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Our Nightly Rhythm

The other week when the school year just began again our evenings seemed like a mad rush to get everything done and our selves situated and ready for bedtime. One evening in particular must have been a total disaster because my husband joked that I was acting slangry, what is slangry you ask? Slangry, similar to hangry (hungry-angry) is an adjective – bad-tempered or irritable as a result of sleepiness. It’s a real thing and I definitely was acting that way, but y’all the night-time struggle is real sometimes. Nightly chaos trying to get the kiddos ready and into bed can quickly get me irritated, haha. By 8:30 this Mama is just ready. I’m tired and mentally done for the day. I know I’m not the only mother out there that gets irritated when her kids drag their feet to go to bed, right? This past summer our normal routine went out the window. I don’t know how or when it happened but our rhythm fell to the wayside and I was seriously craving order again and I knew it was time to get back to business.

In all honestly I can’t really complain, my boys have always been wonderful sleepers, once they are actually asleep that is. Sleeping through the nights, taking regular naps, to which I’m very grateful because this introverted Mama needs small chunks of quiet time to regroup and recharge. Once we were back to normalcy bedtime has been much sweeter and calmer. Today I want to share our evening routine with all of you.

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Have a daily schedule printed. I have a simple schedule (similar to me weekly cleaning routine) printed out and hanging on our refrigerator for us as a family to follow daily to stay on track. It has things like Wake Up, Brush Teeth, Eat Breakfast, Get Dressed, etc. The boys love being able to check things off as we go about our day. And to be honest, this list maker loves it too!

Be strict with your time. Once Braedan comes home from school we work on homework and have a snack and we talk about his day. Then the boys get free time to play while I get dinner prepared. After dinner we clean up and then spend time playing (on Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have plans outside of the home.) but otherwise the boys get to play until 7:00pm but from then on I have to be strict with our time. Bath, jammies, snack, brush teeth, read, prayers, lights out by 8:30.

Limit the TV. No TV, at least not until we’ve had our baths, gotten into our jammies etc…Then they get about 30 minutes to watch something and when the time is up the time is up, so if they played and ignored the TV show then too bad so sad, haha. Tomorrow is another day.

Sleepy Spray. After we brush our teeth the boys get sleepy spray on their pillows. This is simply + Lavender (10 drops) and Roman Chamomile (10 drops) essential oil in a spray bottle filled with distilled water (2/3) and witch hazel (1/3) We really struggled this past summer with our oldest complaining of monsters and not wanting to sleep in his bed. Sleepy spray has made all the difference no more monsters and no more nightly struggle.

Read + prayers. We usually read 2-3 books and I let them pick them out. Braedan is learning to read so often times we have him read us a book as well. We’ll go over our memory verse for that week and say our prayers.

Lights Out – often times I’ll hear the boys playing with a stuffed animal in their bed or maybe they have a little matchbox car and I’m A-Ok with that as long as they are in bed by 8:30 if they don’t fall asleep right away, no biggie.

As you can see our routine is pretty basic but it works well for us. I’ve learned over the years that while it’s fun to go with the flow, sometimes just like me, my children crave order and routine. Our home is a happier calmer place when we know when and what we have to do. What’s your nightly routine? I’d love to hear it!! Feel free to leave your comments below ❤

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

“For me, a calm house equals a calm heart equals a calm life.” – Erica Layne 

 


Great post originally from The Homemaking Momma

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