Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Scheduling

Scheduling the lives of the four of us can be pretty complicated sometimes. We have to consider feeding, pooping, napping, bedtime, etc. Not to mention the adults have needs as well. I try not to let my needs fall by the wayside, at least not too much. I live my life around their schedules, but I do my best to incorporate my stuff in there too. But it isn't always easy.

My current quandary revolves around fitting in my workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I thought I had a good plan when I signed them up for the current session of classes at the Y. The class schedule for summer is reduced, so there aren't as many options. I had to put D in gymnastics on Saturday, since the only weekday classes were right at G's naptime. G gets to do swimming on Saturdays as well, but that left us with nothing scheduled on the weekdays. I like having something at least a couple of days a week; it gives us some structure, and something to get us out of the house and look forward to. The solution - toddler gym! D has always loved gym class, G is now old enough, and since the class runs from 10m - 4 years, they can be in the same class together. I just have to juggle chasing after G with watching to make sure D doesn't jump off of something too high.

The problem is for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to put them in the 8:45 class. My thinking was that I could take them to gym class, then come home and take them out for a run afterwards. And if the weather is really bad, we could just stay at the Y and I could workout there. The problem with that plan is we don't get home until about 9:45, which means starting a run at about 10. And that means G will very likely fall asleep in the stroller, since it's close to his naptime. Granted, he might not, but he definitely could, and probably would often. Considering he'll only sleep about half as long, not to mention I get zero break when that happens, I don't particularly want him napping in the stroller.

I asked this morning about switching to the later class, but both classes are totally full. So we're pretty much stuck.

The thing that sucks is none of my options are that great. I could try working out early, before we have to go - but considering I have to get them both fed and dressed, my husband fed and his lunch made, and myself more or less presentable, all by 8:20... not likely that I can squeeze in a workout, especially considering my husband is busy getting ready for work and can't exactly watch the boys while I'm gone. And in order to take them out in the stroller with me, we'd have to leave at like 7 - that just isn't going to happen, even on days when they both wake up early.

Option two, is of course, my original plan - workout after class. I could stay at the Y and run there, which alleviates my napping in the stroller problem. But of course, the childcare isn't free, so I'll be tacking on an additional $11 per week (it's $5.50 for an hour for both of them, times two extra days) to what I already spend. Ouch. The childcare cost adds up fast and I don't know if I can afford to pay more.

Option three is to workout after naptime. But that would have me running in the heat of the day (and I think we might actually get some summer weather finally, after a very dreary spring). Plus, I'd have to shower with both boys up, and that's just a PITA. My normal routine of working out in the morning and showering with G is napping has worked really well.

Option four is workout after they're in bed, but that doesn't do me much good either because evenings are when I work. I can't lose two work nights a week, especially right now when I'm so busy.

I know, I know, there are many worse dilemmas to have. And I also know this is probably the most boring blog post ever. I'm writing it down more to work out the details than because I think anyone will find it terribly interesting. It's just some of the juggling I go through, trying to schedule our lives around each other.

And to think we want to add another person to this zoo? I shake my head at myself often over that one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Obviously I don't know your whole schedule, but just wondering...is there any relief from heat in the late afternoon where you are? here it can still be pretty warm, but sometimes it's not much different than mid morning temp wise. You'd have to do a crockpot or well planned ahead dinner, but theoretically it would be after the afternoon nap and before dinner/bed time.

I hope you can figure out something that will work. For me to look at scheduling things like that, I often have to write it out to see my answer, using 30-60 minute blocks of time. Typically, though, a solution appears on paper.