I asked you to ask us your top questions about daily routines, so today I'm here with my husband Dan.

Dan- Hello.

Vanessa- And we're going to be answering your questions.

Will your question be featured in today's lesson?

I don't know.

We'll watch to find out.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com and like always, I have created a free PDF which is here over Dan's face and it is going to include all of the wonderful questions, all of the vocabulary that we're going to use today, definitions, extra sample sentences so that you can use this vocabulary yourself because the goal of today's lesson is to help you understand real conversations, but also be able to have real conversations yourself.

So please download this free worksheet, expand your vocabulary and your speaking skills so that you can go into the world with confidence.

You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.

All right, are you ready to get started with our first category of questions?

Dan- I'm ready.

I'm coming in blind too, so this should be interesting.

Vanessa- Yeah, Dan has no idea what these questions are.

The first category are questions about daily routine.

The second category are questions about food and the third category are questions about activities or hobbies and there are a lot of questions.

So we're going to try to whip through these lightning speed and just see what happens.

Are you ready?

Dan- I'm ready.

Vanessa- All right.

Questions about daily routine.

The first question is, what is your routine every morning?

Dan- My routine every morning.

Well, as you know, I get out of bed, I look in the mirror for two seconds and I go like this.

Vanessa- And I always laugh because I think that is such a non-woman way to get ready in the morning.

Just, okay, I'm good.

Dan- Yeah, okay.

Nothing on my face.

All right, go.

And then maybe brush my teeth sometimes and then go make breakfast.

So I make breakfast for both my kids, but not you because you like to eat later.

And then I pack my son a lunch and myself a lunch and then we go to school.

We drive to school together.

So gather all the stuff and go.

Vanessa- Yep.

That's the morning routine.

Dan- How about you?

Vanessa- Well, while Dan is making breakfast, I wake up, I nurse our baby and walk into the kitchen, try to spend a little time with our kids.

I make some tea, we eat breakfast together and I help our oldest get out the door with

Dan.

Dan- That could be a challenge.

Vanessa- And then I spend some time with our three-year-old before we go to preschool.

So our carpool friends pick him up and take him to preschool about 30 minutes after they leave.

So we have a nice 30 minutes of quality time together.

And usually I push him on the swing outside.

That's his favorite thing.

And then he goes to preschool with our carpool friends and I put our baby down for a nap and my day begins.

All right, question number two.

Dan- Question two.

Vanessa- How has your morning routine changed now that you have three kids?

What hasn't changed is the question.

Dan- Well, the biggest thing is school for me.

We never had to get ready for school before.

And I work at the school too.

So pretty much everything has changed about the morning routine because of the children.

But as far as three children go, I mean- Vanessa- Two, three, eh?

Dan- Yeah.

Our third baby is so easy.

She doesn't really count as far as a lot of work yet.

Vanessa- Yeah.

I feel like the routine changing was more no kids or kids.

When you don't have kids, your morning routine is really different.

We just spent more time.

It was quieter.

I don't even know what life was like.

Drank my tea quietly.

But now you're always multitasking.

I'm reading a book, nursing a baby, and drinking my tea at the same time.

There's just more going on all the time.

Yeah, I'd say that's the biggest thing for me.

All right, next question.

What is the best part of your daily routine that you really enjoy?

Dan- Coffee.

Vanessa- It doesn't have to be morning routine.

It could be like- Dan- I thought you said morning routine.

Vanessa- Daily routine.

That's the thing that's changed the most since having three kids.

Something that routinely happens in your day is considered your daily routine.

Something that happens regularly.

Dan- It might still be coffee.

Vanessa- Okay.

Dan- Yeah.

I don't know.

I have a morning coffee and an afternoon coffee and try to cling to those moments when I can.

Vanessa- Cool.

Cool.

Dan- Yeah.

I also like lunchtime.

Food and drink are really nice.

I mean, it's routine.

It's like, this is what I do every day.

The ride to and from school is nice as well because I usually listen to something with my son, either music or an audio book.

We chat together as well.

That's a nice routine that we have going every day.

Vanessa- Yeah.

Some quality time together.

Yeah.

Dan- How about you?

Vanessa- I think ... Well, I had the privilege of reading these questions in advance, so

I had a moment to think about them.

Dan- Oh, she got to think about it.

Vanessa- I think one of the parts of my day that I enjoy the most is at the end of the day when we sit at the table and we eat dinner, we often ask each other a very simple question.

What was the best part of your day?

Sometimes we also ask, what was the most challenging part of your day?

If a day was particularly challenging or just if we remember it.

It's interesting to kind of hear what everyone has to say.

For our kids, sometimes it's this meal right now.

They only live in the moment.

They don't remember what happened 10 minutes ago.

It's just, what was the best part of your day?

Right now.

I like that.

Dan- Yeah, definitely.

Vanessa- Kind of a moment together.

Yeah.

I think that's something that I look forward to, coming together at the end of the day.

Next question is, what do you do at night when you are going to sleep?

What's your nighttime routine?

A nighttime routine for me, I don't really think I have much of a nighttime routine.

I mean, I brush my teeth.

Good.

And sometimes I shower.

Good.

These are things I sometimes do every night or most nights.

Yeah.

But other than that, I just, I am the kind of guy who just kind of hits the pillow and falls asleep pretty quickly.

Nowadays, especially, I mean, before kids, I had trouble going to sleep and wouldn't fall asleep.

But now that I have children, when I go to bed, I'm just going to sleep, typically.

You're just really tired?

Yeah.

Not too much of a bedtime routine.

I've tried to throw some stuff in there before, like I've tried to do breathing exercises and meditation.

But I would say I am not consistent enough in those practices to say it's a routine as of now.

Okay.

All right.

I think I'm going to be consistent in the future at some point.

Mm-hmm.

And for you?

Nighttime routine.

What do you do at night when you're going to sleep?

I think usually after the kids go to bed, I tidy up a little bit, like you do the dishes a little bit.

I read a book usually, or sometimes lately I've been listening to a book, very exciting.

And usually, like Dan said, I'm kind of zonked by the end of the day.

And brush my teeth, maybe take a shower and go to sleep.

Maybe take a shower.

Maybe take a shower.

I don't know.

They say it's not healthy to take a shower every day.

Somebody says that.

That's what we're going with.

But I feel like that's pretty much it.

Nighttime is a little bit more relaxed than mornings because in the morning you're trying to manage multiple people and get started in the day, and there's more energy.

So the end of the day is just kind of more ...

Yeah.

All right.

The question we kind of touched on just a second ago, who helps you?

So I think they're talking about me.

Who helps me in your daily chores?

So let's talk about what chores means first, and then we can talk about who does daily chores.

Yeah.

So chores are any work that you have to do to make the household run.

So the classic example is laundry and dishes.

Doing the dishes.

That's my job.

So we ... I don't know if it's 50-50, but we split the chores.

We try to be relatively even about it.

And so yeah, I do the dishes and-

I do the laundry.

You do the laundry.

Those are the big ones.

I mean, there's a lot of kid chores.

You got to give them a bath.

You got to put them to bed.

You make breakfast.

Those are chores.

I make lunch.

Oh, cooking as well.

Yeah.

And then we both kind of make dinner.

I think instead of saying every other day we make dinner, it's more that there's specific meals that I cook.

Our expertises.

And specific meals that you cook.

And depending on what we've scheduled for the week, we try to schedule two weeks of meal plans.

And that way we know Monday, we have different days.

So Monday, taco Tuesday, soup Saturday, stuff like this, fish Friday.

And that way we have some kind of routine about food.

Because when you have kids, especially when you have kids, just feeding them can feel really overwhelming because they're always hungry.

There's always something more to make.

And then you're also trying to spend time with them while you're cooking.

And sometimes they want to help and that is good, but it's also chaotic.

So I think having that routine for what you're going to eat, when you're going to eat it, who's going to make it, I think that's really important.

And I would say one more thing about sharing chores.

The way that our lives work, we both work, we both have a job, and we also are parents.

So our professional and personal lives are very similar.

I have some friends who, for example, their husband works and the mother, her 100% job is the home and the children.

So she cooks every meal because that is her job.

That is her professional job to do that.

And it's a lot, just very difficult.

A lot of times it's harder than a real job, a real job.

A money-making job.

A money-making job, yes.

It's usually easier, yes, than taking care of the home and the children.

So in that situation, their roles would be a little bit different, but for us, we can split it a little more evenly because our lives are just set up like that.

Yeah.

You are home more now, so you probably pick up more little stuff than I do.

Literally.

You pick up little stuff everywhere.

Yeah.

That's a good phrase.

It means you also do more things, but also in the home, you have to tidy up a lot.

So you have to pick up books and toys and I don't know what, raisins on the floor.

Anyway, let's go to our next question.

Raisins.

There's a lot of raisins on the floor.

This is the last one for daily routine and then we'll go to food.

The question is, how much TV do your kids watch per day?

Dun da da.

So our children don't watch any TV if they are going to school.

Yeah.

So they don't watch any TV that day because they've had enough stimulation at school and they don't need any more after that.

And we usually just read a book to them or do something outside for the evening.

And they get home kind of late and I don't want them to just watch TV and then go to bed.