Day In A Life: This Is My Thursday

Since Noey started Primary 1 this year, there have been quite a few changes in our routine, not in the least the fact that I now have to wake up at 6am!

It’s been a while since I last wrote about our routine. Back then I only had one kindy-going child, whereas I now have one child attending primary school and one in kindy. How has my life changed? Well, I’m clearly more of a driver than ever!

It’s Thursday today, and this is how it might go:

6AM: My alarm goes off. I reach over to stop it within a few buzzes. I usually lie in for a while, willing myself to get up, unless it is DD’s turn to send Noey to school, which he does about twice a week. If it is his turn, I will wake him them pop back to bed for a bit of shuteye. If not, I drag myself out of bed to wash up and check on Noey’s breakfast. After that I walk over to the children’s room to wake Noey up and get him dressed for school. We try to do this quietly so that we don’t wake Mei up. Thankfully she usually sleeps through it. Noey washes up, after which we sit down at the dining table together and I try to get Noey to eat some breakfast. He usually isn’t hungry but today he willingly eats some of the fish fingers without any fuss. Yay. He also grabs a lunch box with a snack for recess and a book for silent reading to put in his bag.

6.40AM: Ideally, we leave the house. Trial and error has shown this to be the best time to leave when traffic is the smoothest. Sometime we leave a little late and it’s a rush for me. I’m sure all parents agree that 5 mins can make a huge difference in the school run! If Noey hasn’t finished his breakfast, he munches something on the way.

We arrive at Noey’s school around 7am. Depending on the time and my mood that day, I would either drop him off at the school gate or park at the carpark nearby and walk him to class. I enjoy the privilege of being able to do this, to take a peek at him at school, plus look through his locker to see if there’s stuff he forgot to bring back. Sometimes I discover undone homework! Grr. If I walk into school I usually stay to observe him settling down to silent reading in the school parade square where the classes gather for morning assembly. There would be an announcement for parents to leave and he would worriedly scan the corridor to find me then wave me along. I wave to him then head out to drive home.

7.45-8AM: I arrive home to find a usually cheerful Naomi changed and having her breakfast. I wait for her to finish up, wipe her chocolate smeared mouth (she loves having Nutella with her bread) then send her to school. If DD is ready, he comes along.

8.15AM: We drop Mei at school, watch her go through the health checks, then peep at her while she’s in class for a bit before being shooed away by the principal once school hours officially commence.

Thereafter, I drop DD either at the office (if I’m feeling kind) or at the nearby MRT station and I’m FREE! Free to run my errands and sort through to-dos, that is. I usually take this time to go for breakfast and my usual venue is the nearby hawker centre. I’m a local girl at heart so it’s usually fried bee hoon, porridge or wanton noodles. I eat and catch up on chats and news on my phone at this time. After that I would pick up one or two items from the market.

If I have no errands to run, I go home to read and plan a bit for the day and the weekend ahead. I do some quiet time. Sometimes I might squeeze in a bit of blogging too.

11.15AM: Time passes all too quickly when you’re on your own! Mei is dismissed and I pick her up. Recently she has started hanging around school to play in the playground with her friends and share snacks. There are a lot of happy squeals of laughter and I try to let her have this play time if we’re not rushing off somewhere. I can usually find a mum or two to chat with while the kids have a bit of a run around. After she has had her fill, we head home.

12PM: Lunchtime. By this time we would have arrived home and Mei gets cleaned up and changes out of her uniform, before we sit down for lunch. On the table, a food container sits with food ready for Noey. After lunch I usually try to get Mei to squeeze in some piano practice and sit down to play with her or read for a bit.

1.45PM: I pick Noey from school with his lunch in hand. After trying to rush him home from school for lunch in the initial weeks, I decided it was far less stressful for me to bring lunch to him in school. I usually meet him at the canteen and we sit down to let him have his lunch. I use this time to look through his bag to see if what work he has. Mei sometimes tags along with me on this school run but on Thursdays I try to dissuade her from coming with me and get some rest at home instead. On some days, she might take a short nap at this time if she doesn’t follow me, but I don’t put her to sleep on Thursday.

After Noey is done, we head home and depending on the time, I sometimes swap kids in the carpark — Noey gets out and Mei gets in the car. It’s time to drop her off at Berries.

3PM: Mei attends Berries. She enjoys this as she actually loves Chinese (hooray!), plus she has two of her kindy classmates and another friend in the same class. In the meantime, Noey does his homework at home and learns his spelling. If he doesn’t have homework, I get him do some exercises in an assessment book. On this day he asks to enter his school’s learning portal to do some Math exercises.

4.45PM: We pick Mei from Berries. Depending on the day and everyone’s mood, there might be a treat from the nearby provision shop. Ice cream is very welcome given the current hot weather! I usually also bring the kids’ scooters along and they spend some time fulfilling their quota for outdoor play scooting around the rather large area outside. I try to get the kids to leave before peak hour traffic starts building up.

6.30PM: It’s time for dinner. Usually dinner comprises of rice with two dishes and a soup. I would have to listen to Noey’s complains about why it is rice again (because we’re Chinese, son!). We eat, usually with me urging Noey to finish his food the whole time. Zzzz. DD rarely makes it back in time to join us for dinner.

After dinner, I get my grubby kids to shower.  I try to get Noey to practice his piano while Mei tries to vie for my attention to read or play some games. This can be a bit of a crazy time. Everyone’s a bit tired and the day starts wearing on me. DD usually comes back some time in this block of time. If he is working late, I’m usually a bit grumpy and he can expect a call from me asking him when he would be back! If he’s back early enough, we do some family worship around the dining table.

I’m usually rushing everyone by now to get ready for bed. I read some books, the kids brush their teeth, then it’s lights out and prayers.

9PM: Ideally, the kids are in bed. I’m still required to be in the room with them to put them to bed, with plaintive calls from Mei to pat her to sleep. If I’m not in a grouchy mood, I enjoy being there at bedtime because they start talking about the most random things. Sometimes they get a bit carried away and I have to hush them. Since they are usually tired by this time, they fall asleep pretty quickly. A couple of times a week, I’m so tired I fall asleep with them too.

If not, it’s finally me-time after the kids have drafted off to dreamland. I catch up with DD if he’s home, then I usually work on some posts for this blog. I answer e-mails, chat with friends, and read random news on the internet. Sometimes I read or catch up on my bible reading if I wasn’t able to do it earlier in the day.

12AM-1AM: I call it quits and call it a night. The weekday alarm is set, ready to ring at 6am the next morning for a brand new day.

This post is part of the Day in a Life blog train hosted by Mum in the Making. Click on the button to take a 24 hour peek into the lives of different mummies, or link up with your own post!

Up next on this blog train is Lyn Lee! Lyn blogs at Lil Blue Bottle, where she writes “letters” that are placed in a bottle, cast off into the sea of the world wide web. She is a FTWM to two not-so-little girls, and enjoys scrapbooking.