I think I will write up a part 3 too, a kind of "day in the life" post. But for now, here are some changes we've made...
First, I should say that I really do best in the mornings. I get up pretty early without an alarm, my energy is highest in the mornings, and I'm really wiped out by the time dinner is over. We have been getting school underway by 8:30, I have been finishing with the younger two students by lunch time, and I *like it that way*! And when John's schedule changed, I really had no intention of changing ours. But then I made the mistake of asking him if he would like for me to be up when he got home from work. I usually am in bed before 11pm, and would be getting home around midnight. That would mean I wouldn't be getting to bed before 1am, a bedtime I haven't seen since my single days, frankly. I didn't really expect him to support the idea, anyway. John is an introvert, and I thought he would like coming home to a quiet house and some time alone. But...he said, "That would be nice." Sigh. I doubted he knew what a big change he was asking me to make. But, I did offer. So I decided to try it. And it is still too new to know if I like it yet. Anyway...back to the changes...
Basically, our typical "evening" stuff is now happening in the mornings/early afternoons. I started by keeping the kids up later and encouraging them to sleep later. I figure the darker, later fall mornings will help with this. I started staying up later myself, and sleeping later too. This helps keep the house quieter in the mornings so John can sleep. Instead of having our main meal at supper time, we now have it for lunch. It is a big adjustment to start thinking of cooking "dinner" at noon, but it is also kind of nice to be done cooking for the day so early. Since John is gone in the evenings, I just put something quick and easy on the table for the kids for supper and fix myself a salad. Since I am doing baths and bedtimes by myself, this helps to lighten the evening a little bit. We also moved our family rosary to the mornings, after our late-ish breakfast. And instead of jumping on school first thing in the morning, I mostly leave that for after lunch and rest time now, and we don't finish until *after supper*...this is something that pains me still. It is hard to find energy for school that late in the day. But I guess I'll get used to it.
There's also this block of time after the kids are in bed and before John gets home. Actually, it's hypothetical time right now. For some reason, Mary Claire is not sleeping well during this time. She will act very sleepy and go to sleep easily, but then wake up shortly afterwards, very cranky and needing me to lay down with her. But I'm sure this is a passing stage. Once she is settling in better, I will hopefully be able to use this time for stuff I *used* to do in the early mornings, like chores and exercise. Again, painful to me to think about doing these things so late, but there is simply no other time to do it with a schedule like this.
So, I'm giving this a shot. We shall see how it works in the long run. I imagine we will finally get used to it just in time for him to be offered a day shift, ha!
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