Hellobee

I thought I would share a day in the life of the Piñata home. I decided to do Sundays because it’s our busiest morning of the week. I know for most people it’s a day of rest, but with both Mr. Piñata and I working for our church, it’s several hours of crazy! When I tell people that we both work for our church the general response is, “Oh that’s so great!” and it really is. We both love our jobs and the people we work with, but juggling church/worship and both of our jobs, all with two kids in tow makes Sunday mornings quite chaotic.

Just a little background: Mr. Piñata is the Music Director for our church, so he is there every Sunday from 7am-12:30pm without a real break and I am the Director of Sunday School. I not only love the details of my job, but the flexibility is ideal for us in many ways. Other than Sunday mornings, the majority of my work is done from home and my hours are flexible.

Here’s what our Sundays usually look like. Little Piñata is almost 4 years old and Sweet P is almost 15 months.

6:00am – Mr. Piñana’s alarm goes off (Have I mentioned we aren’t a lot of fun on Saturday nights?)

6:30/6:45am – Little Piñata tries to sneak out of his room and head downstairs to play. I get him back into bed and remind him that he has to stay there until the bunny wake up on his “ok to wake” clock. Despite it being a bad decision, I still crawl back into bed until my alarm goes off.

7am – My alarm goes off and I let Little Piñata come downstairs with me. I start making his oatmeal while he plays.

7:15am – Little Piñata eats his breakfast, usually oatmeal and fruit, while I pack up everything we need to bring to church. Since Sweet P has such a specialized diet, I pack up all the food I prepared for her the night before. She will get both breakfast and lunch at church.

7:30am – I ask Little Piñata to get dressed so he can add a sticker to his chart. I try to make myself some kind of breakfast and toss dishes into the sink. He runs off and plays in another room.

7:35am – I find Little P and ask him again to get dressed. I race him up the stairs in an effort to “seal the deal.”

7:40am – I get dressed and attempt to get ready, but check in on Little P. No attempt at taking off pajamas or getting dressed has occurred.

7:45am – We need to get out the door and I am frustrated. I help him get undressed and leave him the easy parts while I go and finish getting myself ready.

7:50am – I am finished getting myself ready, but Little Piñata is still not dressed. It’s as if he knows the days we are in a hurry and moves especially slowly. I help him finish getting dressed and brush his teeth.

Sweet P in her Sunday best! Of course she has managed to pull out her bow.

7:55am – Wake up Sweet P, change her diaper, get her dressed and put a bow in her hair. It’s a lot easier when there are no expectations that they dress themselves. And when they sleep in!

8am – The goal is to be out the door by now, but there is always a hold up of some kind.

8:10am – We are finally on our way to church.

8:35am– Arrive at least 5 minutes late (I knew I shouldn’t have stayed in bed until 7am). Drop Little Piñata off at his Sunday School class. Get Sweet P in a high chair in the nursery and instruct the nursery volunteers that she can only eat the food I provide for her. Set out some food for her to start with.

8:45am – I’m at church and both children are safe in their respective classes! Hooray! Mr. Piñata works the whole morning so I sit by myself in the pew.

9:30am – The preschool children are brought upstairs to take communion with their parents. But, of course, communion is at least 5-10 minutes in the future. So, I try to keep Little P as quiet and still as possible since it’s church. How do other parents keep their children so well behaved in church?

9:40am – Little Piñata and I take communion together and leave the service early so I can get started on my job. Little Piñata follows me around or hangs out in one classroom while I run around like a crazy lady.

9:45am – Check in with the sitter that watches Sweet P from 9:30-10:30 without Sweet P actually seeing me. If we don’t have a sitter on a particular Sunday, I put her in the stroller and push her around while I do my job.

10am – Sunday School teachers start to arrive and inevitably comment on how adorable Sweet P is getting pushed around the Sunday School rooms. It’s true, she is.

10:20am – Bring Little P to his classroom for second service that starts at 10:30. Bring Sweet P back to the nursery and hopefully avoid any screaming. Run around like a chicken with my head cut off putting out little fires that are inevitable at the last minute. Continue to work until Sunday School ends.

11:30am – Sunday School is over, but I have to clean out the whole Sunday School area with 2 small kids with me and all helpers, volunteers and sitters already gone. Thankfully the church’s high chairs have wheels, so I put Sweet P in there and wheel her to my general area while I give her foods she can feed herself for lunch. Little Piñata is playing quietly on a good day and running around crazily on a less ideal day. But, we are at church where I trust people, and I’m supposed to be working, so I try to ignore anything not blatantly dangerous so we can get home sooner.

12:15pm – I have finally gotten everything cleaned up, so I gather the kids and we pack up for home.

Little Piñata eating his lunch of a sandwich and an orange.

12:35pm – We arrive home and Sweet P immediately goes down for her nap while Little Piñata starts his lunch that I prepared that morning. It’s almost always just a sandwich and a fruit/veggie pouch since he just had snacks in Sunday School and is very tired and ready for his nap. I try to clean up the kitchen from the mess I made in the morning before we left.

1:00pm – Mr. Piñata arrives home! It’s often the first time I see him all day despite the fact that we were in the same building for almost 4 hours. We all catch up and hopefully eat a bit together.

1:15pm – Little Piñata goes down for his nap (after some reminders and prodding since he would rather play).

1:30pm – Mr. Piñata and I are beat and plop ourselves on the couch in front of the tv. We often eat lunch now since there aren’t children distracting us. This is probably our most reliable regular time together each week. We both try to not work and just eat and catch up on our favorite tv shows on Hulu. We also talk about our schedules for the week or about politics.

3:30pm – Little Piñata is up from his nap and we change the tv to something kid-friendly on Netflix, usually a nature show.

4:00pm – Sweet P wakes up. Mr. P plays with both kids while I get started making dinner. Or if the weather is nice we go for a family walk.

5/5:30pm – We have dinner together as a family. This is a rare occurrence since Mr. Piñata is not often home in time for the kids’ dinner, so we get in some good conversation with Little P. Sometimes we eat dinner at my parents’ house as they live just 10 minutes from us and it’s a good chance to hang out with them.

6:00pm –  One of us cleans the kitchen while the other plays with the kids. I am generally a faster cleaner and Mr. P is more fun than I am, so I’m usually in the kitchen. I often try to sneak in some other cleaning as well while the kids are taken care of, like cleaning the bathrooms or sweeping.

7:00pm – Mr. Piñata starts Little Piñata’s bedtime routine while I play with Sweet P.

7:30pm – Little Piñata is in bed for the night while I start Sweet P’s bedtime routine with a bath.

7:45pm – Read Sweet P a book, give her 2 bottles (one of broth and one of donated breastmilk), brush her teeth, rock with her a few minutes and put her to bed.

8:00pm – Both kids are usually sleeping. I fold some laundry, do some work emails, and work on preparing Sweet P’s food for the next day.

10:00pm – Ideally I am headed to bed at this point. Mr. Piñata and I go to bed and either read some books or watch Frasier, my all-time favorite bedtime show.

11:00pm – Sleep! Until we hear Little P trying to sneak out of his room in the night or early morning again. Who has good tips for keeping an almost 4 year old in the room until an appropriate hour?

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I know that other families have even more complicated and busy days than this, but I think what makes it so mentally draining for me is all the multi-tasking I have to do with my work responsibilities in addition to keeping tabs on both kids and being sure they are safe and where they’re supposed to be. Has anyone else managed to work while their kids tag along with them?