So remember you all said sending the kids to school would be good?

Well, you lied!

It was a GREAT idea.

But not for the reasons you may think.

It's because I have a clean house once again and it thrills my heart.

When I discussed on the blog the whole full day vs half day thing, paying for a full day would be cheaper because half day I pay for the kids' school plus Nanny S.

My friend Caren totally embraces her love of a clean house :) and said she cannot survive with a dirty house because then she's just miserable.

So yes, we crunched numbers, I had many chats with Nanny S and she was very happy to clean the house in the mornings and look after my babies in the afternoons.

Our current routine:

(to be honest I'm not sure what happens here before 7 because that's when I wake up to the house of crazy) what time do you wake up?

Kendra is usually prancing around playing with clothes, hair, etc. (very unlike me!) and Connor is wailing about something or another - the flip flops are not the right ones, the colour of the t-shirt is offensive, Daddy has to do something instead of him, etc.

D dropped the kids off all except 1 day. The day of these pics.

This week he's been taking Nanny S with him so that he can literally drop them at 7:30 and go. Nanny S goes in, settles them and then walks back.

The school is 1 km from our house so it doesn't take long.

When she gets back, she cleans until about 12.15 (sometime during that time she also takes her lunch break) and then goes to fetch them at 12:30.

Our school fines us R150 per hour or part thereof (obviously they just really want you to be on time) so I've drilled it into her that she cannot, under any circumstances, be late. She has never been late to work, not once, and is usually 5 minutes early, sometimes 10.

I tested this walking thing for a few days but all 3 assured me that they don't need her to push the pram there so they can have a rest walking back (we're not babies, as Connor says) and so our twin pram is for sale.

The food situation:

The kids have breakfast at school and also a mid-morning snack that the school provides so I pack nothing - isn't that great?! The school also doesn't allow anything sweet which of course, suits me perfectly.

They eat lunch at home. This is my choice because I'm a control freak about the food. My kids have always been fantastic eaters and I'm going to keep that going for as long as I can (til they're 7? :))

After lunch they nap, sometimes very reluctantly but most days they do still nap.

And then play, bath, eat supper and I arrive home at 5:30 to sweet-smelling babies.

It's bliss.

one baby checking if I'm still there

Nanny S is a machine. I don't know how she works as fast and as well as she does.

I do weekly planning as those who read my organising blog will know.

So on a Sunday I write her a list of things I specifically want done that week. I menu plan weekly too so I'll put down to do food prep too, like peel and chop carrots, onions, potatoes, make rice, etc, etc. This is all besides the normal house cleaning and laundry.

Do you know both Mondays I've arrived home to find about 70% of the things done already?!

It's a miracle!

And she only has 3 hours in the mornings. I told her I want her WITH the kids physically when they're awake because if you turn your back on them for 1 minute, they've cut up their slippers (true! the scissors were confiscated for a whole week) or drawn on themselves or my walls (fortunately with washable markers). I made them clean my walls themselves and only "allowed" nanny S to get the last bits off.

If she needs to heat their supper or do the lunch dishes, we have "kitchen activities" so the kids are at the table in plain sight :)

I've made checklists but really all she has to do with the school bags is empty it of school notices (!), remove sweatshirts to check if they've been used and are dirty. They haven't had to use their spare set of clothes yet.

All that to say school has been excellent for my house. It was always (mostly) clutter-free and organised but now it is sparkly clean too :)

and now the other baby

I'm very glad we chose the nearer school which incidentally was always the most organised of the bunch. The principal is highly responsive on email and I have no problems at all.

The kids have not cried once and Kendra has stopped telling me she wants to be in Connor's class.

On a scale of 1 - 10, how much do you love a clean house or does it not bother you? I'm a 9. Although I can stand a bit of dirt first but I can't stand disorder.