Mar. 21, 2007 - Trying New Things with my Homekeeping
Posted in Graceful Homekeeping
One of the things that I like most about having a new baby (in other words - getting the pregnancy over with :) is that you get to develop brand new routines. Everything before the baby has been smashed to pieces because of feeding schedules, cranky (and sometimes jealous) toddlers, and older children who are very eager to help (and we must take advantage of that eagerness. LOL!!!) So I have been writing and revamping a new schedule for our family. So far it's worked pretty well this week.
If I get up on time (5am) I have my quiet time, exercise (hasn't happened yet), and I drink my hot lemon water. I start the oatmeal cooking in the crockpot. I usually soak my oatmeal over night in the crock pot and then warm it up in the morning. The other day I added apples and cinnamon. That was the best oatmeal I have ever made. :) Then I do some laundry (as quietly as possible.) Then I am ready to get bathed and dressed for the day. If I time it right then I am out of the bathroom by 7am doing my morning routine (making my bed, dressing toddler, supervising Morning Chore Packs, and nursing baby.) that has only happened once this week but not getting it done hasn't effected the day.
We eat breakfast between 8-8:30am. After that we sit down for devotional time. That is very new for us. I would always forget the devotional time when it happened at the start of school. For some reason putting it right after breakfast has helped me get it done. Right now we are studying obedience and working on memorizing "The 21 Rules of This House" by Gregg and Josh Harris. After our devotional time we work on our daily chores. Now I don't have these set up right now. Mostly I am just assigning work as needed. If the kids finish their work they get free time.
We have our morning snack at about 10am. we only eat our fruit for the day during snack and sometimes with our breakfast. Usually it's an apple eaten outside (now that's getting warmer.) This is also my time to nurse Josiah.
We start school at about 10:30am. This is the time I assigned the seat work to my older children. This includes handwriting, spelling, math, grammar, and their writing assignments for TOG. They do it independently but I am available to help them. I spend this time with my preschoolers. I was using "Little Hands to Heaven" preschool curriculum but I have found that I don't like that either. I don't like doing preschool stuff with my kids. I believe the children learn best by playing and being read to alot. But my 4 yod gets into trouble if she doesn't have things to do. And she really wanted to have something to all her own. I have put the preschool curriulum away and have decided to follow my heart's desire and the Lord's leading with her. We're going to make lapbooks and start an ABC notebook. I am very excited about her "All About Me" lapbook. I have it designed on paper but it's not quite ready to go. So right now we are just reading alot.
I am really making efforts not to feed my children any kind of fast food (whether I buy it at a restuarant or in the freeze section of the store.) So this week I have made homemade bread for sanwiches and left overs. I used to hate leftovers but I have grown to LOVE them. Especially for lunch. The best part of this is that allergies are better because I got the wheat out of the diet and my younger dd no longer has dark circles under her eyes from the wheat (at least they decreasing.)
Right after lunch the Bigs get ready for afternoon school, my 4 yod gets her books and play item for quiet time, and my toddler gets ready for his nap. I remember back to when jen was a baby that she thrived on routine. Making transition in our day really helped if we had a routine to go with them. So I developed a naptime routine for Drew. It involves reading, a song, and back rub (and a few swats on the bottom when he screams at me not to leave the room. But hopefully that part of the routine will end soon. LOL!!) So far my usual fall back books are working to help him sit for longer periods of time to read. Since my first child, every two year old I have ever had in the house loved "Junior's Colors" (veggie tales book) and "My Big Boy Potty" (or girl potty.) LOL!!! He would let me read those to him all day if I would let him. And I must proudly announce that he is actually learning his colors. He just turned two. I am so impressed and I think he's impressed with himself as well. (Oh, he can also count. That I didn't know. He learned it listening to the other kids help me count my grain when it's time to mill it for bread.)
After he goes down, I read to Allison (and nurse Josiah if he's ready.) Right now we are reading Charlotte's Web. After we finish reading I set her timer to read and rest. Once the time goes off, she is free to play quietly in the front living area. While she is resting I do read alouds with Bigs and we work on projects or our lapbooks. I am going to write more on what we are doing for school on another day. Let's just say that I am even more excited about it since I figured out just how much planning ahead I need to do. Allison spends the last 30 minutes of this time working on something quietly at the kitchen table.
After school is over and Drew wakes up, we clean our stuff up and get another quick snack for the afternoon. Then we have mommy time. Each child is given one day a week to spend 30-45 minutes with mommy. I am using this time of my day to disciple my oldest dd as she grows nearer to her preteen years. I play games with my other two bigs. I don't do a mommy time with Drew because he considers his naptime routine mommy time and loves it. I think giving him that 15 minutes a day all to himself really keeps him connected to me and less willing to fight me.
The 4 o'clock hour is the newest part of my day. It's something I have been dreaming about doing for YEARS. Yes, I said years. I split my home up in to zones that I work in. It's kind of like flylady zones but I made my own. For instance, Monday and Tuesday of this week I deep cleaned my room. It look and feels so awesome in there. I even flipped the mattress and vacuumed all the pet hair up from under the bed. Today (which I just realized should be starting right now. I already made dinner so I can just take my dinner prep hour to clean) is the playroom and computer desk. Every day of the month has a small room or portion of the house assigned to be deep cleaned. My Fridays will be dedicated to doing My House Blessings (which I did borrow from Flylady.) If I can maintain the cleaning like this, then my dh will not have to help me on the weekends to clean house. That will free us up to enjoy my ds soccer games and to work outside.
The 5 o'clock hour is spent getting the house ready for dad to come home, dinner prep, and free time in nthe backyard while mom gets a breather. This is especially important if dad is out of town. We eat dinner at 6pm and then start our evening routines. If they work hard at their evening routines they get tons of time to read with daddy after Drew goes to bed. This is my time to sit back and take a breath. I would really like to spend this time working on a developing a handicraft skill while I listen to him read to the kids. So far, I haven't developed that habit but it's on my list of things to do. LOL!!!
I read something this past weekend that really got me thinking. I don't even remember the context of what I was reading. It simply said "Stop pouting over what you are called to do and do it." Stop pouting. I tend to do that alot. But the Lord has been working in my heart to encourage me toward praying to Him for strength to keep going when I am tired and exhausted. That was especially an important lesson as I went through the last 2 weeks with sick kids. Especially when my dh was out of town for most of that. Running to the hospital all day Saturday made that habit especially important. Now Underdog is sick and can't help me much. And I leaning even more on the strength of the Lord. I am not pouting over having to do this. (Ok, so I do catch myself pouting. But it just drives me to my knees even more. I am such a baby and I need the Lord to change me desperately.) So I am working on not pouting anymore. I am accepting the job He's given me and I am actually learning to enjoy doing it.
I am planning to write more about my plans for the rest of the school year. But I am still working on some of those plans. Until later. . .
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