How Routines Will Improve Your Life

When people learn that I’m the mother of eight kids (all born within one decade), they either think I’m crazy or they wonder how could I possibly enjoy motherhood with that many kids so close in age.

I’ve been telling the same story now for the past 20 years and it still doesn’t get old. After nearly six years of infertility, we were blessed with a beautiful baby daughter through adoption. Exactly one year to the day later, I gave birth to our first son. The floodgates soon opened and I was the amazed mother of a brood of eight.

The most insane period of parenting I have ever experienced was the summer I had four kids under the age of three. Though I’m a sucker for newborns and was thrilled to have finally beat the infertility odds (with flying colors!) caring for an infant, a 12-month-old, a 2-yea-old, and a 3-year-old practically by myself was something I would never attempt again in this or any other lifetime. I’m a pretty patient and easy-going person by nature, but that summer was simply brutal, and I’ve never forgotten it.

As difficult as that stretch of parenting was for me, there was a silver lining—I learned the importance of creating daily routines. I’d always had routines when I was in college and again when I was a full-time career gal because of the many commitments and responsibilities that I had to meet on a regular basis. During my struggle with infertility, however, I promised myself that once I had the luxury of staying at home with my baby, I would ease up on all the structure in my life and try to relax and enjoy the carefree moments of whatever each day brought my way.

When my daughter was just three months old, I became pregnant through a fertility procedure.  Instead of enjoying those go-with-the-flow days with my new baby that I had longed for, I spent the next few months battling severe morning sickness. So much for relaxing and stepping away from routines—I did neither. Survival was the name of the game so I did whatever it took to care for my daughter and get through the days while I was so sick. Eventually, I finally felt better but then it was time to welcome my second baby and before I knew it, I had four kids in the blink of an eye.

I had waited a very long...

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