how to parent?

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I know this sounds a very odd question, but the way things have happened for me, I seem to have got to this stage and have huge areas where I am clueless. I suffered severe postnatal depression after the birth of my first child, then had a very difficult delivery of my 2nd, leaving me in severe pain, with limited mobility, which basically means there entire time, I've been in survival parenting mode. Luckily we seem to have pretty good kids in general and when there have been issues come up we do seem to have managed fairly well, the oldest (3.5) also seems pretty adaptable and has coped well with multiple carers and living on 3 different continents. We are finally in a settled location and my health is improving, I'm not fully active and still take a lot of painkillers, which is a big improvement, but it's really hit me recently that I just don't know what to do with my younger child, 18mths, her big brother goes to preschool 3 times a week and during these times, I find myself hoping she'll sleep because otherwise I don't know what to do with her, or how to entertain her. Things aren't so bad with the older one, but I do feel I'm not doing as much with him as would be good for him. In some ways I don't know where to start, but in others, I know it's my mindset that I have to change, I've got used to having time to myself and being able to do what I want and in the end, I really have no idea how the average parent at home actually gets through the day! I'd be grateful for any tips, but please start at the beginning, I'm looking for basic things I can start to do, activities (even just spending x amount of time playing in a particular way) that I can commit to do on a daily or weekly basis and just kick start this whole parenting lark. Cheers