This years goals

Its taken me a few weeks to find my spot and figure out how things would shake out. The kids are settling into a routine and Im finding one of my own.

I have a few goals for each day and they are in the order that I accomplish them.

1. Clean the kitchen and load dishwasher -- this includes picking up, sweeping, and mopping. After that as time allows(up til 1030) declutter island, counters and clean the stove.
2. Laundry -- wash, dry and fold at least 4 loads a day
3. Clean the upstrs -- this includes picking up the living rm, hallway and bathroom. Vaccuming and sweeping. If time allows, then tackling the little kids bedrooms with their help as well. (up til 1130)
4. Read my section in my daily Bible
5. Clean the downstrs - this includes the stairs, family room and bathroom. This time goal is to be done by 3 pm.

Thus far Ive been able to accomplish most of the first 4 goals. I havent gotten fast enough to get to goal number 5!! Im trying also to start lunch by 1130 and supper by 4 pm. That way it becomes more of a scheduled habit. I find if I can at least pick up once a day in each of the rooms, afternoon and evening chores go soo much smoother.

Once I master this routine and get it going well, then I will begin adding in more goals. Such as dusting,washing walls, cleaning out fridges and microwave. Stuff like that! Im trying to figure out how to do big projects too such as cleaning the storage room or my bedroom. Things that take more than an hour and really need a significant chunk or all of the day.

God is good ... all the time!

MJ

Its harder than I thought.

I mistakenly thought it would be easier with just 3 kids home during the morning. (Ezekiel has half day morning kidnergarten). Its just not, at least this week anyway.

I'm sure its a combination of factors -- I just dont remember it being this hard last year. Most of it probably has to do with the fact that Gideon is 2 and a half. Add to that the fact hes developmentally delayed, non verbal and super tall and well its a bit of a disaster. I also think it hit me harder since the summer was pretty easy. Gideon has lots of brothers and sisters around to play with and entertain him. Now its just Zemirah and Elaura at home. He finds great delight in taunting Zemirah, stealing her toys or pulling her hair. She adds to the fun by reacting strongly and thus fuels Gideons desire to do it more. He loves Elaura and is a bit nicer to her but can just about squeeze her to death. He will take toys from her too! It fast becomes a looong day when he is "feisty"~!

Ive always encouraged the kids to learn to play by themselves rather than me being the sole entertainer. They learned great imagination and to play with each other. Yes, it did mean sometimes more messes or crazy schemes gone wrong but it worked okay. They often would play in an adjoining room while I did the dishes or got laundry done. We'd stop and read a book here and there and snuggle during some quiet times but all in all they were on the go.

Gideon just doesnt work well with this style. He needs far more direction and encouragment to not be naughty. Im slowly working my way up to figuring out how to keep him with me at all times AND get the dishes and laundry and housework and paperwork done. He does help me do the dishes(read he tries to get into everything he can reach on the stool) and he likes to help me bake. Im trying to figure out how to do this and still keep my sanity (whats left of it anyway).

Hes far more challenging this year than last. I realized last year he had only started to walk 2 months before school started. So he was far less mobile, 3 inches shorter and a little bit more managable. Hes a big guy, well over 3 ft tall and 42 lbs!!!

I think a bigger part of this is my mental battle. I tend to want "my" space and a little bit of freedom from the kiddos. And Im mourning the loss of that with Gideon. He is only taking up to an hour(usually 45 min) nap maybe 3 days a week if Im lucky. So there really isnt much downtime from the gigantor!

Its just a hard stage right now.

MJ

Sometimes I wonder

Sometimes I wonder why I fight so hard against routine and schedules. It almost always helps keep things on track and in the right direction. I guess its the implementing that is really difficult and the staying on schedule that I dont enjoy so much.

My nature is a bit laid back and Id much rather do things later. Can anyone say procrastinator? So it doesnt come naturally to schedule and stick to routine.

The family is still adjusting to the school year schedule and I "know" it will be harder next week when school actually starts. But so far so good. Getting up earlier to exercsie (yeah I know, i still dont like it) has been really good in terms of getting more accomplished.

One of the big changes is making sure the house is at least tidy in the evening. So at 7 pm, the kids get into jammies and do their chore room. That way the house is in decent shape when they leave for school in the morning. I found last year, it never worked well trying to squeeze chores in before school started. Another implementation is going to be making sure shoes, socks and outfits are laid out the night before. We always start this the first week but Im trying to keep this going year round. Finding matching socks and both shoes was a big challenge last year! This in theory is to switch the hunt to the night before where there is more time to look. Ive been keeping various boxes and things, to decorate this weekend for their "spot". That way each child has a place to locate the stuff.

I plan on keeping the menu plan as well. We did two weeks at a time and it seemed to work out well. Hopefully a little easier on the next run as 6 of the kids will be eating lunch at school!!

We have a shower schedule going and planned out. Zechariah is in charge of those reminders and helping the little kids with their bath. He gets an hour of computer on saturday for taking on that task. Nathaniel is in charge of the teeth brushing schedule and reminding big people and helping little people. He , too, earns an hour of computer a week for this. So I found a bit more delegation is helping too!

Still working on my daytime schedule for when the kids are at school. Hopefully that will fall into place. One of my goals this year is to make it to storytime at the library. Its easy to stay sequestered at home and not load everyone up and out.

well thats all for now folks, God is good ... all the time!

MJ

Busy week

I declared this last week before school starts to be family zone week. That basically means no friends over for supper or sleepover. I even canceled my moms group for this week, so I didnt get to see my friends either. I wanted to spend this week with the kids doing some activities and things together.

Some cleaning has occurred, some movies and computer time has occurred and we even took a family hike. We didnt make it far but the kids enjoyed either biking or hiking. Gideon had a blast exploring the trail. We finished off the hike by meeting hubby for lunch at hte park. That was a lot of fun!

Today we will all go to Josiah's cross country meet. His first meet of the season. Im very excited for him. He really has grown a lot and his body is now cooperating with his desire to run far and fast!!! One of the time trials in practice was a 21:25 for 3.125 miles. I most certainely cant even walk that fast. Im really looking forward to seeing what this years season will bring.

This week has also brought on more scheduling fun. We are readjusting to school time wake up and bedtimes. I switched around some chores and delegated out some others. So all in all , we are getting more on top on some of our routines. Andrew and I also started exercising 3 days a week. That, so far(only on day2 lol) is going well but Im not liking the early wake up time to do so!!!! The menu planning worked out well for these two weeks, so I plan on doing that again as well.

The harder part is keeping all of these schedules juggling when events or appts happen. Its much harder to keep on top of the scheduled activities/chores/routines when you are gone 3-4 hrs for doctor appts in the cities or have to be somewhere. Thats where it falls apart for me, so Im going to try a little harder to keep things juggling.

Well thats all for now folks,

MJ