A Day in the Life of a Single Parent

Seriously, I never knew it would be this hard! I was thinking of everythign I had to get done yesterday and where the kids needed to be and what they needed for school the next day, and what to pack for lunches, and OMG what to feed them for dinner before baseball, and it got me thinking...

Wow, there is so much to do all the time, and it never stops. I have been a single parent for 6 months now and the daily routine is just about killing me. It's hard, and never gets easier. I remember when I started out this new life, thinking to myself, "oh it will get easier with time" but this is just not true. It has remained hard and tiring. I have learned to be more efficient with my time, to let some things go, because seriously, there is just no time!

I thought it may be interesting to see what my typical day looks like. This was yesterday:

5:15 - wake up, shower, make myself presentable.
6:00 - Open the kids doors and windows, my first attempt to wake them up!
6:15 - Start coffee, take Rufus out, then feed him and Phoebe the cat.
6:25 - Go get both kids up for good, get Aubree dressed, and do her hair. Thank goodness Alex can get himself dressed and can "kind of" fix his hair.
6:30 - pack lunches, pack bags, check school calendars for any extra things we may need to remember, get coats/shoes on, and most importantlt remember my coffee!
6:40 - Put Rufus in the kennel, and get all the bags, and get in the car.
6:50 - Drop kids off at Dads, then drive to work.
7:15 - Arrive at work, ahhhh now I can breathe, drink my coffee, and start work!
3:00 - leave work
3:25 - Speed shop at Tops to get milk, bread, creamer, and necessities that we are out of.
3:50 - Get home, unload groceries, take Rufus out.
4:00 - Kids get off the bus, and now homework time.
4:15 - unpack school bags, go through paperwork, do homework, re-pack bags for the next day, and include a snack for each kid.
4:30 - Feed both kids, because its baseball night.
5:00 - Change for baseball, pack activities for Aubree do do while at baseball.
5:15 - Feed Rufus and Phoebe and take him out
5:30 - leave for baseball
8:00 - Get home, and rush rush to get both kids bathed (only if really dirty =) PJ's on, teeth brushed, and to bed ASAP!
8:15 - Pack my lunch for the next day, get the coffee ready for the am, and give Rufus his treat for the day!
8:30 - Finally, sit down, watch some TV, fold a load of laundry.
9:30 - Take Rufus out, go up to bed, and read some more.
10:00 - Pass out from exhaustion =)

Then it all starts over again at 5:15 the next morning!

I have to admit I am looking forward to summer, and I'm hoping that we will get some more down time in our daily schedule, but we shall see!