As for my own personal schedule, it is mostly in my head. I don’t have a pretty typed up piece of paper to show you all, it has good and bad points, someday I would like to type it all up and carry a blackberry and all the jazz, but for right now it isn’t happening.
On thinking about how I schedule my time I came to the conclusion that I have three different schedules that run my life; daily, weekly and seasonally. I will go over all three and if there are any questions please ask.
Daily: (This ties in very closely to my kids daily schedules and our homeschooling)
6:30– get up (groan) cook breakfast and do any needed ironing for the day
7:00-Breakfast and family devotional (Dadzoo takes care of this)
7:30-get dressed, make-up, hair, make bed (I hit that about 80% of the time) and keep kids on task.
8:30– Walk punk #3 to the bus while the others are finishing up on stewardships. This is my special time with her and on the way home, I get my special quiet time.
9:00-finish breakfast dishes, start any projects that need to be done that day and get ready for school
9:30 School, I teach the lesson then get the girls set up with their assignments and then I will go and finish any cleaning that needs to be done or any other projects.
11:30 lunch, take punk #4 to the bus, we all go, it is a fun little walk for the whole group.
1:00 start up school again, lay down for a tiny nap if needed do misc chores
4:00 everybody home from school, start dinner
6:00 dinner and evening schedule
9:00 to bedtime, finish up any projects, get ready for breakfast, make lunches and other misc stuff
Weekly Schedule
Monday: laundry, I do this all day, I try not to schedule any other activities on Monday. My goal is to get it all done and folded so Tuesday morning the kids can put their clothes away. I get it done about 90% of the time if I stay on top of it all day. In the evening I will put on a movie and fold the clothes, I rather enjoy this, quietly folding. There are weeks when this doesn’t get done, for instance last week I was canning tomatoes and that took all my extra time and attention, the laundry got washed, but my poor family had to paw through a pile of clean clothes all week. I am planning on making it up today.
Tuesday: This day is a free day where I can either take it slowly or work on a project that needs to be done. This week for instance I am going to be baking bread. I am out of bread and there is nothing on the calender so I will bake like a mad woman and fill my freezer for the next two weeks.
Wednesday: I cut hair in the afternoon. Preparing for the afternoon, while homeschooling, then having my afternoon booked pretty much does it for me, Wednesday’s are exhausting days.
Thursday: Same as Tuesday
Friday: Cleaning day and Date Night. Homeschooling on Friday is more relaxed, the girls help in the morning, I call it “Life Skills”. My 10 year old can clean the bathroom, tub, toilets and floor and does a wonderful job. My 9 year old cleans the living room, dusting, vacuuming and polishing. While they are doing that I clean my bedroom (change sheets), my bathroom and Baby Boy’s room. We break around noon for lunch and a run to the bus stop. Then we do Science and Art, when we are done with that the girls have free time while I start on the kitchen. When the younger girls get home from school they all clean their bedrooms. If the kids are helpful and cooperative they get to have a “sleep over” and stay up late while Momzoo and Dadzoo have a date night.
Saturday: Yard work and outside chores.
Sunday: Rest
Seasonal Schedule:
This is more flexible, but keeping this in mind I can plan my weeks accordingly. If I know that in September I need to can Tomatoes, Apple and raspberries, I can keep my schedule a little more open. Same goes for the Springtime, there is a lot of work getting the gardens ready and I need to keep my Saturdays open. Spring and Fall are by far my busiest times.
Winter: I like to hunker down and keep things as simple as possible. This can be a challenge during the Christmas season, and I try to keep on top of things as much as I can and make December smooth and simple. In January and February if I have potatoes left over I will can them. February I start planing the garden and order seeds.
Spring: As soon as I can I get out into the garden and start cleaning up and working the soil, prep the garden boxes for spring veggies and plant. March I plant peas and lettuces; April, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions; May all the summer veggies get put in. There is a lot of cleaning and prep work to do, it keeps our Saturday’s filled. I also start looking for strawberries on sale so I can get some jam made.
Summer: I try to keep summertime as relaxed as possible.
Fall: Is a busy time for me. I do all sorts of canning and food preserving. In September after the kids are settled in school I start my canning. I do Tomatoes, Apple and Raspberries and make soap. We also put the garden to bed for the winter. There are potatoes (most years…long story, but there aren’t any this year) and onions to dig, carrots to cover, old beans and peas to pull up and feed to the chicken or compost. Garlic to plant, flowers to pull up and this year we are preparing new beds for raspberries and grapes. Busy, busy time, but I sure love the feeling of preparing to hunker down for the winter. So when plannig my week I need to keep these seasonal chores in mind and not over schedule myself.
So there you have it, for what it is worth, my schedules.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing all this. With two tiny children, including a nursing baby, sometimes it seems that a real schedule is only a dream, but I hope I can have something like this someday.
My life used to be this busy. You're doing great.
Looks great much more organized than I am right now. :0)
But you inspired me…. Our schedule from last school is still on the fridge I need to redo since every year changes.
Hugs Erika
You're as busy as I thought you were! Always working to make a happy home! I love the fact that you preserve foods and garden; one of which you've helped me rekindle an interest in! Great schedules! Thanks for posting!
how do you do laundry on monday?!! on monday i am digging out of the mess that has happened on sunday. i would like to know…when do you do general picking up? or are your kids/husband good about picking up after themselves?
I have a daily and weekly routine, too. I have to think about the seasonal one, I'm not sure.
You're nice to fold laundry – I already make my kids fold laundry.I hope to one day have a scheduled date night!It's been interesting to really think over my scheduling so as always: "thanks for posting!"