Routine

That is a word that I don't like to use. It might as well be a bad word as far as I'm concerned. I am not one of those supermoms who thrive on making a schedule and keeping to it. I am a totally random person. I fly by the seat of my pants. I'm a spur of the moment kind of gal. And I like it that way.

Enter kids. I know, I know, kids thrive on routine. They blossom if they know what to expect and when to expect it. Blah blah blah. Of course I know it's true, which is why for the last 8 years I have tried to keep to a routine. I am great at coming up with these fantastic plans for how I am going to have a schedule for the kids. We are going to do this, this and this every day and it is going to be great. 2 days later we're back to whatever, whenever. Hey at least I tried, right?

Well before summer started I did it again. I had big plans for a summer routine. I wasn't going to do another summer like the previous year where the boys watched hours of tv and fought ALL THE TIME!!! I was going to have structure. I was going to have a plan. I was going to have...don't make me say it....I was going to have...a ROUTINE. Sure, whatever, you say. This won't be any different than any other time you had visions of grandeur. I thought the same actually. Surprisingly this year was different. No way, you're saying. Yep, it was. My plan was to let the boys watch cartoons when they got up in the morning until breakfast was ready. Then off went the tv, they ate their breakfast, got dressed, brushed teeth, yada yada yada....then they would come back to the dining room where we have a huge white board and where I thoughtfully wrote down a list of chores for each one. Surprisingly, I kept it up throughout the summer. Not surprisingly, because we've already established that kids do well on routines, they did well on this routine. It was fabulous and really did make the summer go much smoother than the year before.

Now, enter school year. This is where I start struggling. No longer can I stick to our summer morning routine because we wouldn't finish until between 10 and 11. We are out the door at 9:10 every morning. How do I fit in chores? If I wait until after school, then I am spending my day trying to do my own chores and work around theirs without doing them myself. Not so easy to do. Plus we have daily homework and AWANA sections to work on. Then of course there is dinner, showers, and bedtime prayers. That pretty much takes up all the afterschool time. I would have to say that is one thing I am jealous of homeschool families. They are able to fit all these things into their day. So where do I fit it all in? I don't have an answer for that...yet. I'm working on it. Besides, looks like my schedule is getting ready to change again. I'll tell more about that later. And who knows, maybe I am becoming a schedule person afterall. Nah, that'll never happen!

Isn't she cute?? So tuckered out from a busy morning.