Motherhood: Managing Your Expectations

At the beginning of the week, I had this post all planned — talking about our routine and as I was finishing it this weekend, reality check—I woke up in the middle of the night, felt like I was swallowing glass and I could not breathe out of my left nostril. BAM hello sickness.

Life has a funny way of always throwing things your way to keep you on your toes — am I right?

We had so many things on our “check-list” this weekend, including me going to a Padres game with my best friend and our boys and well very few things on our “check-list” got done and I had to cancel my plans to go to the game.

I will tell you what we did do this weekend— watch one too many episodes of Sesame Street.

Being sick sucks. My type A personality kicked in and I was going crazy inside knowing that I was not following our “schedule” and getting things checked off our list.

It got me to thinking how we all have our own way of doing this whole “parenting” thing and I do not think that any of us would ever claim to know exactly what we are doing— I certainly don’t. But what I do love is learning from my friends, family, even the famous moms of Instagram and Pinterest, how they manage their family’s busy schedules.

While my lifestyle may not work for everyone, it works for me and my family, and I hope that it can help you in some way when managing your family’s busy life.

What I have learned over these last — almost two years— is how to manage my expectations because reality is, it won’t always go as planned and that is —okay.

Day in the life of the Merritt Clan

4:30AM - Spencer’s alarm goes off and I send him off for the day and try to fall back asleep

5:30AM - Sometimes Jax wakes up for a little feed before he gets up for the day

5:30AM-6:30AM - Marlie wakes up - always hoping for her sweet voice calling my name on the monitor, but not always the case…more like crying for me to come get her.

7:00AM -7:30AM - Jax gets up and we gather the troops for a walk with our puppy Nala to the dog park and of course a snack for Mar (she always wakes up and asks for food…she gets it from her mama)

8:00AM - We make breakfast and talk about what the day is going to look like! Then clean up our mess.

8:30AM - I get both kiddos dressed and ready for the day and Jax feeds and goes back to sleep—what a life— I fit my run in here if I do not have a morning client at TITLE!

9:00AM - I try and get myself ready for the day—usually consists of putting on some workout clothes, hopefully brushing my hair, a little mascara and on a good day, deodorant. 

9:30AM - packing a lunch for Marlie, and tons of snacks, so we can head to TITLE to train my clients—MWF and for story time and park dates on T/TH.

10:00AM - Leave the house (I have learned I need 45 mins to gather the troops to be anywhere on time because if you know me I am never late…well almost never).

10:30-12PM - Depends the day but normally done training my clients MWF and T story time and park

12:30-1PM - Marlie eats her lunch (lets be real she is eating all day, girl loves to snack) we read or do some activities before nap

1:30PM - Marlie Naps and Jax naps around 2PM

While the kiddos are napping (on a good day) I have about 30-1hr to get some work done on the computer. i.e. my blog post, workouts, recipes, meal prep, laundry, dishes, clean. (Not much time here haha 

2:30/3PM - Marlie gets up and Jax sometimes goes back down if he was up (haha)

3:30/4PM - We get our shit together and go to the park. When Marlie wakes up she is usually saying “park park park” I try and fit in another workout here at the park ( I don’t care if I look like that crazy mom at the park squatting while wearing my kid haha)

4:30PM - free play — puzzles, music time, whatever Mar is feeling. If you follow me you know we have a Montessori home — more about that here.

5PM - Dad gets home (YAY) and we could not be happier. I begin to get dinner ready — Sometimes Spencer cooks dinner if stuff is prepped!

5:30/6PM - We eat dinner as a family (most days). Jax usually takes a pre-bedtime nap. We are all tired and ready for a shower! Is it bedtime yet? haha

6:30/7PM - Family shower time. One of us bathes Jax in his little bath and one washes Mar while she plays with her fav water toys. Marlie runs to her Gigi’s room for “moose muff and losh” aka “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and lotion.
7:00PM - I am nursing Jax while Dad is getting Marlie’s Jammies on and getting her from Gigi. 

7:30PM - BED TIME. Kids are down and they both know their routine which has been the same since they were born. Shower, jammies, story, and then I sing ‘you are my sunshine’ and they fall asleep! If you know me, this is one area that we are very strict about and it works for us. Jax sleeps in his DocATot in his crib and Mar has a big girl bed.

8:00PM - We clean up everything from dinner and then Spencer goes to his computer to do his master’s and academy stuff and I go to my computer to start my blog stuff, answering emails, planning workouts, managing social posts, etc. 

10:00PM - On a good day I get to bed (we all know how that goes…)

11:00PM - Spencer normally gets to bed. Sometimes we make it to bed together if we both finish/can keep our eyes open!

About our “Schedule”

If you follow me on Instagram, you see how early Marlie gets me up. I have always been an early riser, so I cannot be mad that my daughter is the same way. Even when we tried to push her bedtime to 8-8:30PM, she got up at the same time. That is why we stick to a strict 7-7:30PM bedtime. Positives to having an early bedtime are that it gives Spencer and I more downtime together and more time to do things we need done.

I make sure to tell Marlie at Breakfast time what our day is going to look like. I am someone who likes to have “stuff to do”, so I normally have activities organized (like story time on Tuesdays, Zoo on random Thursdays and TITLE on Fridays), but I also leave time for me to workout, for the kids to have time to just hangout and read, puzzles, play dough, chalk, play outside, etc.

Remember that things do not always go as planned and I have had to learn that as a parent. Toddlers can be unpredictable, but keeping routine (and always having food on hand) normally always help with preventing meltdowns.

I often get asked how am I so motivated and have all this energy?— The answer is “I’m not”, but what I do have is good discipline andI have created a routine that makes the best use of the time that I have. I always let Marlie know that I need to get my “mommy time” aka working out and then she can have her “Marlie time” where we are doing things she wants to do.

In Conclusion

..again this does not always go exactly as planned but like I said, I have learned to manage my expectations and moving some things around is —okay. 

Some days I’m down right exhausted and other days I’m on top of the world —that is the beauty of this journey as a Mother. At the end of the day, it is all worth it. Am I right?

Being sick this weekend has made me even more grateful for my good health. Taking care of ourselves is so important.

A happy healthy Mom, means happy healthy kids and when all else fails, to Sesame Street we go! ;-)