Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Schedules and Routines

I have schedules and routines that my family and I follow.  The kids and I thrive off this routine.  We wake up at the same time every day.  We go to sleep at the same time and we eat at the same times every day.  Yes there are days we may get up a bit later or go to bed later.  It all works out.  I have a "no later than" bedtime for them on the weekend.  It depends on our activities as to what time they go to bed.  I am not one that just lets them stay up until they go to bed on their own.  I'm not one that will let them sleep in until they get up.  Some say I'm crazy.  Some say that THEY want to sleep so they let the kids sleep.  I say 8 hours of sleep is enough for me.  I go to bed at 10 every night and have recently changed my wake up time from 5 to 5:45.  5:45 to 6 I get up and woke up.  I get "dressed to shoes".  This is a flylady thing.  I make my bed and either sit on my bed or go out on the front porch for my devotion.  It just depends on my mood.  This morning I sat on my bed.  By 6, I am equipped for the day spiritually.  I take care of doggy duty and then by that time it's 6:30 and I go in the kids' rooms and turn their lights on.  This signals them to wake slowly and they have their clothes laid out and they get dressed and come join me outside on the porch for a time of prayer and devotion.  This one particular thing just makes the day go so much smoother.  I've tried it both ways.  The days with starting out my day at the feet of Jesus and then encouraging my children in the Lord turn out to be a lot more filled with joy,

The kids must do their morning chores.  They are assigned by age appropriate items.  All three of them are supposed to make their bed, gather dirty laundry and take to laundry room, and keep their rooms picked up.  Noah unloads the dishwasher, responsible for doing two loads of laundry per week, and he feeds our outside dog Ginger.  Sarah wipes down the bathroom daily, changes trash, and keeps the living room tidied up.  She also hand washes any dishes that may need washing at any particular time.  Caleb feeds our outside dog Rocky, makes sure they have water, gathers dirty laundry, and makes sure the trash cans in bedrooms are always emptied out.  They do all of this and eat breakfast before 8AM when they start school.  While they are doing their chores, I am doing my morning routine and prepping for school that particular day.

8AM Sarah does workboxes, Noah does his math teaching textbooks(on computer and self led), and Caleb and I do his phonics and math.

Caleb does workboxes, Noah does LA and workboxes, and Sarah and I do her LA and math.

We take a break and have a small snack.

Noah and I review his LA and Math that he has done and we correct anything he got wrong and take spelling tests then if there is one

Bible

12: Lunch and piano/guitar practie

Science

Free time on Mondays, Tuesday free time, Wednesday baths for church and then free time, Thursday is music, Friday free time.  Free time includes outside playing, movie(if weather doesn't permit outside play), board games playing the wii, playing the kindle, playing on Time4Learning, Xtramath.org, ABCMouse(Caleb), extra practice on anything they may need

Chore time/Fly Kids task and I work on zone work on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays-Thursdays we're at piano/guitar and karate

Bath/shower time for kids while I cook dinner

Dinner, eat, and dinner clean up

7:30PM: Devotion, read to Caleb, teeth brushed, tuck kids into bed and pray with them

8PM: Lights out, no exceptions

8-10PM: This is the time that I take for myself.  I read, watch TV, put in a routine for the next day if it's different from the usual, and look over the agenda for the next day, and take care of the usual bedtime routine....I take my shower at night so I don't have to wake up earlier in the mornings.

10PM: In bed no later than this time!!!



Monday: Karate at 4:30

Tuesday: First Tues of every month CCCHE mtg at 3, Karate at 4:30, and Girl Scouts at 6

Wednesday: Church at 7PM

Thursday: Guitar/Piano at 2:30 and Karate at 4:30

Friday no extracirriculars!!!  Yay!  Hubby is home so we spend LOTS of time with him Friday and Saturday!!!


Now I know what you're thinking!  I could NEVER do that!  Well are your kids always cranky?  Are they always hungry?  Do they stress you out? Are your kids' behavior bad?  Are you unfocused?  Find yourself drowning in housework?  How's that working for you?  You should give this a try.  Now with that said I tried to do what others have told me they do and it's obvious it's not working for them but they seem to not want to change it.  I tried sleeping a little later and just waking when I fully wake up.  Then I tried staying up until I was sleepy and go to bed.  Yeah that totally did not work for me.  Plus doctors tell you that a good 8 hours of sleep is healthy.  Eating your meals at the same time every day and eating a full meal or eating 6 small meals a day which I have to do because of sugar level drops for me.  Maybe you need a routine.  I'm not saying this is the solution for everyone but I do know that this has worked for me for years.  It's taken a while for me to get on it just because I had 3 kids under 5 years old.  I've at least tried and when it became something within reach I was able to do this.

I get the "I don't know how you do it" comment all the time.  Wanna know something?  I don't do it.  It's not me.  I completely rely on the Lord to help me through every single day.  I am daily dying to myself and letting Jesus shine through me.  Dying to self is a hard thing to do because we humans are SELFISH.  As Joyce Meyer said on the program I was watching this morning, "God doesn't ask you to do something that you can't do."  He equips the called.  He doesn't call the equipped.  I never had any goals when I was younger.  I just wasn't taught to have goals.  I never dreamed of being a bride.  I never dreamed of being a mommy.  It wasn't that I didn't want children.  It's just that I was never taught to dream and make goals for myself.  When the time came to be a wife, it was a great experience and God has blessed me with the most amazing man.  When it came time to be a mommy I just took it and ran with it.  I had no guidance.  I had no clue.  One thing I knew though is that God provided everything that I needed to be a wife and to be a mother.  We have to follow that path though.  He makes the path for us.  It's our choice whether we choose the world's way or God's way.  What you may think is God's way may not always be but it will look like it.  You see I don't do this alone.  Some would comment and say that I have an amazing and supportive husband.  I would say that even though I do have that for sure I don't totally depend on him to make me happy.  I look to the good Lord for guidance and then if it needs to be presented to him, then that's when I will ask him what he thinks or even his permission if that's what the situation needs.  I do put him before myself a lot but that's what we're supposed to do.  We are selfish beings.  We have to be INTENTIONAL about putting others before ourselves.  This is what God commands us to do.  I live to be an intentional wife and mother.  For me it's working.  It may not be the solution to everyone's problems.  We can be for certain if we were a little less selfish and a bit more compassionate towards others, we would all be in a better place spiritually, mentally, and even physically.

We must die to self for God to use us in the way He intends for us to be used.







1 comment:

  1. We thrive on a schedule although it is very different from yours...

    ReplyDelete