How do we fit all the ingredients of our day together so that everything turns out and our day isn't a major "flop"? With spending time with God, spouse, children (maybe even one-on-one time occasionally), homeschooling, music lessons, outside commitments, cooking, chores........., it can seem overwhelming! Sometimes it's hard to tell if we're getting everything done that we need to or if things are getting missed that we should be doing.

That's why I appreciate using a great resource from Terri Maxwell called Managers Of Their Homes. This book takes you through all the different aspects of daily living and gives ideas for each area. Then it takes you through a process of scheduling your day. The first thing it recommends that you do when you start your planning is to take time to pray about what it is God would have you and each of your children doing each day or week. You take time to write down each of the things that need to be accomplished or scheduled and write down how long it takes. Then you can add it up and see if it totals more than 24 hours. If it does, you need to pray about what should be cut down.

After doing this, you then go through a process with their scheduling tools of putting together a schedule for your family. You write the daily events on pieces of paper and you sticky tack stuff to put them on a chart so you can move them around so that everyone's schedules fit together - i.e. mom can't be doing one-on-one homeschooling with 2 kids at the same time, or 2 kids can't be practicing piano at the same time.

Through this process, you come up with a workable schedule for the whole family and if the schedule is followed, all the things that the Lord has for you to be doing, will get accomplished at least most of the time! Of course it's not a perfect world so often something that should take 15 min. will get interrupted with discipline issues or some other interruption and things will get off. Of course the key is flexibility with the whole process so you're not so tied to the schedule that you get frustrated and angry when things get off. But without the plan, much less would get accomplished!

What a difference it has made in our family's life when we use a schedule! The children are much more content knowing what to expect in their day. They really thrive on the routine! See my blog's archives for our family's schedule (Feb. 2, Feb. 24, March 5 2007)!