It was one of those moments. One of those situations came up when I wonder how I can be there for each of my children's needs at the same time. (Of course, what may be a need to them may really be a need to learn patience...) One day recently it was my baby not going down for a nap (he wanted my presence with him to fall asleep which would cause complete neglect of 4 other small children) at the same time as one of my 2yo twins was needing me to find his lost bouncy ball (for what seemed like the 100th time that day, but was probably really only the 2nd time that day), and another twin physically assaulting his older brother because he wasn't giving him his bouncy ball (he really just needed one - any bouncy ball, oh and he needs to learn not to hit...). Yes, it was one of those days!!!

God does help in each of these situations and give me the strength I need and discernment for each situation, but I feel I can often trace the situation's occurence to some lack of obedience in priorities, or lack of preparation that I should have been doing. No, I know that I will never prevent these situations from happening altogether. That's just part of life. BUT much can be done to keep situations like this to a minimum.

By the end of the summer I felt like I had slid back into a lack of good time management. Because of the beautiful weather, I was kind of letting the kids just do whatever after breakfast was done. I also wasn't consistently requiring them to do many household chores. This combination definitely led to an increase in fighting and discontent with the kids. I beleive kids need structure and they need work!

One resource that has changed my family is a book by Teri Maxwell called "Managers of Their Homes". In it are many ideas for how to schedule your day and your kids' day along with a scheduling kit to work up your own schedule. It is geared especially for homeschool families that may have a large number of children in the families, though other families could use many of the principles. SO, last week and week-end I finally got around to praying about our schedule (key ingredient) and putting together our new family schedule. I needed to include some homeschooling for my oldest 2 kids along with other activities that I had been wanting to fit in, but hadn't been doing.

I also needed to get back into the habit of preparing for the next day the night before. A few things that make my day run MUCH smoother include: making sure dishes etc. are ready for breakfast the next day, doing general clean-up, and checking over the next day's activities to make sure they're all set (especially homeschool stuff). We also typically have sandwiches at lunch and one big thing that helps us is if I make the sandwiches in the morning before the kids get up so that lunch preparation takes very little time.

After a week of the new schedule, I feel like life is MUCH better around here. I still have some of those moments when they all seem to need me and be fighting at once (often before a meal or naptime), but in general, our house is much more peaceful and much more productive! Of course, if I neglect my time with God or don't carry out what I've put down in my schedule, I find myself struggling - not that I follow the schedule at all times rigidly, but there are some things that I need to discipline myself with. If only I did what I was supposed to all the time!!!

Praise the Lord that he works in us and despite our weaknesses and failures!

Melanie

p.s. - if you're interested in knowing what our schedule looks like, e-mail me and I'll let you know!