{2:48}
I really love 2:48. It begins my favorite hour of the day.
At 2:48, Katie, Drew, and I hop in the van and head to the elementary school to get Gracie and Luke. As is the norm at our new school, we park a few blocks away and follow the herd of parents up to the front yard of the school. Parents, younger siblings, teachers, the principal, and the students being dismissed all congregate in the schoolyard for a bit before making the boisterous walk home.
As we head towards our van and drive towards home, Gracie and Luke are full of stories about their days. Drew and Katie are really excited to see them; Katie sometimes shakes and giggles when we first spot her siblings. There are always at least two voices going for the entire four minute drive home, one of them usually Katie's.
Once home, backpacks are dumped by the back door, hands are washed, and Luke loses his shirt (my naked hoonie!). We meet in the kitchen for a snack with everyone seated around the island. The kids are usually pretty hungry and eat a surprising amount of food.
Sometimes I like to ask them questions about their day and be a part of the conversation. Sometimes I like to pretend to be very busy loading the dishwasher or something so that I can just observe their conversations with each other. Today Luke was telling Gracie about a bossy kid during a game at recess and Gracie was full of advice about how to handle it. Drew threw in some kind of amusing ideas as well that made me bite my cheek to keep from smiling.
By 3:20, snack is over and everyone is ready to play for a bit. Usually Katie goes down for a nap, the boys run off to their room to play Imaginext or Superheroes, and Gracie plops down on the couch with a book for a while. Things stay smooth for about an hour. This is always the first moment to myself I've had all day. I get more done in this hour in terms of housework than I do in a lot of the rest of the day combined.
Sadly, the spell is broken each day between 4:30 and 5:00. The kids get tired and cranky with one another, there is homework to be completed, dinner to be fixed, and a baby girl to get up from her nap. As smoothly as that first chunk of the afternoon goes, the second chunk until Ben gets home around 6:00 or 6:30 pretty much goes the opposite. (I always feel badly for Ben because he misses out on the pleasant part of the afternoon and comes home to tired kids ready for our bedtime routine and a wife very ready to share parenting responsibilities. I am hoping as we get more and more used to the school year, the afternoons start to stay smoother for longer.)
Picking the kids up from school and feeding them a snack probably doesn't sound like it should be the highlight of my day, but it really, really is.
Sometimes it is the little, everyday moments of life that make us the happiest, isn't it?
At 2:48, Katie, Drew, and I hop in the van and head to the elementary school to get Gracie and Luke. As is the norm at our new school, we park a few blocks away and follow the herd of parents up to the front yard of the school. Parents, younger siblings, teachers, the principal, and the students being dismissed all congregate in the schoolyard for a bit before making the boisterous walk home.
As we head towards our van and drive towards home, Gracie and Luke are full of stories about their days. Drew and Katie are really excited to see them; Katie sometimes shakes and giggles when we first spot her siblings. There are always at least two voices going for the entire four minute drive home, one of them usually Katie's.
Once home, backpacks are dumped by the back door, hands are washed, and Luke loses his shirt (my naked hoonie!). We meet in the kitchen for a snack with everyone seated around the island. The kids are usually pretty hungry and eat a surprising amount of food.
Sometimes I like to ask them questions about their day and be a part of the conversation. Sometimes I like to pretend to be very busy loading the dishwasher or something so that I can just observe their conversations with each other. Today Luke was telling Gracie about a bossy kid during a game at recess and Gracie was full of advice about how to handle it. Drew threw in some kind of amusing ideas as well that made me bite my cheek to keep from smiling.
By 3:20, snack is over and everyone is ready to play for a bit. Usually Katie goes down for a nap, the boys run off to their room to play Imaginext or Superheroes, and Gracie plops down on the couch with a book for a while. Things stay smooth for about an hour. This is always the first moment to myself I've had all day. I get more done in this hour in terms of housework than I do in a lot of the rest of the day combined.
Sadly, the spell is broken each day between 4:30 and 5:00. The kids get tired and cranky with one another, there is homework to be completed, dinner to be fixed, and a baby girl to get up from her nap. As smoothly as that first chunk of the afternoon goes, the second chunk until Ben gets home around 6:00 or 6:30 pretty much goes the opposite. (I always feel badly for Ben because he misses out on the pleasant part of the afternoon and comes home to tired kids ready for our bedtime routine and a wife very ready to share parenting responsibilities. I am hoping as we get more and more used to the school year, the afternoons start to stay smoother for longer.)
Picking the kids up from school and feeding them a snack probably doesn't sound like it should be the highlight of my day, but it really, really is.
Sometimes it is the little, everyday moments of life that make us the happiest, isn't it?
Comments
Bridget makes me happy, too - she always has the most interesting questions! She is definitely Luke's Aunt!!!
Bridget, we can pick up in the van too, so I am not too worried about bad weather. We've had to do it a couple of times already and it has gone pretty smoothly but takes a bit longer.
Leslie you have that right!! She is an amazing Grandma and I'm not sure I can ever thank her enough for all she does for us. It makes my heart swell that she enjoys taking care of my babies. We couldn't do it without her.