Normal is Relative

I often find myself having conversations with other moms about what a normal day is like for them. We ask each other how many naps our kids take, what we cook for dinner, what time is bedtime, etc. I have my typical daily schedule. I've shared it here before. The schedule in my house is ever-evolving as kids shift from three naps a day to two to one. It changes with the school/camp schedule. It changes whenever something "out of the ordinary" occurs. Which is pretty much every day.

Here's a rundown of our typical schedule, which I will now officially rename our IDEAL schedule:
7:30am- We all wake up. I feed the kids breakfast, pack Sophie's lunch for school, get the kids dressed, and get out the door on time!
8:20am- Drop Sophie off at school and set out to run some errands with Lilah.
10:00am- Return home, feed Lilah, put her down for a nap, and get on the treadmill.
11:30am- Shower (haha, somehow I never have time for this part!), eat something, feed Lilah lunch.
12:20pm- Leave to pick up Sophie.
12:45pm- Arrive home, if kids have not eaten enough for lunch, feed them again.
2pm-4pm- Kids nap and I nap or chill.
4pm-6pm- Kids play nicely together.
6pm- Dinner time (it's especially nice if Shimmy is coming home soon and we can all sit down and eat together).
7pm- Start winding down and getting ready for bathtime/bedtime
7:30pm- Lilah goes to bed.
8:00pm- Sophie goes to bed.

This is IDEAL. This is what I spend most of the day aiming for. My sole purpose seems to be to keep everyone ON SCHEDULE and for us to STAY ON TRACK!

Having said that, I honestly cannot think of a single day where some thing isn't thrown into the mix. Here's an example: For the past few weeks I have been without an oven and a dryer. Yesterday my parents decided to come up for dinner with little notice. Shimmy said, "how will you make dinner for everyone without an oven?" I looked at him and said "challenge accepted." A couple hours later when we all sat down to spinach pasta, salmon croquettes, a mandarin salad, and a bottle of chardonnay chilling on the table I said, "this is the fanciest meal I have ever cooked in a toaster oven." Ideal? No. Normal? Definitely.

Here's another example: At 7:30 this morning, just as everyone started waking up, the dryer company called to say they would be here in an hour with my new dryer. Luckily, Shimmy had slept in, so he was able to take Sophie to school. They weren't able to disconnect the old, broken dryer, though, so they ended up just bringing the new one down, leaving me with two non-working dryers. I called someone I thought might be able to help. This was about 10:00am. I put Lilah down for her nap. She seemed tired, so I fully expected her to fall asleep right away. An hour later she was still awake, rolling around and playing. I decided to take my chances and get on the treadmill anyways. She still wasn't asleep (but wasn't sad) after 45 minutes, so I got off the treadmill (15 minutes early). As soon as I got out of the bathroom she was fast asleep. At this point it was 30 minutes before I needed to leave to pick up Sophie. I hate having to wake a sleeping baby, especially after an insufficient nap. So I called my mother-in-law, who said she would pick up Sophie. Good thing, too, because the guy I called about the dryer showed up just as I should have been leaving to pick up Sophie. A short while later, I had a working dryer, Sophie was brought home, and Lilah woke up after a nice amount of napping. Very much NOT on schedule. Very much NOT ideal. And somehow I survive yet another day.

So what is a normal day like? Well, pretty much like today. I guess normal is relative.