Scheduling

Some days go more smoothly than others. What I've found is that those days are the ones that have a plan and/or scripture. Without scripture or at least a plan (which is scriptural anyway, as God was a God of order), you can just hang it up on having a smooth day.

We are still tweaking the scheduling. I have tried doing the timed schedule. The problem with that is it requires me to get up at a set time to get the day started. While I would love to say that I can do that, that I am a woman of discipline who can rise before the sun and have a fully cooked meal on the table for her family every day, I just can't. Or I guess I should say, "Won't." Because I know that if I went to bed earlier, had less on my to-do list, etc., I could do it.

So, right now our schedule is more of a routine than a time...so I'll get up somewhere between 6:15 and 7 and head to the kitchen. Most of the time I can go ahead and cook breakfast. But sometimes the day before was "one of those" and I left dishes...so I then have to do the dishes from the night before and THEN do breakfast. This invariably gets me in a grumpy mood. So I try not to do it very often. Breakfast is usually one of the following: homemade biscuits, homemade Amish griddle cakes, homemade chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal, homemade cinnamon rolls, French toast from...you guessed it...homemade sourdough bread. Sometimes I'll do scrambled eggs with the biscuits. And if finances allow, we may have a slice of bacon or a sausage patty to go with our carbs. I used to could get a package of biscuits for those days that I didn't want to cook...not anymore. They are spoiled and just do not eat them well. The only packaged breakfast I can get away with now is packaged ch. chip muffins...but even then I hear, "these are small," "these taste different," "These have little chocolate chips," "I like yours better," etc. So, if I'm cooking breakfast, what's the problem? I'm not always able to get it finished in time for my hard-working husband to eat before he leaves the house. Yep. He sometimes gets tortured with the smell of it cooking - and then leaves with a bagel spread with peanut butter. Yikes! How cruel!

Sooooo...My goal is to work my way up to waking up no later than 6, preferably by 5:30 so I can have time to tidy, read some Bible, catch up on the email/texts that came in over night, etc. Maybe even have time to iron my husband's clothes for him so he doesn't have to. Gasp! I'd also like to have the children on a schedule that just functions so smoothly that they can do their stuff without needing my guidance. I've seen the book Managers of Their Homes by the Maxwells (Titus 2 Ministry) and it looks helpful. But before I allow myself to purchase it, I am requiring myself to learn to awaken at a set time every day. If I can't do that, then all the scheduling tips in the world won't help me.

Also, getting the children involved in the Bible early in the school day makes a WORLD of difference. So making sure that is in the daily list of things to do. The problem is that there are so many "good" things to do, that they are crowding out the "great" stuff...so I need to pair it down and prioritize. Yippee!! A list! I'm sooo good at making lists...now keeping up with where I put them? That's another issue, ha!

So, I'll be working on that in the next few weeks. Hope to have something up and running WELL by January. We'll see!