know that I am a horrible chef....so sometimes we will go pick up food from somewhere...no shame in my game there. I ALWAYS give them some fruit to go with whatever it is. If we are just eating at home it's usually leftovers, sandwiches, avocados, peas, peanut butter, string cheese....you know...things that kids like! After lunch we clean up (I'm trying to teach Kenzie how to clean up after herself) and play for a little bit. I try to have them both at least laying down in their beds for nap time around 1 but that doesn't always happen. If they are happily playing then I don't force them to take a nap. Madison will always take at least 1 nap a day but Mackenzie has slowly been weening herself from naps since this quarantine business started. I'd say she naps 3-4 times a week and they are short. Maybe an hour or so.

This was a rare day that she fell asleep on her own! 🙌🏼

While they are both napping I try to sit and relax for a few minutes!! Some times that's the only quiet time I get all day long so I'm going to enjoy every second of it! I do clean a little: do some laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, dust, vacuum, etc. I also play around on TikTok during nap time.... It has quickly become my new favorite obsession!

After nap time is over, it's time for COFFEE! My second cup for the day is usually iced. If I'm not drinking coffee I have a Dr. Pepper. Either way, I need more caffeine! LOL

I'll give the girls a snack, usually goldfish, some fruit, graham crackers, yogurt....just something easy. After they both wake up fully and are happy (sometimes this takes a while! LOL) then we might do one of the following outside activities:

go on another walk:

or color with chalk:

paint (Kenzie really enjoys painting rocks and the sidewalk):

We ALWAYS use Crayola washable paint for this. I feel like that’s one of those, “duh,” things but I’m going to say it anyway!

fill up & throw water balloons:

swim & play in their water table/sprinklers:

pick up acorns from the front yard (thank you Oak trees for dumping THOUSANDS of acorns into our yard every year):

or play on their playground in the backyard:

We were very blessed when we bought our home 3 years ago. I'll share the the story another time, but the previous owners had school aged kids so they had built a huge, covered playground in the back complete with a slide and swings. Mackenzie LOVES it. We, a.k.a. Santa, bought her some attachments for it last Christmas but she is too afraid to use them....kids. She really enjoys the area for the most part, though.

We play & play all afternoon long. Then Daddy gets home. Mommy shouts, "hooray!!" He cooks us dinner. He plays with the girls. They legit love him more than me. It's fine. I get it! He's the fun one! I'm just the one who birthed them, fed them for a year, took care of them 23 hours a day... no biggie... .....I'm kidding.... Jayson helped raise them, too.

So we eat, they play. Then it's bath time for 1. I have them on alternating schedules unless they both get dirty and smelly. It is EXHAUSTING trying to bathe them both at the same time or on the same night. Madison still isn't a huge fan of bath time in the tub so some nights she just cries the whole time. It wears me out mentally and physically! Bending over to wash bodies and hair is hard on this old lady.... I'm only 32 but it's still not fun. lol Kenzie enjoys her baths, though, so she'll stay in there for as long as she can. We usually have to let the water out and she will finally decide to get out when she gets cold enough. You'd think she would learn to get out before that but nope. She's as stubborn as her daddy is so I think she stays in there long enough to try to make a point.

Madison get sleepy around 7 or 7:30 so she'll nurse and then fall asleep. Mackenzie's bedtime completely depends on whether or not she took a nap. If she didn't nap, she'll get in bed around 8 and watch some tv for about 30 minutes. She'll usually fall asleep pretty quick and stays asleep all night. If she did take a nap she won't get in bed until 8:30 or 9 and then fights going to sleep pretty hard. Some nights it'll be almost 10 before she falls asleep! It's such a catch-22 with her. Naps do her attitude good, lol, but then she's a night-owl. If she doesn't nap then she can be a bit of a nightmare before, during, and after dinner. 3 is hard, y'all!

Once everyone is asleep mommy has a glass of wine! I'm currently reading a book by Max Lucado so I'll read a chapter of that every night. I'll spend some time with Jayson. I'll catch up on my social media.

The only thing I haven't mastered during this time is being able to blog! It is SO hard trying to sit down with a clear mind to be able to write. I definitely want to find some time to write more but I'm not sure when....

Anyway, that's our day in a nutshell. Hopefully that will help give you some ideas or at least make you feel good about your day! Survive friends, that's all we're trying to do during this time. Survive.

XOXO