Pull Up Your Socks

Do you ever have one of those days that just doesn't feel quite right?  My sister and I usually refer to it as having bumps in your socks.  You know when you have a bad pair of socks on that fall down into your shoes and make little bumps and drive you crazy all day?  These days are often accompanied by an uncomfortable bra, dry facial skin, and a persistent feeling that you have left the oven on.  I am in the midst of a small series of those days, so do bear with me.

Things that are making me feel off:
1) I shattered the face of my iPhone and now I feel lost.  I get tiny glass splinters when I try to slide and unlock it, and have more or less lost my ability to text.  I will have to wait a week to replace it.  I am adrift.

2) I have mosquito bites all over both of my feet.  Itchy feet are not attractive + make me feel like I am going to lose my mind.

3) Our schedule needs a tweak, and something is feeling off until we problem-solve it.

Usually the husband gets home around 6, at which point both of us have been working very hard all day long and need a break.  I need a break to wrap up work that is unfinished, make or finish making dinner, and just deal after being on-call for the little man solo all day.  The hubs is fresh off an almost always slammed and break-less work day and a smelly train ride and could use a few to himself as well just to shake off the day and take care of himself.   Little J usually eats dinner from 6 to 6:30 (as mentioned before, this is almost always a somewhat frustrating process), then goes into a bath-books-bed combo that ends around 7:30, at which point we shove food in our gullets, try to finish taking care of business (professional, life-related, and otherwise), and attempt to relax.

Maniacal evening-time toddler on the loose.  Adorable? Yes. Relaxing? No.

I don't think this schedule is really serving us, but am not sure how to tweak it.  Earlier din for the little man?  That doesn't jive well with our goal to push his bedtime (and more importantly his wake-up time) a bit later.   We'd both like to take evening walks now that the good weather is here, and generally enjoy each others' company more in the evenings.  Right now there is a lot of stress and exhaustion involved in our nighttime routine.  I know this is par for the course in early parenting, and most nights we're able to make light of it and enjoy our evening for the most part, I just know we could do better.

I always get wonderful advice from my readers, so I'm hoping to hear more about your evenings, and how you combine the need to work and accomplish things with the need to unwind.  Especially to those of you with young children, how do you keep the crazies at bay and get everyone to fed and to bed while still having some semblance of a calm evening?  Is this even possible?  All insight gratefully accepted.

In the meantime, I'm off to drink a Kombucha and pull up my socks.