That is a joke. I do not do schedules, as I have said before MOTH made me cry. I am NOT a type A. I am an B+ on my best day and likely a pretty loosy goosy B on most days. When I’m not traveling on Guilt Airlines I love to fly by the seat of my pants. God bless those of you who are type A. I was raised by 2. (I am such a disappointment) I am however of average intelligence (debatable) and realize my home and my life is a much happier place when there is a good solid routine.

I have stresses in my life many of you don’t have. I am a Foster-Adopt Mom and have many (8) very close in age (8yo and under) and of varying behaviors and issues etc. My days can be long and if I don’t start them out on my knees, then by golly my kids and daily life brings me to my knees. So we will start there.

I am up by 5:30 am- You’ve heard it before but early rising is the key. Yeah I can sleep in with the best of them, but my home does not function properly when Mama sleeps in.

I need that 30min to wake, make coffee and talk with my Heavenly Father. Thank Him for another day, for my home and family. I need to be on my toes when my crew awakens. Nothing is more disjointed to me than when I wake up at the same time they do and have to hit the floor running.

6am-Steve is awakened and fed and dressed and put on the bus. He is our FAE, Developmentally Delayed Child and attends Special Ed in the Public School. I pray someday we can home school him again and are working towards that.

He gets on the bus at 6:40 and I use this period of time about 30 minutes to pray and read the word and get dressed. If I am lucky I may get my 30minutes of internet time then. I limit myself to 30minutes a day. Otherwise my children get ignored. Shame on me. Mostly my internet time comes at night. My blogs are written in my works journal and copied and pasted.

Around 7-7:30 my crew begins to awaken. The baby gets a bottle and snuggle time. The other kids wander into the living room and get ready for circle time. We may listen to some hymns or we may sing a few songs. We pray for our family and our day and we put our armor on. It takes maybe 10minutes. Baby gets plopped in high chair. Kids scatter to dress and do early am chores (beds, grooming) I start breakfast. We eat and one or 2 help me clean up after.

Daddy gets up. He goes to work at Noon. So he does memory verse with the bigger kids then I supervise mid-morning chores. (bathrooms, play room, living room etc)

The rest of the day goes as follows.

I keep laundry going

I call children individually to read aloud to me

The twins are working on their handwriting

Susie is working on reading and learning sight words as is Molly.

3-4 times per week we do Math U See

Story time. I read to ALL kids. Currently I am reading the Original Sugar Creek Gang book.

Lunch

Naps

During Naps the bigger kids are free to work on their choice.

Right now Josh and Jimmy are fascinated by Wars and Weapons. They will read about them or if the History Channel has a show about a particular war they can watch it. I try usually to TiVo the shows and skip the commercials. Other times they will work on memorizing the Multiplication table.

Molly and Susie will generally pull out one of their readers or another book and read.

Susie also like to practice her handwriting. She is my earliest reader at mid K she is reading fairly well.

I start dinner and while my littles are still napping. I may sneak in a 20 min one myself. Too much longer and I drag.

Late afternoon chores are putting away laundry, cleaning up and putting away school and craft things and starting baths. Currently dishes has been added since our DW is broken. That alone has caused me to spiral into a deep depression. A mother of 8 youg children should NEVER have a broken DW. It has all the makings of a Greek Tragedy! Still I have several adept 2 footed dish washers and I keep them busy.

Littles get up from nap. We have a simple snack. All are sent to the family room to play a game or watch a movie while I put the finishing touches on dinner and have 5 minutes of quiet. If I need a helper I will call them to come help.

Jim always calls before he leaves from work at 5:45 and that is my signal to get the living room in order and myself in order and kids in P.J’s. He has about a 45-1hr commute.

He has never requested it, but I make certain the living room is presentable, all kids in P’J’s and dinner ready to be served when he walks in the door. Most importantly I want him to come home to a fairly calm wife and peaceful environment.

Around 7:30 we say prayers and sing more songs and hymns and it’s off to bed. Lights out for the littles and Steve. The others have 1 hour to read.

Jim and I catch up on our days. I am usually in bed by 9:30 asleep by 10.

I have days where everything does not run smoothly. I have days when it’s crazy and Jim brings home pizza. I do try to keep those to a minimum. We are Unschoolers, so something or another may fascinate us and we will spend the whole day looking at it, researching it, etc.

To those fellow Type B’s

Quit beating yourselves up over not having a schedule. However, for your own sanity put together a good routine that works well for your husband and your children and one you can maintain. One thing that should be written in stone in your routine, is time alone with the Lord. Otherwise work things out that best suit your family.