Weekly Routine - Do You Have One?

For one reason and another, I've struggled to have a regular weekly routine where DD and I do the same thing on certain days. For a large part of the last three years, I've not been very mobile (physical issues plus being a non-driver) and DP is also a shiftworker who starts and finishes at different times each day.

But I think I would like a bit more structure to give us things to look forward to as well as making the 'what shall we do today' dilemma easier. I'm going to join a playgroup, I've also set up a weekly playdate with a friend and DD has swimming lessons on Fridays. Now I've written those things down, that's probably enough but am interested in what other people do in terms of outings plus whether you do things like grocery shopping/washing etc. on particular days?

At the moment we kind of work as follows:

Monday - walk
Tuesday - Mothers Group then on the way home food shopping
Wed - Walk then Library if it's on for the girls
Fri - walk then library

Some of those depend on weather but we pretty much stick to that now, library and walking cost us nothing but get the girls out and about and keep my house clean while they are not in it ;). I have to drive 10min to the nearest town though to go for a walk so would be easier for someone who lives in town IYKWIM.

Hope that helps, my girls are 2 & 11mths and they love it, they love their mothers group, i'd also like to throw in some swimming lessons and they love the library, if you check your local they will normally have a story time session.. lots of fun :)

Mondays - I work 8 till 4 so Bella is with Grandma and they walk and play and do what ever they like (she comes to our place)
Tuesday 10.00 till 11.30 is playgroup - then home and bed and then play at home in arvo
Wed - I work 8 - 4 so again with Grandma
Thursday - walk to the park and play in the morning then to the farm in the arvo to see the horses
Friday - Morning tea with mummy and grandma in town then shopping on the way home then arvo play at home.
Saturday - town with mummy and daddy and go to coffee shop - home and bed - then to the farm (where grandma & Grandad live)
Sunday - morning at the farm playing with the dogs and horses - home sleep - arvo playing with daddy.

Thats pretty true for most weeks - though the activities vary.

HTH

I work 3 five hour days, so our routine is something like this:
Mon - Work/ day care
Tues - Work/day care
Wed - Morning at home playing, quick 30 min housework spree then I go to work and DS spends the afternoon with Daddy and has his swimming lesson
Thurs - Every 2nd Thurs (this is during school term only) we go to Mothers group for 2 hours
Fri - Playgroup 10-12pm then home for lunch, DS has a nap for 2 hours and I get a heap of housework/washing done
Sat - Music class at 9 and then we have our weekend. DH and I get all the housework/washing/shopping done while entertaining DS.

During the school term I feel like we're flat out doing these things, and I think next term his swimming class is changing from the Wednesday to the Friday. I look forward to the thursdays when we don't have mothers group. On those days we just have a relaxing day, sometimes go to the park, or shopping, a walk or just stay home and play.

Yes and no!

Moo's things are pretty organised during term time. All this year he had Mothers Group, Hey Di Ho and swimming on set days. He thrived on it but I found having too many set things was wearing me out with hardly any time for other friends and impromptu things. So next year I'm dropping the swimming, I figure I'll take him to the pool when it suits us instead! Oh and most weeks I swap babysitting with a friend on Thursdays (I have hers then she has mine) but on busy weeks we let it go.

In regards to house stuff, I'm so not organised! I wish I was and will endeavour to be in 2011 :D I seem to always be at the supermarket!

Monday , daddy works ... We go to the beach or run errands and then go tomthe park, daddy has a break, plays with DS and goes back to work.
Tuesday, daddy works....We do our groceries and clean the house and wash the car, same routine for daddy
Wednesday, daddy works.... we do anything else that daddy won't want to do on his day off, like postcard with a friend....
Thursday, daddy sleeps in, We shop , have a plateaus or used to go to playgroup....
Friday is daddy day....We hang out with daddy, usually do fun thing, or go to the beach,park etc
Saturday daddy works mornings, we relax at home
Sunday daddy works but we just relax or visit friends....

next year Mondays will be preschool
And we will go to the pool for swimming lessons with mummy and another parent/child...as often as we can :) they are two now....

Last year we did two days of early intervention a week with DS (he'll be doing three days next year) and he had a Grandma day as well - she takes him out somewhere fun, either a big playground, or the beach, then out for chippies or a smoothie, although we're trying to work out how to do this next year because I think four days away from home might be pushing it. She might do EI pick-ups as they finish at 2:30 and she can hang out with him then. Before he started EI he had a Grandma day on Mondays and family day care on Wednesday, then Mum's group Thursday mornings. We used to do swimming lessons (had to stop because he started getting super distressed, took a while to work out it was a noise sensitivity thing as there are several lessons going on at once, got to a point where even the bath freaked him out, it's taken nearly a year and now he loves our pool again but I haven't tried lessons yet) and kindergym, which we still go to occasionally on DP's days off.

We used to do impromptu things all of the time, either to to a beach or to the big playground/water park in town, but it's become more difficult to chase after DS with DD. I really miss taking him fun places but he gets to do lots of fun stuff with Grandma. And we try to swim at home a lot, and have a big backyard, so I don't feel so bad. But with his autism there are lots of things that I'd love to do with him that he either wouldn't respond well to because they are too structured, or that he simply wouldn't enjoy.