I have been meaning to start this blog for the last 7 or so months. I actually came up with the idea last summer, but with three kids and a very fulltime job, it hasn’t been my first priority. Or my second, for that matter. I have the semblance of roughly 10 posts across three different word documents because as an editor and a somewhat Type A person I was going to have multiple posts up when I went live. Well, as you learn with kids, and probably the topic for another blog, you have to just roll with what you have, when you have it, and so here I am with just one post: Lesson 1 of hopefully 250 interesting, somewhat humorous tidbits I have learned over the last five or so years trying to get pregnant, being pregnant, and now raising these little beings.

The reason this blog (and the stack of bills piled on my desk, my long in-need-of-a-haircut-desperately hair, or my non-manicured nails) is so delayed is that everything takes longer with kids. Everything. Shopping. Walking down the street. Getting out of the house. Side projects. On Saturdays and Sundays, my husband and I will have a list of what we would like to get done, and on Monday, that list still exists. Maybe we will have half crossed off one small task (like change a lightbulb), but the six or seven major things are still there. (Yup, my oldest is still in a crib because converting that to a bed just hasn’t happened. He may be four before that gets crossed off the list!) We just look at each other: where did the time go and what did we do? That answer is wake the kids, dress the kids, feed the kids, entertain the kids, change the kids, feed the kids (again), bathe the kids…you get the idea/know the routine.

We live and breathe for the afternoon nap. Those precious two hours when the house is quiet (scheduled napping is key, another future blog post!). After sitting down for five minutes, cleaning up the dishes, sometimes feed ourselves or go for a quick run and possibly shower, those two hours—which can be cut short by a late poopy diaper, or a sick kid, or that every fifth day when it seems kids just don’t want to nap—feel more like five minutes. Forget an hour to do a chore or for that haircut.

And even after the children are all tucked in bed, there’s still more to do. Pick up the toys (probably for the 10th time), finish the second round of dishes, start the laundry, wipe down the sticky counters, make food and lunch for the next day. So by the time we sit down to eat at 9 pm (sometimes if well organized that happens earlier), I am literally passed out by 10 pm on the couch. Or so tired that the last thing I want to do is anything productive—staring at mindless TV (thank god for those housewives) sounds much more appealing.

I used to use the nighttime as time to get work done and thought it would be perfect blogging time, but have learned that I am much more productive in the morning. So here I am at 5:30 am finishing up what I have been dying to do for almost a year. Ahh, kids. Love them to pieces and make life so wonderful, but definitely time sucks. Here’s to more productive early mornings.