We all have 24 hrs a day...how do you spend yours?

Our newest adventure has been building a bunk bed.  For those of you who are asking if we are announcing something, we are not. We will put the bed in Madison's room, she will sleep on the bottom bunk and the top will be used to store out-grown kids clothes, thus freeing up some valuable closet space. 

One of the advantages of Sheramie being an engineer is all the cool software and tools he has. After he designed the bunk bed..and then re-designed it to fit the new ideas I had from one day to the next, we bought the wood. He cut all the pieces after hours at work. I spent Saturday sanding the pieces and we build the headboards. The past few days have been spent painting a couple coats of white on the wood during Miles morning nap time. Hopefully we'll build it this weekend...(crossing fingers).

TIME

I have been contemplating the use of time since becoming a stay at home mom. When I was working I was able to be at work 8-10 hours a day, grocery shop, keep up with laundry, cooking, cleaning, and my house was always clean. (I have since decided that it stayed clean because we didn't live in it...we slept in it and hung out there on the weekends.)

It seems there is less time to get things done. Maybe it is because the kids always want to read and look at books,  me to help them color or draw, or even just cuddle and be held. I am in no means complaining; especially when my sweet 3 year old says her prayers and asks that mommy doesn't go back to work. (However she does miss her friends and wants her babysitters kids to come live with us) So this year I started a new schedule. This week has involved painting, which isn't normal, but I go to bed early and get up early (I've heard that counsel somewhere before).

Here is my current schedule:

4 am-weights/stretching/abs, 5 am-morning jaunt (I don't run), 6 am-eat, open windows and start painting one side of wood (we don't have a backyard, so currently I am painting on trash bags in our living room (exciting huh?), by 7:30 the kids are up and the wood is dry so I can rest easy. They eat breakfast, Madison does pre-school worksheets, Miles plays with legos and we just hang out. By 11 Miles goes down for his nap and I paint the other side of the wood, Madison helps too. We eat lunch and by 1 he's up again and the wood is dry (if it isn't we head out to the park). Cooking, Chores, Playing, Walking about 3 miles to the park take up the remainder of our afternoon. Dad comes home around 4:30pm and we either head to the park-if we didn't earlier, or take it easy at home. Dinner around 5:30 or 6, bath-time, bed around 7 for the kids and us sometime between 8-8:30.

I have started deep cleaning one area of the house each day: Monday-Laundry, Tuesday-Kitchen, Wednesday-Bathrooms, Thursday-Bed and Bath Laundry, and Friday-Vaccum, Dust, and Windows. By doing this it frees up our Saturday for our current projects: bunk bed, house hunting, or just spending time together.

What are some ideas you have done to save time during your day? Also, what do you feed a 20 month old who refuses to eat anything but Vanilla Yogurt (no fruit chunks), Cherios, Raisins, and applesauce?