One tiny but measurable…

One tiny but measurable benefit of daycare I hadn't anticipated -- a cleaner house. Specifically, if we straighten up in the evening after the kids go to sleep, the house should actually stay clean until they come home from daycare around 4. No toys scattered across the living room floor. I can't even imagine it. Okay, that's a lie. I totally can.

I have a vision for a weekday routine going forward:

• 5 a.m.: wake up, exercise, have tea and breakfast
• 7: wake kids, get them ready for preschool/daycare
• 8: drop-off
• 8: come home, do breakfast dishes, clean sink
• 9 - 4: write / academic work / SLF/DesiLit projects / household chores / errands
• 4: pick up kids
• 4 - 8: play with them, relax (make dinner in there if it's my week)
• 8: put them to bed
• 8:30 - 9: straighten up
• 9 p.m. - 5 a.m.: 8 hours of sleep!

God, that looks so gorgeous. Clean house, time to relax with kids, time to work, enough sleep. Anand has been sleeping beautifully the last few days. Kavi, not quite so well -- she stayed up 'til 10 last night. In general, they're sleeping a bit later and staying up later than I would like, but I'm hoping the pre-school nap schedule will help shift that up a bit. But even if there are occasional bobbles in the sleeping schedule (and oh, there will be), if I can get 8 hours of sleep a few nights a week, that would make my life so much better.

I was talking to my family last weekend, and told them that since Anand was born (and really, for a few months before that), there had been exactly 3 nights where I had gotten eight solid hours of sleep, all nights when I was away at conferences. (My littlest sister looked pretty shocked; she likes 8-9 hours of sleep a night.) Most nights it's been more like 5-6 hours, and often interrupted too. No wonder I've felt so crazy. But it's getting much, much better.

I even did 20 minutes of yoga this morning, including a tiny bit of sitting meditation. I'm starting to feel like I can breathe again.