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Monday, September 14, 2009

Today, the house is actually getting cleaner and I'm whittling away at the laundry. I'm also cutting up cucumbers and squash. I find if I don't do that right away, it ends up going bad.

I would love to work on my baby caterpillar quilt, but doubt I'll have time. There's sanding the garage walls, so we can mud again, moving things out of the basement into the garage, painting the kitchen walls, now that I have a friend's input on the color and what works, and work later this afternoon.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Scheduling and school

Well, I've been gone for a long time. Summer kept us busy. I'd like to get back on track again.

The job didn't work out, but now there is a new position, so I'll be looking into that. It's all in God's hands and He knows the best thing for our family.

Now that we're back to school, I find I'm needing a new schedule. It seems we're always tweaking them, but as our life changes we need a schedule that changes too.

So here's ours:
6:00 - devotions for me and planning for the day - I really need this, but find that when the alarm goes off I'm quick to decide that I don't need it. OOPS!!!!

6:30 - breakfast prep - because of the cost we don't do cold cereal in the mornings, so I have a schedule of meals for mornings. I usually don't like to think something up at 6:30 in the morning. :)

7:00 - breakfast

7:30 - family devotions and dishes

8:00 - I start getting the kids loaded up in the van to go to school

8:30 - I usually catch up on something that needs doing at home.

9:00 - Sesame street is on, so I want to use this time to do maintenance at home. Starting with the upstairs and working my way downstairs, I pick up and clean. This is not a strong point for me, thus it's scheduled in.

10:00 - I would like to use this time for preschool, reading and doing some "school" pages

11:00 - lunch prep and yard work

11:30 - lunch and dishes

12:00 - nap

12:30 - paperwork - our personal and dh's business paperwork as well. Questions come to mind like, "Do I really need that or can it wait until we see at the end of the month if we have spare cash?"

1:30 or 2:00 - garden work - lots of produce coming in right now, so this is a must if I'm going to keep up

3:00 - get the little ones ready to pick up the school kids

3:45 - unpack lunch sacks and backpacks and all the things kids need to do when they get home from school

4:00 - start on our strict 15-min schedule to get through piano - the order is piano, computer time, bedroom clean-up, downstairs room clean up. Each of the older kids have a room to clean and they get 15 minutes a day to do that during this rather intense schedule.

6:00 - last of the supper preparations

6:15 - supper

6:45 - dishes

7:00 - homework and baths and bed for the little ones

8:00 - dd1 who's in 1st grade - bedtime

9:00 - ds1-3 - bed time

10:00 - ahh! bedtime

My purpose in life is "to know Him and make Him known". This schedule helps me to do that because I stay on task and keep up with things that I need to do. It also does flex and bend, but when I do that too much and get off track, I can look back at it and then start again.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Work and housework??

Today I found out there is a position - fulltime- where I work with the mentally challenged. It would be evenings and mornings and 8 hours a day, but I wouldn't work when dh is working. So that's a plus. Question is, is it worth it to have healthcare and a full-time position to miss seeing my school kids during the week.

I have lots of cleaning to do and laundry to hang up. After the in-laws leave it's usually rushing trying to get ourselves back to the normal chaos and clutter. Yesterday, I went through the younger four's clothes and pitch, pitch, pitched. I think I took out four bags. That will help. I saved conservatively because aunt and g'ma love to shop for clothes. So we may not need all we have even now.

Today it's trying to get the schoolroom back in order. I think we'll be sending our kids to private school next year. So the schoolroom may become the sewing room. Woohoo!!!

I was able to get quite a bit of piecing done this weekend, because of travelling and visiting the zoo. I can hand piece in the car and got quite a bit done. Now I just hope that the quilt shop will be open soon, so I can go and ask some questions. :)

Monday, May 25, 2009

We got home yesterday from a day-trip to a town 3 hours away, family reunion. Though I didn't want to we cleaned out the van and then took care of everything when we got home. It's so nice to not have to get that cleaned up before family gets here. DH's parents are coming back from there today and his sister is a half hour away. So laundry and vacuuming, sweep & mop and bathroom need to be done before then. Also the babies (2 youngest) seem to be stomach-sick, so I'll be cleaning their beds and their rooms. We'll see if it gets done. I'll have to prioritize. I don't mind doing laundry while they are here so that will be last. The rooms are a must, first thing after the kids wake up, and the bathroom is high priority. Sweeping and mopping will be after that and then vacuuming. The children can help me with the floors easy enough.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Well, the in-laws are coming and I've been busy getting ready. My dh got a steam cleaner for me, so I've been using that on the carpets. They were desperately needing it. With 5 boys and 2 girls and the creek not far, there was sand and stains all over. It cleaned up fairly well though. So that was nice. No matter how hard I try, the house never seems neat, at least not for long. I'm told we need to enjoy this phase, but it does get frustrating at times.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Today will be a day of a bit of change. My dh thinks that the kids need a bit of summer, especially the older boys who are "bucking" Mom's system. So I'll set up a list of things that need to be finished before their free to do whatever. With a continued time of reading right after lunch and of course, dishes after every meal. We'll try it and see how it works for us. He suggested trying this for a couple of weeks. So I worked up a chart for the rest of the month. My in-laws are coming and that will make things look different, but hopefully this will help them.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Schedules and meal planning

Today was a bit but not much different.

Breakfast was french toast - all homemade even the syrup. About a dozen and a half eggs at 98 cents per dozen is $1.50 plus the bread is $1.50. That's approximate since we ate a bit more than a loaf. So that's $3 and then I made syrup, so that was probably another dollar. 9 people eating for 4 dollars isn't too bad.

We usually try to eat early enough that my dh can go to work at 8:00. And he likes a real breakfast since he does physical labor, so we all sit down to breakfast usually.

8-9 was clean-up and we ran a bit overtime, that was upstairs and down

9-10 was some math and language, even though we ran over on the cleaning we still were finished by 10

10 -11 was supposed to be Sesame Street and Health for the oldest two, but we finished health early and I needed to make a bank run so we did that. I had cooked rice while we were doing our math and language so the rest was easy.

11-12 We got back from the bank and I started the hamburger cooking, talked to one of my good friends in another state, and hung up two loads of laundry. It's funny that hanging it outside really helps me to get it done and not have huge piles of laundry to fold or to wash.

12-1 Lunch and clean-up: For lunch we had: rice with hamburger and greens from the garden. With a little bit of mustard in the hamburger, it tasted good over rice. 4 cups of rice is about $1.00 and 2 lbs of hamburger at $2/pound is $4 and the greens did cost time. But $5 for a main meal isn't too bad when there are 10 of us eating my dh's teen-age worker ate with us for lunch.
So at a goal of $.50 per person per meal that is still within my budget and I have some room to breathe because breakfast was less than that.

1-1:30 will be reading after we clean up the kitchen

1:30-2:30 will be gardening with the kids only doing a half hour and then for them it will be free time mostly outside until 5:00.

At 5:00, they will need baths and I'll need to set out supper things, probably sandwiches and salad. With supper being say 2 loaves of bread, PB and J, a bit of meat and cheese and salad. I think the bread would be $2.50, the toppings probably not more than 2 dollars. The salad stuff is free because it's from the garden. So $4.50 for 9 people. Still within budget and some leftover veggies and dip will be for snack today. I'd taken it to quilt guild. So I don't count leftovers, since they've already been counted once. :) I will have to take something to Bible study, maybe cinnamon rolls which may cost about $2.

So breakfast was $4, lunch $5, supper $4.50 and dessert $2. Total is 15.50 for the day for 9 people. We can't even eat at McDonalds one meal for that.

At 5:30 we'll eat and at 6:00 we need to do the dishes

At 6:30 we'll pick up a little girl, I think, I'll have to call and check. and head to church for Bible study.

At about 9:30 we'll probably be home and head to bed. Yeah!

Schedules

So, I'm keeping up with this a bit much since it's new. Mostly this is for my own personal record of how I'm doing. I want to be faithful to do the things I need to do, so that when I have my personal time, I can think, "Yep, I've been working hard to get things done and taking my break is just fine." Just doing my best. I didn't get the kitchen cleaned like I wanted it today, but tomorrow we'll work again, and more will get done. I don't have any outside work during the day, so that helps. We aren't paying for daycare for all the kids, so I work nights when my dh (dear husband) is home. Read a chapter in Little Britches while the kids sat nearby on rugs outside. They are free to do things while I read, but they just need to be within earshot of the story. They love reading time and beg for it quite a bit.

I don't want anyone to think that they should have a schedule that looks like mine or that I follow my schedule all the time. Interruptions come at time when I least expect it and it takes work to "roll with the punches". Things happen and it's just easier on everyone if I walk in the Spirit and respond appropriately to the children. Schedules have to be flexible and fit our needs, we shouldn't have to fit them.

Schedules

Today, I'm cleaning house after a very busy weekend. I thought it was only going to be graduation parties, etc. Because my husband and I are youth leaders, we really need to be there for our group of teens, so we were planning on attending the five or more events going on. Then I got called to work. I'm a sub, so I never know what my hours will be unless the person I'm subbing for knows in advance. Suffice it to say, I worked from 1:30 on Sunday afternoon till 5:00 Monday afternoon. This is all new to me because I've only worked at home and helped my husband with his business, being away from the kids for that long was a new experience.

So, as I said, I'm, actually we're, cleaning the house and weeding and trying to finish up those last two subjects in school. For me, a schedule is a neccesity. With the kids, chaos reigns when I just let them do. That means that we need some consistency and organization, but in summer it looks different than during the school year. Today, my schedule looks like this:

8-9 Everyone cleans their room; gum is the reward for being done first; and my four-year old won. He and his little brother share a room, so until I can help him, he works alone. He finished before I got there. I know one hour is a long time, but that helps me not be stressed about not getting done - and not everyone finished, but tomorrow, we'll probably work a half hour in our rooms so it's not a huge deal

9-10 Everyone works on the room they chose to clean downstairs, again this is way longer than we need, but we'll clean a bit deeper today and tomorrow it will be 1/2 hour or less

10-11 Little ones without school watch Sesame Street, while I help the older two study for their health exam, we'll probably work outside, since Sesame Street is a distraction.

11-12 Short reviews of math and language for everyone who is school-age, and making a bigger lunch as my husband is working across the street and it's hot today. He'll need more sustenance to help him get through. Also we'll read from "Little Britches", if we get done early.

12-12:30 Lunch

12:30 - 1 Dishes

1-1:30 Everyone reads (school-age) while I lay down with the pre-schoolers for their nap

1:30-2:30 Gardening, but that will probably need more time

2:30 - 4:30 Outside time; it's beautiful out today so we'll probably keep the house clean by staying outside.

4:30-5:30 I'll get supper ready - sandwiches or salad and give baths if necessary, unless we'll be outside for longer

6:00 I'll get ready to go to quilt guild while my husband and the kids watch a movie or do whatever they decide.

9:30 or so I'll get home and crash, so I can get up and start over again

About me

Hi, I'm a mother to seven, five boys and two girls, and I just started working outside the home. I also teach them at home, at least for this last year. I guess whether or not we are teaching school to our children we should really be teaching them all the time anyway. My husband and I were missionaries overseas and now are home and he is self-employed, while I work away from home. I love my new job, but it takes a lot away from home as well. So I thought this would be a great way to "give and take" - to share with each other about new ways to do things.