Our Schedule, or How I Get it All Done

Lately I've had a lot of people ask me some variant on "How do you get it all done?" In all honesty, I'm usually a bit baffled by that question. I realize that I'm busy, but really, so many people have so much more going on than I do. I guess when I've typed it out in the past, I do have a lot going on. I home school the three children, work online as a tutor, am teaching Bible class to the preschoolers every Wednesday at church (and adapting the curriculum), and I'm going to be teaching a 2 hour music and movement class at our homeschool group twice a month this fall. All of this is in addition to the normal responsibilities of a wife and mom of three. So.. yeah, I guess I am busy, but honestly it's not as overwhelming as it could be.

So how do I get it all done? First and foremost, prayer. I've been noticing lately that I'm not as "in the moment" as I'd like to be with my children. I feel like it's been rush, rush, rush, never slowing down. I've really wanted to be more "there" with the children, really appreciating the sweetness and charm of this time because it's all too fleeting. God has truly blessed me with that one.

But in addition to that, organization. I really am not a schedule person, persay. Yes, I do like to know what's going on next week, but don't like to have a day to day plan for my life. However, I finally realized that I need something, and the kids really needed more of a schedule at well. So... I decided to really look at our days and see what seems to work best for us. From there I have created a routine. Instead of assigning certain tasks to certain times, I have just written down the normal flow of our day. I think this keeps me from getting stressed out and also from everything being blown by something unexpected.

Also, I had to just decide to get the day ready at night. Sometimes that's not easy, because I work most nights, and don't necessarily want to pick up the kitchen and set out workboxes after I get done tutoring. I just want to read a good book and go to bed. But it is so essential that I prepare for the next day.

Finally, I had to let go of a lot of my perfectionist tendancies. The problem was, I wanted everything to be perfect, and honestly nothing was. We're a family of 5 in a tiny house. It's not going to be perfect. I have young children. It's not going to be perfect. I am human. It's not going to be perfect. Finally letting that go has freed me up to relaz, and honestly things go more smoothly and I do get more done. It's amazing.

Oh-I almost forgot! I finally had to get a cleaning system that worked for me. I have tried Flylady, I've tried cleaning everything daily. I've tried cleaning things just when I get to it. I have found that I have to have a list. So I finally found Motivated Moms. It's a planner that has all your chores on a list for you and you check them off as you do them. There's a list of chores you do every day, and then there are chores for each specific day of the week, and it's different every week (which is great for me because it gives me some variety.) The version I have even has a spot to put your appointments for the day, so it's kind of an all in one planner for me. This has really helped me to keep my house (relatively) clean, while keeping me from getting really stressed out. I just do my chores throughout the day as I can get to them. The kids really like helping me and getting to check off when they've done something. It makes working together a whole lot more fun when they know we only have 3 or so chores (aside from the daily ones like dishes and laundry) that we have to get done.

Okay. So here's sort of what my schedule looks like:

• Get up/Dress/Breakfast/Pickup
• Piano
• Gardening
• Workboxes
• Special thing for the day*
• Pick-up Time
• Lunch
• Story
• Nap/Rest time
• Workboxes
• Free time
• Pick up/Daily Chores
• Dinner
• Time with Daddy (church on Wed.)
• Bath/PJs/Teeth
• Bible
• Story
• Bed for the kids
• Pick-up/Prepare for tomorrow
• I work
• Read
• Bed

*Our special activities are as follows:

Mon-Think! activity, Tues-Library, Wed-Nature Walk, Thurs-Artistic Pursuits, Fri-Homeschool group or other fun activity