Ruth Kaye Owen

I’m getting back into teaching piano in October, and I’m really nervous about it because right now I’m finding that I don’t have time for everything, and that’s without an extra hour a day dedicated to teaching. I figured I’d share my schedule with you and solicit advice about where I can “cut the fat.” Haha.

7 a.m.: Wake up with all three boys. Nurse El Guapo several times since he’s hungry after much sleeping (yay for a good sleeper!). Read to the older boys while nursing. Give everyone hugs. Maybe play with the older boys or try to get El Guapo to smile at all of us. Change several diapers (and sometimes outfits), get dressed, and make sure the older boys go to the bathroom too. Rock El Guapo to sleep.

9:00 a.m. El Guapo is finally asleep. Help/nag the older boys as they get dressed and do their morning chores. Make breakfast. Eat breakfast. Make my bed, do my hair, empty the dishwasher. Check my email and Facebook, etc.

10:00 a.m. It finally feels like the day is beginning. Start one of the projects on my list, such as mopping, dusting, getting groceries, watering/harvesting the garden, helping Lego with homework, cleaning the bathroom, whatever. Showering needs to fit in somewhere in here every other day too.

11:30: Start making lunch. This is often interrupted by El Guapo waking from his morning nap and needing to be fed and changed.

12:00: Lunchtime (hopefully earlier). We usually end up scarfing down our food so we can get out the door on time.

12:25: Leave to take Lego to kindergarten.

12:45: Return from the school. Take a little downtime for a nap or bumming around for about 45 minutes while Duplo plays or draws or watches a cartoon.

1:30: Time for another project, often an errand. El Guapo is usually sound asleep during this time, which makes for much productivity. The only interruption is Duplo wanting me to play with him a bit, which I don’t mind. This is our quiet one-on-one time of the day, after all.

3:00: Leave to pick up Lego from kindergarten. Traffic is often horrible on the way back, so we often don’t return until 3:45 or so.

3:45: The older boys watch a cartoon and I try to pick up the house and get organized for dinner. I sometimes call my mom or sister or someone to chat while they’re occupied.

4:00: Finish up any projects that have remained undone, like folding laundry, doing laundry, doing dishes, clearing up from lunch (yes, hours later!), etc. Help Lego with his homework and talk to him about school.

5:00: Start dinner. Nurse El Guapo. Continue making dinner. Nurse El Guapo. Continue making dinner. Nurse El Guapo.

6:30 or 7:00: Eat dinner.

7:15: Start bedtime routine for the older boys.

8:00: Bedtime for older boys.

9:00: Bedtime for El Guapo (usually).

Phew!

I’m going to ease back into blogging with a few pictures of our kids from the last, oh, four months or so.

Lego got a new bike for his birthday and has loved riding it all around.

Duplo got this tricycle last summer, but he learned to pedal it this spring and tries hard to keep up with his big brother.

For his birthday in May, I made him an owl cake . . .

. . . patterned after this guy, who is a good friend of Duplo’s.

In early June, we moved to a new house with a huge back yard that has a swingset . . .

. . . and a fire pit (not to mention a garden, a covered patio with a picnic table, and lots of trees to climb).

Duplo learned to use the potty! (Image deleted because Jon Boy thought it was too embarrassing, and I was leaning that way myself.)

We enjoyed our new house and yard for a little while during a short lull in crazy busyness in June and early July.

We went camping overnight July 1st with my brother and his (then) fiance. We love her!

In mid July, El Guapo joined our family.

He fits right in with the rest of us goofs.

Awww! Snuggly.

Lego absolutely adores his baby brother. He thanks Heavenly Father in his prayers every night for his new baby brother, El Guapo.

He spends a lot of time holding him and trying to help out with him each day.

El Guapo loves his family too and treats us to lots of smiles.

I haven’t been able to catch a really good one on camera yet, though. The camera itself is so distracting!

Not pictured, but we attended my sister’s wedding in Denver in July (El Guapo was only 11 days old) and my brother’s wedding in Atlanta in August (the brother in the camping picture). When I get pictures from the weddings, I’ll try to remember to post them.

Finally, here’s Lego all ready for his first day of kindergarten! He’s loving it so far, and his teacher seems to be committed to challenging him, so school seems to be a very good thing so far. 🙂

You can see our new house (still a rental, in case you’re wondering) and the flower garden I slaved over behind him. That garden was a CARPET of chokeweed/morning glory when we moved in, and I pulled it all up multiple times before mulching, then putting down a weed blanket thing and more mulch, and planting a whole bunch of flowers. The funny thing is that the most beautiful flowers in the garden now, the orange marigolds you see, are actually volunteers. They were tiny and all over when I was weeding, and I left them on a whim. I’m so glad I did! Thanks to my mom for her help on that project too.

Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of a summer, and I’m ready to settle into the routine of fall. I’m also very much enjoying the cooler weather lately. It’s hard not to spend all day outside in it.

I haven’t blogged regularly in a long, long time now. At first I thought it meant that I didn’t want to blog anymore or didn’t have time to. But I think the bigger problem is that I didn’t feel like I had a distinct sense of what this blog was supposed to be anymore.

I know my extended family reads for stories of my kids. But I don’t want MY blog to be only about my kids, if that makes sense. I want it to be a journal of my thoughts and experiences, many of which happen to include children at this stage in my life.

I definitely don’t want it to be a vacation log, since I personally don’t enjoy reading about other people’s vacations much and thus project this feeling on you, assuming you don’t like it either. Sorry if you’re dying to know about our trip to Colorado for my sister’s temple marriage, our trip to Bear Lake, Utah, for a family reunion, our trip to East Canyon (near SLC) for another family reunion, and finally, our trip to Atlanta, Georgia, for my brother’s temple marriage. They were all good (excepting the mosquitos at the second family reunion—who invited them?! and my granny breaking some vertebrae in her neck on the last day in Atlanta).

I don’t really want it to be self-indulgent, where I show you pictures of the work I’m doing that I’m proud of, namely a flower garden, a vegetable garden, our house, food I make, etc. Sometimes I love to see my friends share their greatest accomplishments, but if that’s ALL the blog was, it would get tiresome.

So I guess I want it to be a little of all of these things, and that’s where I break down. I don’t have time to write about all the awesome things the kids are doing, the vacations we’re going on, the plans we have, the things I’m proud of, the frustrations I’m dealing with, etc., etc. I have to choose. And I’m not great with decision making. Hahaha.

In the end, because I can’t choose what to write among a whole bunch of things I could write, I don’t write anything at all. I want to do better. I think I’ll start off by asking if any of you who are still out there reading have an opinion. What are your favorite kind of blog posts to read?