Last week I made three goals for myself (go here to see last weeks goals).  If I were to look at only what I accomplished last week, I would have to say that I failed pretty good, however I don’t feel like I failed at all. 

I am still struggling with a working morning routine, it seems that there is something that comes up every morning, an appointment, a ornery baby or a late night and tired mommy.  So for my morning routine, I am going to make a list of things I would like done by noon, and work on that as opposed to  a strict timed schedule. 

As for my weekly schedule, I am loving that, I feel like I am getting so much done every week.

I have been pondering and praying over my sleeping schedule and that has led me to studying more about food and diet, specifically what the scriptures have said on the subject.  This is still a work in progress, something I am really enjoying.  As for my sleeping habits, I do need to get to bed earlier, but I need to not feel guilty for napping when I need to as well.  I am nursing a baby full time and that takes more energy than normal, and although baby is sleeping through the night, with six kids there is a pretty good chance that at some point in the night my sleep will be interrupted.  Napping is necessary at times, especially at this time in my life.

So for this coming week I am going to set three more goals to work on. 

1. Continue to work my weekly schedule, especially work on my family budget and get our finances in order.

2. Study the scripture in regards to health and nutrition, pray, make a plan.

3. Make a list of chores to be done before noon, prioritise this list, do what needs to be done first so there is some flexiblity. Work my list everyday.

Wish me luck! 🙂

Last week I set for myself three new goals to work on along with the previous weeks goals.  To quickly review, my three new goals were: work on my housekeeping binder, do my weekly schedule and establish a morning routine.  There were a couple bumps in the road, Monday night I had a sick child, so Tuesday was spent caring for my boy and catching up on lost sleep, even though my day wasn’t as ambitious as I had planned I still was able to work on my kitchen getting it cleaned and doing one small extra job.  I found that working my weekly schedule made my days more organised, structured, and  efficent.  I found that as I was going about my tasks, with the order my schedule had created, I found joy and satisfaction in my work. 

 I did find establishing a firm morning routine quite a struggle, my morning hours change so much depending on when the baby wakes up and wants to be fed, I also have a hard time waking  up and getting the energy to get going in the morning.  My inclination is to nap for an hour or so after the big kids get off to school and I struggle with this, at times I feel I really need it, I am nursing a baby after all, but other times I see all the wasted time that I should be getting up and getting about my day.  In pondering on this I have come to see that my late hours are a big part of my problem.  My baby sleeps 12 hours at night, there is plenty of time for me to get my rest, but I find that I enjoy those late night hours when the house is quiet and I get to indulge a little on the things I want, but at the same time I am not rested like I should be….I will be thinking, pondering and praying over this.

My housekeeping binder is organised and ready to go.  I have been using it and loving it! 

So for this next week my three goals will be, along with previous on going goals:

1.  Ponder, study and pray about my sleeping schedules, do I nap in the mornings. or go to bed earlier, which is better for me and my family?

2. Continue to work my weekly schedule and tweak it where needed.

3. Contine to establish a firm moring routine, I think I need to relax my expectations a little in this area.

I have a couple of friends that have joined me in establishing routines in their lives, so they can better live their lives.  If you would like to read what they are doing you can go here: Aimee@ On the Mountainside and Sassy@ Keepin’ it Rural in the US

A week ago I set some goals for myself in the attempt to get life a little more under control after having the baby.  I set exactly three goals, two were things that were to be done everyday, and one was something to just work on over the week.  The first goal was: Get up, get dressed and ready for the day, the second: Make my bed and pick up the master bathroom and the third: work on my housekeeping binder.  All in all, every goal was met for the past week.  I didn’t get everything done as soon as I would like, but everything was accomplished and my housekeeping binder is well on its way.  I am very pleased with how this past week turned out. 

So, for this week I am going to give myself three more goals.

1. Establish a firm morning routine, and write it down.  I have a fairly set early morning routine, from the time I wake up until the children get off to school I pretty much do the same thing everyday and it works well for us, it is after the kidlets are out the door that I get lazy!  So my goal is to set a routine for after the kids leave, where I get myself dressed and ready for the day and my morning work done, such as the little kids beds made and breakfast dishes done, so I can move onto other things in a timely manner.

2. Do my weekly schedule.  I am still establishing a firm routine when it comes to my weekly schedule, I am still working on what exactly I am going to do each day, so for now I am going to do something, so I can figure out exactly what I will be doing each day.  This is a work in progress

3. Continue to work on my housekeeping binder. I am going to type up my weekly schedule, type up a list for each day and type up a morning routine and get it into my binder so I have something visual to work off of.

Do any of you have a morning routine?  I would love to hear what you do each day so I can get some ideas.

Now, there have been a couple of my readers (yes, all two of you!) who have said they would like to establish a weekly schedule, I would love to hear what you are doing, if you want to blog about it I will link to your post, or just tell us what you are doing in the comment section so we can all benefit from each others experiences!

I have decided to have a weekly schedule, each day I pick a certain part of the home, or chore to focus on as a way to organise my efforts and become more efficient at my work.  In a previous post I shared a quick list of what my weekly schedule was going to look like, and now I would like to go a little more into depth as to what I plan on really doing those days.

Monday: Laundry
Laundry sounds pretty self explanatory.  However when I say laundry I am talking hard core laundry doin’.  I have found that if I am diligent and focused I can get all the laundry washed, folded and ready for the kids to put away by Monday night.  I also know that when I do get my laundry done in one day the week seems more put together.  My laundry room consists of a corner in the kitchen pantry where my washer and dryer are tucked, so when I do laundry it is spread out all over the living room, occupying every surface, including the floor.  So spreading my laundry out over several days is irritating to me, I don’t like to feel as if laundry has taken over my house and life!  In order to do laundry for eight people in one day I have to start early, before any of my other morning chores are started laundry is gathered, sorted and a load is started.  I stay alert and close by and make sure I am switching out loads and folding (as much as I can) as I go.  But laundry is more that just washing, it is also cleaning my laundry area.  It is easy for the laundry area to become cluttered and dysfunctional, especially when the laundry area is small.  So in between loads the washer and dryer are washed down, the shelves dedicated to laundry are straightened and wiped down and the floor is swept.  It takes about 10 minutes when done weekly and it keeps the area from getting so cluttered that cleaning it develops into a big job.

Tuesday: Kitchen
Kitchen day is a mid-week extra special clean day.  Everyday my kitchen is cleaned as needed or after meals, but this day is a little more than that.  The fronts of appliances are cleaned, the floors spot mopped, and the refrigerator is cleaned out and wiped down.  About the refrigerator, sometimes cleaning a refrigerator can seem like a big overwhelming job, and it is when it isn’t done often, I have found that cleaning it once a week, on kitchen day makes for an easy fifteen minute job.  It makes it easy for me to know that every Tuesday I will clean that fridge out, and it stays clean, and doesn’t become overwhelming.  Also on this day I work on one area of the kitchen, say a cupboard or drawer or shelf in the pantry, I clean that one area and slowly over the weeks the whole kitchen gets cleaned, the job stays small, and manageable.  Once the kitchen is in rotation it only takes an hour or so a week, that also leaves some extra time in case the laundry didn’t get all the way done the day before.

Wednesday: Baking and Cooking
I make a lot of my meals from scratch, it is the only way I can really afford to feed my little zoo.  So on Wednesday I set aside the afternoon to work on making some of my food items ahead of time.  My list might include: bread for the week, rolls, yogurt, granola, cookies, cinnamon rolls, english muffins, kefir or tortillas.  I look ahead at my menu and see what needs to be done and do as much as I can, it makes the rest of the week a little bit easier at meal time.  This is a great time to add a little service into the week, it is easy to make some extra cookies or share a loaf of bread.

Thursday: Office
This is the day when I take a couple hours in the afternoon to deal with all the paper that comes my way.  This is when I will work on our budget (which I am terrible at, this is something I plan on improving).  I will clean out my e-mail, write thank you cards (another thing that I would like to do better), prepare lessons, etc.  This is also the day I will clean my desk area, discarding old papers and generally tidying everything up.

Friday: Cleaning
This is the day that I clean the house.  This takes most of the day and my usual morning routines are set aside as I start the day cleaning.  This is the day that bathrooms are scrubbed, wood polished, base boards washed, kitchen cleaned, etc.  The kids help with this, they have certain areas of the house they are in charge of cleaning, along with their bedroom.  This is also the day that I wash bathroom towels, rugs and bed sheets.  The goal is that by Friday evening the house is sparkling clean.

Saturday: Project
This is family project day, in the warm months that is usually some outside chore, such as weeding and mowing, washing and cleaning the cars or working in the garden.  In the winter we do inside jobs, usually home improvement or some big cleaning job.  We do this in the morning and the afternoon we try to do something fun as a family.  One of our favorite family activities this summer involved two, 0ne-dollar bags of water balloons, it was great fun.

Sunday: REST
Sunday is a day of rest and worship.