A Week in the Life of a Blogging Mum

Time passes so very fast. We are almost in May. Honestly, I have not been blogging much the past few months. The heart is willing but the body is tired. From the organizing the kids’ birthday party in January to preparing for Chinese New Year, to clear in the house for the 10-day HDB toilet upgrading and cleaning up the mess after, it's been a terribly busy start to 2016. That of course is on top of juggling work and being a mum. And now as I'm typing this, I'm down with the flu bug that I tend to get every year around this time. Think my body is asking me to slow down. 

Minus all the ‘distractions’ that we had this year, what is a typical week like for me? What do I have to do that keeps me busy, besides looking after kids who don't even let me have 5 minutes of peace to shower?

Work

First and foremost, there's work, from Monday's to Fridays. The days typically start at 530am, when I prepare myself, squeeze in 15 minute of yoga, then wake the kids up and prepare them. After getting them on the bus at 705am, the hubby drops me off at work. Then it's trying to get as many things done as possible within the working hours, so that I can try and go home without thinking about work. On long days, I don't get home till 630pm, but there are good days when I can reach home around 3pm, and that's when I try to do home learning with them.

Homelearning

The kids are happiest when I can get home early, because it means painting or messy or crafting time. I treasure these moments too, when seeing their smiles just brightens everything up. I admit, this year we have been doing less, with what have been happening at home, and also with the increased homework and spelling (both English and Chinese) that EV has been getting from her kindergarten to prepare her for primary 1. But I try to make it fun for her where possible, for example create letter cards and dump them into her sensory bin so she gets messy and learns her spelling at the same time. And because AA likes to do whatever EV is doing, I do simple CVC letter cards for his sensory bin too. 

Still, I know that I can do more. After this flu bug goes away, I have to. And I will. Ganbatte!!!

Alternative Activities

My two kids do go for activities outside of their kindergarten. Both have music, Abacus, phonics on weekdays, and swimming, Berries (Chinese) and Shichida on weekends. EV’s music lesson is near our home, so transport is not a problem. It's the same for the Abacus lessons, which both EV and AA attend. I'll usually bring both kids for their phonics lessons after work, and I also accompany AA on the day of his music lesson. These days are also when I try to get the grocery shopping done.

Saturdays are designated swimming days. That happens in the morning, after which we head over to my mum’s place to spend the rest of the day. That's also where the kids attend their Berries class. 

We head to Shichida lessons on Sunday mornings. Both kids have been attending this since they were one year old. Beneficial? Well, both kids have great memory, but I really cannot tell if this is thanks to Shichida or thanks to their own ability. Both enjoy the class though, so that's why we've been at it for such a long time.

Wind down time

Every night, since EV was in my tummy, I have been reading to her. The habit continued with AA. Now, there’s no way that I can sleep until I read at least one book to each of them. Even though EV can read on her own now, and does sometimes read to her brother, she still enjoys me reading to her, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction books. 

Us Time

How do we squeeze in time for ourselves? Where possible, I try to do yoga one or two hours a week, but there are times when I don’t do yoga for weeks at a stretch. At the same time, I also try to squeeze in a few laps while EV is having her swimming lessons, provided AA doesn’t insist on sticking to me.

And then couple time. Well, to be honest, there’s not much, but we do try to arrange our times so we have some time away from work and kids. Normally, we’ll go for late night movies after the kids are asleep. Recently, we managed an impromptu date after hubby picked me up from work, and we had some pretty unhealthy food washed down by a few bottles of cider. Yeah, not very healthy. But for the couple time we enjoyed, I think it’s worth it.

Blogging

So, how do I squeeze in blogging time? Granted, the busy period that we had the first few months of this year rendered it almost impossible to find much time to blog, as I’m usually exhausted physically and mentally to write anything. And I guess the life of a blogging, full-time working mother is like that, at least, for me. 

Even without the crazy upgrading and what not, it’s no easy feat to juggle work, kids and home learning. I will usually do up my posts after the kids fall asleep, so that I can fully focus on what I’m doing. 

Unknown to many people, except for fellow bloggers, posting a post is more complicated than it sounds. 

First, the content of the post needs to be conceptualised. What am I going to write about? Is it going to be a review? Or perhaps am I going to share about home learning activities? Or maybe I want to write about this great adventure we had? 

Once that’s done, images need to be taken and then edited. And of course, words have to be written.

All of these take time. The sad thing is, many people think that writing a blog post is as quick as snapping one’s fingers. The truth is, it takes time, and effort, to maintain a blog. So if I can’t do it after the kids fall asleep on the weekdays, then I will find time on the weekends to do so. Rare days when I can leave work much earlier than usual are extremely precious to me; I will usually head to the library or a cafe and catch up on my posts.

Despite the time required for blogging, do I still enjoy it? You bet I do! Though I’m more selective of what I blog these days, I still enjoy the creative process immensely. I guess I’m still very much a writer at heart.

So there, my typical week in a nutshell. It seems the same week after week, but the kids and hubby keep me going, with much laughter and tumbles every day.

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This post is part of a blog hop where fellow Singapore Parent Bloggers share a week in their lives. Peek into the life of 29 other families over at Week In Life of Blogging Mum and Dad, including

Meiling, a mom blogger at Universal Scribbles who shares about her parenting adventures with her two children while juggling the various roles as mom, tutor, coach and trainer. Check out how her week goes in a week of a blogging mom.

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