I'm struggling a bit the last two weeks. Hubby's work has been tough so he's been working harder and coming home in need of a break so I'm doing more than my usual share of dinner, duds and dishes...but it feels a bit like that's all that's getting done and I'm making no progress on anything else. I have an actual to do list now too...so I can see how much I'm not doing

In addition to not doing extra things (like tidying the lounge) when things get busier, I also stop looking after myself so much (not drinking enough water, forget to take supplements, not eating enough iron, probably not eating enough carbs) and then eventually I hit a day where I just spend an afternoon browsing the internet and eating chocolate because I have no energy (that happened on Tuesday). I'm extra annoyed with myself because I'm trying to reduce my sugar intake to keep my blood glucose down (it's not too high, but it's borderline).

I'm frustrated at how everything in the house is going backwards, especially general tidyness. A little while ago, I tidied up the lounge and put away a lot of stuff and left out only stuff that's easy to tidy: so easy that my four year old could tidy it without help. So, I had a rule of no screen time for kids unless the lounge is tidy and added extra things like 'You want x? Sure, as soon as the lounge is tidy' ...and she'd pick it all up. Then, stuff started to slide a bit and for the past week or so the lounge has been too much of a mess for her to do it on her own and so it just didn't get done because I was using all my limited energy on dinner, duds and dishes...and we got back into the habit of screen time even when the lounge was a mess

Anyway, yesterday instead of bathing the kids and making dinner before fetching hubby from work, I worked with the kids to tidy the lounge...so it's tidy again now but we'll have to work to get back into the habit of keeping it that way: already this morning, the kids took out so much stuff they needed my help to tidy it up.

Anyway, I feel like it's all falling apart and I'm not getting anything done, but the facts don't quite support that and I need to remind myself of that. This week we had stuff on 4 mornings out of 5 (actually, make that fairly large out of the house outings every single day) , the last two three or four actually weeks I've done all the laundry (and there's not even a full loads worth of dirty stuff in the hamper as of this morning), the last two weeks I've done all the cooking except for about 3 breakfasts, the last two weeks I've done all the dishes except maybe 1-2 dishwasher emptying and 2 or 3 clearing-up-the-kitchens.  The last two weeks I think every day but one I've done the kids bath and cooked the dinner (usually two things that are done simultaneously by me and hubby). In addition, the kids and I baked a birthday cake and made birthday cards for hubby and I managed to make him his choice of breakfast and dinner on his birthday.

Sure you can put her in a large kennel...you just have to call it a playpen :P That said, solutions not involving physically penning kids in are better, especially as they improve their ability to get out every day. Can you try something like 'sit on your bed and read/listen to this audiobook/do this craft until the timer goes and then you get <reward>'. Start with short times and make them longer (eg a sultana for every minute at the start). I can get my toddler to stay put on a mattress for quite a while now during 'nap' time. I started with short times and combined rewards for staying put (stickers, stamps, cuddles, high fives etc...I never had to resort to m&ms, but I bet they'd have worked) with disincentives (stern voice and manner, physically putting her back or holding her in place, timeouts) for leaving the space. 

Rather than jumping on the bed, we have an old cot mattress that we use as our 'trampoline' for getting energy out (so we don't have to break the no jumping on the bed rule).

I second the advice to just go for your walk during a time when kids are awake. Let your hubby know beforehand (On Mon I'll be going for a walk at 6pm), do what prep you can (feed the baby, have toddler's dinner ready to go) and leave him to it. You may also find it works to leave the toddler and take the baby: babies are much less likely to interfere with your walk and in a carrier or a pram can add some extra to your workout and hubby will find just the toddler easier to deal with than both.