Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful...

The snow adds more work to the morning routine around here. It's no easy task to get a group of kids ready for school in the morning. But, we've been doing it a couple years and we have a good routine.

All hats, gloves, scarves, etc go into the sleeves of their coats so they don't get lost or mixed up. When it's time to get ready for buses, everyone puts on their coats, hats, scarves, and book bags in the living room. I go around and tie scarves for kids who need it. Or I match them up with scarf buddies. Next they get their boots from the shoe mat and put them on by the side door. Gloves go on last. When they are done with everything, they head out to the driveway and get in line. I'm always the last one out the door and then we head to the bus stop. (Which is also no easy thing since sidewalks are almost never plowed.)

You have to leave extra time in the morning on snowy days, but our system works. Routines and structure are the only way to have smooth mornings. (Our breakfast routine is a thing of beauty.)

This year everything changed. A baby was added into the mix. Now not only do I need to get all the kids ready, and myself, I also have to bundle Jayden up. I put him in a couple layers of clothes, then add a jacket. He wears socks plus warm booties. Then gloves and a hat. Then a snowsuit over all of that. All that work for about ten minutes total of being outside.

As you can see from the picture, he is not bothered by it all. He slept through the entire trip to the bus stop this morning.

Now the only thing I need to figure out is how to keep up with shoveling the driveway. I used to always shovel it before the kids came back in the afternoon but now I obviously can't do that since I have to be in the house with Jayden. At night Adam shovels it by himself, which I feel bad about. We used to go out together and it would be so much faster. The two things we can't seem to keep up with around here are laundry and snow.