The Middle...Not Just a Book Plotting Problem...

I’m having a hard time believing that a post about my daily life as a stay-at-home-mom could be so hard to write. But as I sit here with the daylight shining fully outside my window (I meant to write this earlier this morning) and half a cup of cold coffee…I realize it is that hard.

In college, I was addicted to my planner. It was highlighted and color coded and lovely beyond all reason. I lost it once and almost lost my mind along with it (don’t worry, both showed up pretty quickly). I thrive on routine.

But now…

Well…

I’m having trouble finding one.

Sure, some things are the same. My boys do well with some degree of routine too, so we do have the little guy’s morning nap and the big guy’s “room time” at a set time every day. And afternoon naptime fluctuates a little with the actual time it starts, but it’s almost always a fixture in our afternoons…I try to do laundry every day and fix dinner…

But in the middle? I’m not always sure what to do.

It’s funny how much like plotting a novel it is. The beginning of our novel, much like the day, is easy to dive into. It’s fresh and ready with endless possibilities. We’re freshly caffeinated in both cases (if you’re like me and love coffee) and ready to go. We have at least a little idea of the structure.

The end of a story is easy to write for me to, just like the end of my day. Once I hit the last few chapters of a book, I can pound out thousands upon thousands of words per day. My record so far is 10k. That’s how I feel about my days home with the boys too. Once 5pm hits, I can do it. And I know I can do it. I have something to go on at 5pm, some idea of structure. Fix dinner, let the boys play with something like play-doh or watch TV (hey, don’t judge), eat dinner, hang out, get the boys ready for bed, then have time alone to read, write, or spend time with my husband.

But the hours of 10 to 5 feel like the middle of a story…Except as far as I know, there are no “plotting” classes for how a SAHM should “do” this part of her day. What percentage should be spent playing with kids? Doing laundry? Cleaning? Reading? Writing?

I don’t know.

And I guess if you came over to our blog today looking for answers, I don’t necessarily have any for you today. But if you stopped by just to see if there was someone else out there like you, someone who would kind of like a routine but isn’t quite sure how to accomplish that when the very essence of kiddos is the ability to obliterate routines (haha), then I hope you know you aren’t alone.

And if you’re one of those SAHMs who has it all together, or at least knows what you’re doing today, feel free to chime in and help the rest of us out. =)