My Revisitation With Routine Part 1

Before the twins were born, I had a beautiful routine that worked like a well oiled machine. After the twins were born my mom came to visit and did most of the postpartum care, while my husband spent some time off work to help with the night feedings and mostly deal with the other 8 children. My older children did an outstanding job helping with little ones. This is the point where I think it all went wrong. 

I am not talking about all the help I had. Believe me, I thank God for my wonderful mother, my sweet children and most especially my dear husband  every day. Their help was essential. What did go wrong was that I did not have enough confidence in them to keep up my routine, and so I just let it all go. I felt that keeping up with my routine was going to be too much and I didn't want to overwhelm them with the already daunting task of feeding, cleaning, and discipline of 8 children. I thought that everyone deserved a break from the daily grind of chores and schoolwork. It was only six weeks right? What a HUGE mistake. Those six weeks of lax have turned into 12 months of chaos.

During this past year, I have lost confidence in my ability to be the best mom and wife to my family. A small part of it has to do with my relationship with my mother. Again, not complaining. She is a devoted mother, who loves me very much. Parents aren't perfect, I know...but, there are just some unresolved issues there that are difficult to allow resurface (although I know that if I did deal with them, it would probably make things better for us, I think). Most of all lack of preparation, little sleep, nursing twins, postpartum depression, my own health and ADD issues, also have played a big part in adding to the chaos.

All year long since the birth of my twins, I have struggled to keep up with the old routine. And maybe that's my problem. The routine is old, about 6 years old and it may be time to reformulate a new one. I have been debating that one for a while, it’s just hard to let go of something that worked for so long. 

So now onto Step 1; reassess the needs of my family our priorities and start from there. 

Here goes...remember it’s just a start. 

1. God

2. My husband

3. My children

4. A clean home (maybe this should be #5?)

5. My children's education

6. Outside obligations