I have a very difficult time setting up a schedule / routine that I can stick to b/c I am never sure when DH will be home from work or when he will leave for work. We have our own business in which we run a physical store and online store. Shipping of online orders is done daily and can vary in amount (& time) from day to day. I hate feeling like I am blaming him that I can not find a workable schedule for the rest of us here at home. Mondays are off days for him, but that does not mean he will be here and sometimes when he is he takes the kids out somewhere on the spur of the moment (i.e. skiing). Tuesdays through Fridays we can be guaranteed that he will be gone from around 10:30 in the morning to at least 6 - but usually somewhere between 7 & 9 pm). Saturdays he is gone from at least 10:30-4 (but sometimes does not get home until 6 or 7). Some mornings he leaves earlier. Some Mondays he works downstairs at his desk and sometimes he claims the kitchen table (where we usually do school, on those days we improvise and do school on the deck or in the living room). I have a very difficult time scheduling our time b/c DH likes me to get up early with him and hang out for a bit then he will work on stuff and I feel like I am not being productive, the kids are sometimes up, sometimes not. I can not really set a bedtime or wake up time b/c there are nights when Daddy is not home in time for them to go to bed "on time". We usually wait for him to be home before we eat dinner, often since I don't know when he is leaving that means fixing dinner at 8:30 at night :( I do have access to a security camera at the store but I don’t want to spy on him nightly just to know if he is on his way home. Plus I am supposed to help hmin the shop (w/the books once a week which I haven ot done in the last few months due to different issues with being pregnant or sick or his changes he has made with the bookkeeping - I am supposed to start back up when I can, we went in last week and all was well.)  With the new baby coming in the next month and the wonderful fact that we are done with school for the year, I would like to use this time to set up a new schedule / routine since we will be doing that anyway – any suggestions? Should I schedule Monday as an off day and Saturday as a school day? I really want a 4 day school week anyway, but was thinking that Friday should be our off day.  Thanks, Rachel

We have started a bit of a new routine around here and it is going to cut into my planning a bit ;)  LOL On Tuesdays we will need to be at our store helping out DH with the shop and possibly Wednesday mornings as well.  So, I am trying now to plan for what we will be doing during the "school year".  I was planning to do school year round but so far we had not doen school this summer for one reason or another. So far. I have had my house cleaned by Merry Maids (I do not recommend it as they did not do the thorough job they were hired to do, had to come back and still did not finish the job properly), had my carper cleaned, my living room and kitchen repainted and reorganized, and decided to change curriculums for this next year! And I did all that this last week!  LOL  Not sure what else I have done this summer!  LOL 

So, for this school year we are going to go with:
Bob Jones Heritage Studies 1 (have teacher & student books and test ans. key)
Bob Jones Science 2
Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting (have all ready)
Math U See Beta (finish it up and start Gamma)  (I need to buy Gamma w/DVD)
Math U See Alpha (have)
Explode The Code (have)
Not decided on Bible yet (I have some Kay Arthur kid ones but I think I want the Princess and the Kiss and The Squire and the Scroll as well)

Plus we have a myriad of workbooks that we can use if/when needed ;)

So if you have or know someone who has:
Math U See Gamma w/DVD
Bob Jones Science 2 (current edition)
Bob Jones Heritage Studies 1 student text in great condition
please let me know :)

If you know anyone that is interested in buying Weaver Volume 1, Day by Day 1, Teachers Friend.  Please let me know.  I would like to sell it for $75 (not sure what shipping would be yet though).

~ Rachel

Daily Routine
B/T 7 & 7:15	Get up
7:30 - 8:30	Bible study
8:30 - 9:30	Breakfast as family
9:30 - 10:30	Bible study with kids
10:30 - 11:30	School
11:30 - 12:00	Workout
12:00 - 12:30	Shower
	Kids watch Dragon Tales
12:30 - 1:30	Lunch
1:30 - 3:30	School
3:30 - 5:00	Chores
5:00 - 5:30	Kids watch Kimba
	Set Table
5:30 - 6:00	Prep meals for next day
	Kids prep clothes & books
6:00 - 6:30	Litter Box / Scentsories
	Kids last min.  house check
6:30 - 7:00	Start Dinner
7:15 - 8:00	Eat dinner
8:00 - 8:30	Odyssey
	Clean up kithcen
8:00 - 8:45	Kids in bed
	M & D Enjoy evening

I decided to change it a bit.  I have been having a difficult time actually making it to Curves but we have been doing great actually doing Tae Bo & Pilates here so I may cancel my membership to Curves...gotta pray about that one a bit.  I also noticed that there were 45 minutes between starting dinner and DH being home to eat - it does not usually take me that long to fix dinner and we are planning to switch to lighter meals (salads mostly) for our dinner meal.  I think this will work.  Will have to try it out on Monday.  we may try it a bit modified tomorrow - we will see.

I have also made a calendar to help me plan the school year out...

~ Rachel

I have a tough time with schedules but my DH says I am sure great at making them!  LOL  I HATE schedules even if I am the one who made it!  LOL  I feel like I have to do what it says and I have to answer to that dumb sheet of paper telling me what to do!  LOL  So, I decided today to maky myself a daily routine as a guide. I have all ready set up certain days to do certain chores and I really like that.  The kids ad I work on chores together so that helps a lot!  But when I look at my plans I feel like there is so much missing: FUN!  I do not have the kids classes added in here as that would be way too crazy to add (Karate & Ballet and soon will be swim classes), but I will allow as always to head off to thepark withsome friends onthe spur of the moment if we feel a need ;)  I am a home body so a need for that is not felt all that often on my part and the kids dont beg for it either :)  So here is how I have it set up, we will see if it actually works. 

 

Daily Routine
B/T 7 & 7:15	Get up
7:30 - 8:30	Bible study (M/W/F/Su)
	Curves (T/Th/Sa)
8:30 - 9:30	Breakfast as family
9:30 - 10:00	Shower / dress
10:15 - 12:15	School
12:15 - 1:00	Lunch
1:15 - 3:15	School
3:15 - 5:00	Chores
5:00 - 5:30	(kids watch Kimba)
	Set table for dinner
5:30-6:00	Prep meals for next day
	Last min. house check (kids)
6:00-6:30	Litter box
	Start dinner
7:15 - 8:15	Dinner
8:15 - 8:30	Clean up kitchen
8:30 on	enjoy evening
	Prep clothes for next day

~ Rachel