Time.

I am a huge fan for planning, planners and other progess scheme. I plan my day the night before. I wake up early if laundry has to be done because water where we are at is not 24/7. Surprised? Yes, I almost cried in tears the first few days after we have moved. We have learned to keep water in huge buckets in the bathroom and in the laundry area. I was amazed to discover that we MIGHT be able to save on water bills this way. Imagine, no flowing water to abuse. No flowing water in the toilet… no water for children to happily play with…

I am very good in multi-tasking. Having four children and not alot of time for myself, I have learned to cram and do as much chores in one day. However, having learned alot of things the hard way, I have also learned that sometimes things doesn’t always go as planned. That a plan is sometimes just a plan. No biggies. No hurries.

Now let me give you an idea on how my day ends and begins…

I wake up at 5:00am if I have laundry to do. Water comes at around 5:30am so I needed the 30 minutes leeway for sorting and last minute collection of laundry. After the washer is loaded, I clean and sterilize all baby bottles, while waiting for the kettle of water to boil. See, 3 tasks in one go…

The baby is usually up by 6am and her ruckus wakes up the rest of the children. My eldest usually watches over the baby while I unload the washer and rinses the laundry. After rinsing and spinning of the laundry, I take all the clothes outside for hanging. Somehow, hanging the clothes relaxes me. The sun is usually up by now, usually 6:30am. While I am hanging the clothes, I can hear my children playing around and my baby usually screaming away over the master bedroom’s window. Not very quiet, but the noise makes me more aware on how things are going inside the house. My son usually stays out with me outside while I am hanging the clothes. He likes to watch the neighborhood dogs scurry for food.

After the short period of hanging of clothes, I prepare breakfast which is usually a bag of pandesal courtesy of my father, who after the death of my mother stays with us. Pandesal, along with the choice of palamans like Cheezy or butter. I sometimes throw in some omelettes and hotdogs. Clearing and washing of dishes is gladly my Dad’s task.

Since classes of my 2 older children starts at 12:50, the children hang around with me in the morning. They do any last minute homework during this time and yes, cleaning their rooms. I am very strict with cleaning of their rooms. I want closets, toys and books in order. This is also the time for my second daughter to practice her writing and reading with me. That, along with me either breastfeeding or bottlefeeding the youngest. A handful? Yes… and yes, this happens everyday… every single day.

At 10:30am, I prepare lunch. Cooking lunch should be fast. I like sauteing vegetables and frying fish or any meat available. Adobo is something I like to do and the children likes to eat. That is usually chicken and pork tossed in together since my father does not eat chicken. Lunch time is at around 11:30am and by 12:00noon, the children are off to the bathroom for their bath.

Bath time is another thing since I needed to assist my daughters with their daily conditioners. Yes, my children conditions their hair everyday. No shampoos because it dries up the hair. Since my daughters have curly hair, conditioners plays an important role in their hair regimen. By 12:20 they are done and off to putting on their school uniforms and they are off to school by 12:40 courtesy of Lolo.

By 1:00pm, my youngest is usually asleep. This is the time where I can quickly clean my room and straighten up the beds. No use cleaning up when the children are all around, so while half of them are out, I use this time to clean up and mop the floor, while hoping that the baby doesn’t wake up. And if she does, well… the jobs over and I try not to fuss too much…

This is also the time where I can blog. Blogging usually takes 30 minutes to 1 hour of my time. The other 30 minutes is spent tweaking the CSS of my webpage. My only son is usually asleep by this time. If not, he is usually playing with his toys beside me or in his sister’s room.

My daughter in kindergarten is usually back by 3:00pm. She likes to have a snack which is usually bread and milk. During this time, I needed to plan the ingredients for dinner. Dinner is usually around 6pm since my eldest daughter comes home around 5:10pm and is usually hungry for rice and anything with it.

By 6:00pm, dining table is usually set and we eat our dinner. Dinner time usually takes 30 minutes. After dinner is a flurry of medicine taking marathon. All children have to take their vitamins, and if sniffling, then anti-asthma is in order. As usual, my Dad does the cleaning up and the dishes and I haul everybody to their room to do last minute tidying up. My rule: No sleeping until the room is clean and all toys, books, and dirty clothes are in the laundry basket.

After all the ruckus, the children are all in bed, tucked in. Baby will soon follow and then, my turn to the shower AND then I turn on the PC to check my mail, bloglines and my blog. After 30 minutes, I usually tweak my CSS and then I fire up my calendar and open up my schedule and plan the next day… And then, I get to get my beauty sleep…