I really need to get my blogging act together.  I tend to let too much time pass before I sit myself down to blog.  I don't have one of those blogs with loads of great, inspiring words of wisdom and thus don't feel obligated to blog that often! But I would like to blog more often, however mundane our daily lives may be.  It does feel good to get all of my thoughts out of my head and into the blogosphere.

I am feeling really good this week, having started out the new year full force.  I really wasn't happy with our "attendance" thus far this year.  We are generally pretty structured homeschoolers (at least in my brain I am) but for most of our first term we behaved as unschoolers.  We did school when we could, but most of the time very little structured learning took place. This being our first year homeschooling, we really needed to ease into it and the relaxed pace allowed me to let go of many of my fears, anxieties and unrealistic expectations.  At the time I didn't think it was benefitting us at all.  Every day I would beat myself up about not sticking to my plan (and wasting all those hours of planning) but looking back it couldn't be more obvious that my boys were learning all the time, in spite of my lack of discipline and focus.  And I can feel the de-stressing effect it has had on me.  Now I'm feeling good and ready to return to our original homeschool plan which I am happy to say  we have stuck to every day this week.  (Now I know its only been 4 days, but a real accomplishment for us nonetheless).

I've also been more focused and disciplined with establishing a routine for all the other parts of our day.  I have established a morning routine, which includes my prayer time, computer time, pet care and housework.  I've set realistic bedtimes for my two older boys so that they wake up at a more reasonable hour, so that we may begin school at a predetermined hour.  I've been planning our meals so we have no more of the rush to figure out what we are going to eat every night.  I have a bedtime routine so that I don't wake up in the morning with the previous days tasks staring me in the face. I haven't stuck to the schedule completely.  My 1 1/2 year old still wakes up at night so sometimes I don't get up as early as I need to to get it all done (on these days I forgo my exercise, such a sacrifice! lol!) So I have yet to have a full day of completely sticking to my schedule.  But just striving to do so has had a tremendous impact on how our household runs.  I am not a scheduled type person by nature.  I usually schedule great things in my head, and make wonderful to do lists.  But my nature is to wake up whenever I'm no longer sleepy, stay in my pajamas for as long as I feel like it, get to my housework after I've played around on the computer and played and hung out with the kids (In other words, I'm lazy :)-)  As you can imagine, this doesn't make for a smoothly run home and in the long run makes me anxious and stressed, rather than relaxed and rested.  Having and sticking to a schedule really does me, and my family, a world of good and has honestly transformed our lives.

Now if I could only tackle the clutter, life would be perfect!