Your daily routine

Hi
I am new to IL. I am working full time..so here is my routine. My children are in college so it's just the two of us.
Weekdays: 4:40am - 5:30 - wake up, have coffee
5:30 - 6:30 - cook bfast; usually idlis. While it is steaming quickly make sambar and curry (I prss. cook the dhal in weekend and freeze in small packets) the previous night I roast for grinding, fresh powder etc. This way the food is tastes fresh. Place rice in rice cooker.
6:30-7:00am- shower, get ready for work, have my b'fast, pack my lunch and go to work
4:45pm - home
share a cup of coffee with DH whiel watching TV for some time.
5:30 - 7pm - exercise/clean one room-alternate days/toss one batch of clothes in washer
7-8pm:toss the washed clothes in the dryer/light lamp/cook light dinner usually chapatis and a light subji. Clean up.
8-8:30 pm practice my veena
8:30 - 9:30 - fold clothes/take care of small details such as prep. for next day's meal etc.
9:30 - 10 browse net, catch up w/emails/ get ready for bed.
Weekends: Saturdays: wake up 30 minutes later than weekends. Same routine in the morning as weekdays; call family in India. Shopping for vegetables. Mow the lawn and do yard work or go for a long walk with DH in the evenings.
Sundays: clean and chop vegetables, prepare menu for the week depending on what vegetables I have; iron my weekly clothes. Of course when my children come home for the holidays the routine is different.

 

Hi,

I'm a mother and housewife. Here is my routine.

Weekdays:

5:00 to 5:30 am -- Wakeup, brush, have warm water [sometimes tea], feed the dog.
5:30 to 6:00 -- Bath, praying, wake-up kids & hubby.
6:00 to 7:00 -- Prepare breakfast, lunch-pack for kids & husband, in between chase kids to get them ready on time.
7:30 -- breakfast time for all
7:45 -- husband leaves for work and by 8:15 I walk with my kids to drop them in school.
If weather permits [ or if I have mood ] will take longer route for walking back home .
9:30 onwards, whole time is mine & doggy's till I go & pick them up at 3:30 .
I finish all cooking for lunch, dinner [except keeping rice or making the rotis which have to be done 1/2 an hour before dinner only], preparation for snacks etc. I don't drive , so no outside work I do. Just finish housework only, like arranging shelves or clearing the basement or raking they yard, whatever.

By 4:30 pm, will bring kids home, make them have bath, give snack then see their homework etc. Husband will be back by 5:30, so by 5:45 we all sit for dinner. By 6:45 dinner will be done. Then if weather permits, we all take doggy for walk outside or play in yard etc.
By 7:30 kids are up in their room, by 8:00 they will sleep. By 8:30 latest will finish cleaning kitchen & other prep. for next day breakfast like defrosting coconut for chutney or roasting rava for upma or chopping vegs. for poriyal etc. So will then read or browse, [or talk with hubby if he isn't busy with office files & laptop ]sometimes meditate & by 9 pm am ready for bed.

Other household work like laundry, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, yard work etc. I schedule one work per day. Like Mondays is all bathroom, Tues. & Fri. I do sweeping , Wed. will be my MOVIE DAY , where I watch some movie on Youtube or some comedy clips something , because I do not watch TV at all.
Thurs. is laundry day & Fri. by noon I finish grinding batters, making some special snack for weekend like burfi or murukku, and clean the kitchen too.
If time is there will have a small nap for about 40mins. as Fri. night always we sleep late .


Weekends : have no set routine apart from waking up & preparing the day's meals. Kids & hubby get up late only & sometimes prefer breakfast in bed. Then we go for groceries or temple or just park, or movies or something. None of us prefer outside food except occassional pizza which kids demand.


But some days I too laze a bit and be in 'mood out' & don't do anything & last minute after bringing kids from school will rustle up some last minute snack for them like making popcorn or fruit smoothie [ which they don't like at all !!!! ] something quick ! Then rush & make some rava dosa or aval upma for dinner & be sulking at night & angry with myself

With all the time during day, I so badly want to exercise or do some yoga but motivation is fully zero !

Just wrote what I do here. Hope it benefits somebody in some way .
Bye.

 

Hi,

Brand new to IL

Have been following some threads here since marriage which really helped me cope up with the new struggles of managing our home by myself. Thanks to IL and its contributors.

This thread should get more feeds, interesting topic.

I am a working woman based in UAE , no kids yet. I have two shift jobs on a daily basis - 9.30 am to 1.30 pm and 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm. My husband also works same way. Its kind of difficult to manage home and work together with such duty timings but then we somehow manage. My husband has started helping recently with small jobs like washing plates and loading the washing machine when I cook, watering our pot plants regularly, vaccuming the floors once in a while esp when we are expecting guests over the weekend, etc. Just the very thought that hes doing something creative for our home itself makes me happy as I do all the cooking and cleaning myself when home.

I can never follow fixed daily schedules , I have tried many times but it just doesn't work out. Hence, I have learned to make our daily routine manageable with broader categorization such as below.

Weekdays ( Saturday to Thursday )​

THE MORNINGS :

I am not an early morning person, as we sleep around 12-12.30 every night. So my day starts around 6.30-6.45, after freshening up I keep out breakfast/lunch ingredients from freezer if any and cook rice in pressure cooker for lunch and prepare myself a cup of coffee. While the rice is cooking, I load the washing machine ( which is every 2 days ) and tidy up our 1 BR flat just so that it looks clean enough. Then, I fix a quick breakfast - Idli/dosa with chutney, variety upma, quick sandwiches, french toasts, etc and take a bath, light the lamp/agarbathi in our pooja area and wake up my husband by 8.30 AM. We get ready and have breakfast and leave for office by 9.20 am.

THE LUNCH BREAK :

We get around 4 hours of break time between our shifts. This is when I/we cook for lunch, put up the laundry outside, water the plants, make calls to parents and relatives in India or sometimes if we have left over lunches ready we go grocery shopping or finish some errand. Then we have lunch, watch some TV and catch a short nap before leaving to work again at 5.15 pm.

THE EVENINGS :

Post work, that is around 9.30 pm, we manage to include 20 mins of walking almost every day as we are glued to our desk most of the day. Some days, we do grocery shopping or visit the fish market, etc and return home, take a quick bath, fix a quick dinner or manage with lunch leftovers or dine out/order in two or three times a week. Then we spend some time browsing through TV channels, facebook, Whatsapp group chats or if time and mood permits, we settle on a movie. Some nights , we have a quick shawarma and catch the late night show nearby. Just before sleep, I just check the fridge/kitchen cabinets and make a mental note of what i plan to cook next day. Menu planners also dont work well with me - I must be a real lazy person. Off to sleep between 12-1.00 am.

WEEKEND ( Friday )​

Since we have only one off day, I try to keep it simple and less hectic unless we have planned an outing or invited guests who sometimes stay overnight. Since we sleep late on Thursday nights, I wake up around 10.00 am and fix breakfast for my hubby who leaves early to play cricket with friends. Then while he watches a movie or catches up on some sleep, I prepare a late lunch sometimes biriyani or non veg special. Rest of the day is spent with me either idling at home catching some favorite shows on Youtube while my hubby is out with Friends or I just get around dusting, deep cleaning or organising stuff. Sometimes we take a long evening drive/dine out or catch a movie.

I dont know how things will change when we have kids or change jobs but I try to keep our routine simple and manageable. I just try to focus on keeping a clean enough house and trying to have fresh home cooked food.I speed clean my home every alternate day, clean the bathroom every 3 days or as it needs cleaning and mop the floors once in a week. I cook lunch in double quantities so that we can save our break times every alternate day. That way I dont feel the strain of managing work and home everyday.

This just works well for us now. Its not perfect I know.

Thank you for your patience! Keep posting!!

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